In what is clearly a missed opportunity to name her venture capital fund Money Meeker, famed venture capitalist and author of the annual Internet Trends Report Mary Meeker has informed limited partners that her firm will be called Bond, according to a report from Axios’ Dan Primack.
Meeker intends to raise $1.25 billion for Bond’s debut growth fund on a $1.5 billion hard cap. Meeker will have no trouble pooling capital, given her success at Kleiner Perkins, where she was a partner for eight years, backing companies such as Airbnb, Houzz, Slack and Peloton. In September, Kleiner Perkins confirmed it was spinning out its growth team to become an independent firm, with Meeker at the helm. Kleiner Perkins general partners Mood Rowghani and Noah Knauf joined Meeker in the new effort, as well as Juliet de Baubigny, a partner focused on team building.
“The environment for venture has evolved — with larger checks being written for seed and A rounds and more support from partners required to build companies — demanding a high degree of specialization and extreme focus to excel,” a spokesperson for Kleiner Perkins said in a statement provided to TechCrunch in September. “The changes in both areas have led to less overlap between venture and growth and creating two separate firms with different people and operations now makes sense.”
We’ve reached out to Meeker for comment.
Meeker joined Kleiner Perkins in 2010 after two decades as a managing director at Morgan Stanley. A well-established Wall Street tech analyst, she quickly rose in the Silicon Valley ranks and became one of few women to earn a GP title at Kleiner Perkins in an industry where women have traditionally been shut out from the highest roles.
With Bond, Meeker is set to be the first woman to raise a $1 billion-plus VC fund.
Source: Tech Crunch