Benchmark raises its first-ever growth fund as part of $2B capital raise

Key points

• Benchmark Capital, the storied Silicon Valley VC firm known for early investments in eBay, Snap, Uber, and Twitter, is breaking with one of its signature traditions: keeping its funds to about $425 million and backing only young startups.
• After more than two decades of restricting its vehicles to that amount or lower, the outfit has closed on commitments of $2 billion across two new funds, including a $1.25 billion vehicle dedicated to later-stage investments, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• While the fund sizes of many venture capital firms have ballooned into billions of dollars over the last decade, Benchmark stuck to the strategy that helped make it legendary.
• By being staunchly selective and taking a large—typically 20%—stake in every startup the firm backed, it maintained a model designed to maximize outsized returns for its limited partners.
• However, Benchmark’s relatively small fund sizes have likely prevented the firm from investing...