[Updated 3/27/18, 10:27 am. See below.] General Catalyst Partners is the latest venture capital firm to join the billion dollar fund club.
The Cambridge, MA-based firm’s latest fund—its ninth—clocked in at $1.375 billion, according to a document filed with the SEC. That’s a significant jump from its last fundraising effort two years ago, when General Catalyst pulled in $825 million across two funds, according to SEC filings. The firm hasn’t responded to an e-mail seeking comment.
General Catalyst’s latest fund continues the trend of venture capital firms—particularly well-established, high-profile ones—raising massive funds, as investors place bigger bets on later-stage tech companies that are often staying private longer than usual. Last month, Battery Ventures, another Boston-area VC firm, reeled in $1.25 billion across two funds. Meanwhile, New Enterprise Associates closed a $3.3 billion fund last June, and Sequoia Capital is rumored to be raising as much as $12 billion across several funds worldwide, according to a CNBC report that quoted anonymous sources. The firms are all competing with the behemoth that is SoftBank, which reportedly raised $98 billion for its Vision Fund.
General Catalyst’s ninth fund is its largest yet, according to PitchBook. There are 13 managing directors of the new fund, according to the SEC filing. They include long-time General Catalyst investors like Joel Cutler, David Fialkow, Bill Fitzgerald, Hemant Taneja, and Larry Bohn, as well as newcomers such as Holly Maloney McConnell, the 18-year-old firm’s first woman managing director; Ken Chenault, the former CEO of American Express; and Paul Sagan, the former CEO of Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ: [[ticker:AKAM]]), who has been an executive in residence at General Catalyst. [Added Sagan.—Eds.]
General Catalyst’s investments include Airbnb, Stripe, Kayak, HubSpot (NYSE: [[ticker:HUBS]]), and Warby Parker. Its recent exits include Snap (NYSE: [[ticker:SNAP]]), which went public last year in a $3.4 billion IPO, and Kensho Technologies, which was acquired by S&P Global for $550 million this month.
In addition to its founding office in Cambridge, General Catalyst has locations in New York, San Francisco, and Palo Alto, CA.
