On Tuesday, Menlo Ventures revealed a historic $3 billion fundraise, the most significant in its five-decade existence, largely fueled by its AI investments, notably in Anthropic. According to sources, its investment in the model creator is now valued at approximately $14 billion, as reported by Bloomberg.

According to Menlo’s team, they were extremely anxious when they made a foundational $750 million investment in Anthropic back in 2024, effectively leading the model creator’s Series D. This round notably increased the company’s valuation to $18.4 billion.

Although the investment was not seen as excessively perilous, the way the firm acquired that level of funding was quite remarkable.

Menlo had been an initial backer during the Series C, even before Anthropic had launched a product. By 2024, prior to the emergence of Claude Code and Claude Mythos, the company was already displaying strong potential. They secured a significant $4 billion agreement with Amazon and attracted considerable VC interest, having been established by ex-OpenAI researchers, including siblings CEO Dario Amodei and president Daniela Amodei. It was a quickly ascending AI firm, similar to many startups founded by OpenAI alumni today.

However, the method by which Menlo garnered the investments was astonishing. In 2024, the venture landscape was just starting to recover from the post-pandemic funding slowdown, while major firms such as SoftBank and Tiger Global were still recovering. Few were willing to issue checks for three-quarters of a billion dollars.

Menlo structured most of the deal, approximately $500 million, as a special purpose vehicle (SPV) — an ad hoc investment entity designed to aggregate funds from various sources for a single transaction. Additionally, Menlo invested $250 million from its own resources and contributions from company insiders, as sources informed Forbes at the time, resulting in a total round of $750 million.

Since that time, AI SPVs have proliferated, with Anthropic being a specific target — to the degree that the AI firm issued a warning last month, labeling all unauthorized SPVs and secondary markets claiming to sell its shares as “scams.”

However, for the investors involved in Menlo’s official 2024 deal, the bold strategy proved to be very lucrative. Menlo proceeded to invest in the company’s Series E and F rounds.

Moreover, Menlo followed this by setting up a $100 million startup fund in partnership with Anthropic in 2024, which they affectionately named Anthology. That fund has since grown to deploy nearly $250 million to date, according to a knowledgeable source speaking to TechCrunch. It has not only supported over 60 companies (providing them with benefits like access to Anthropic leadership and credits for Claude) but has also generated a number of successful exits, including Graphite, acquired by Cursor, and Astrix Security, acquired by Cisco.

This fund has allowed Menlo to stay attuned to the evolving landscape of AI startups, categories, and technologies from the earliest stages. The venture capital firm has since enhanced its reputation for AI investments, counting prominent AI ventures like OpenRouter, Higgsfield, Legora, Lovable, OpenEvidence, among many others, in its portfolio.