Ahead of Anthropic IPO, Early Backers Hold Stakes Worth Billions
At the AI lab's latest private valuation of $965 billion, investors from Eric Schmidt to Iconiq and Spark Capital are sitting on multibillion-dollar positions, according to Bloomberg.
By News Media House Staff ·
Anthropic is expected to go public this year at a valuation that could reach $2 trillion, a listing that promises a windfall for investors who backed the AI lab early as well as those who arrived later. Even at its most recent private-market valuation of $965 billion, many of those stakes are already worth billions of dollars, according to figures reported by Bloomberg.
Among the individual backers is Eric Schmidt, the former Google CEO. He invested in Anthropic's Series A in 2021, when PitchBook data put the startup's value at $461 million. Schmidt now owns roughly 1% of the company, and at the current private valuation his holding is worth nearly $10 billion.
Iconiq, an investment firm, committed $6 billion to Anthropic last year, when the company was valued at $183 billion. That late-stage investment is now worth $17 billion, and it could double again if the IPO lands at the expected level.
Menlo Ventures led Anthropic's Series D round and has put more than $1 billion into the company over time. Its stake is now valued at $14 billion.
Sequoia, one of the best-known venture firms, only backed Anthropic for the first time earlier this year. By then the company was already valued at $380 billion. Sequoia's $3 billion investment bought it about 1% of the company, and at the latest valuation it has more than doubled in value.
Sound Ventures, founded by Guy Oseary and the actor Ashton Kutcher, put $35 million into Anthropic's 2023 Series C round. It has since added another $400 million, and its holding is now worth billions of dollars. Kutcher left Sound Ventures this year to start a new venture firm.
Spark Capital is the only venture firm known to hold a board seat at Anthropic. It invested $75 million in the same 2023 Series C round, which valued the company at $5 billion. That position has grown more than ninetyfold and is now worth $7 billion.
The figures illustrate how steeply Anthropic's valuation has climbed in a short time, rewarding both those who got in at the earliest stages and those who wrote enormous checks as the company matured.
Source: TechCrunch
