Kleiner Perkins

Kleiner Perkins co-led CuspAI's $2.6bn round, which closed in late June 2026 with no UK investment vehicle on the cap table; EQT entered advanced talks for a further stake within days. The valuation was more than four times the Cambridge AI-materials company's September 2025 mark, with Bezos Expeditions co-investing alongside Kleiner Perkins on signed term sheets. It followed the firm's earlier co-lead, with Index Ventures, of Granola's $125m Series c, which pushed the London AI notetaking startup to a $1.5bn valuation in three years. Both bets sit inside a broader 2026 push: the firm announced it was raising $3.5bn for a new fund targeting AI startups reshaping software, healthcare, transportation and autonomy.

Founded in 1972 by Eugene Kleiner and Tom Perkins, the firm was the first VC to open offices on Sand Hill Road and is credited with establishing Silicon Valley's VC cluster. The New York Times called it perhaps Silicon Valley's most famous venture firm in 2005. Its historical portfolio reads as a who's-who of the internet era: Google, Amazon, Netscape, Genentech, Sun Microsystems, Compaq, Electronic Arts, and Anthropic. John Doerr emerged as its defining investor during the dotcom era, backing Amazon and Google before either went public.

Two UK/Cambridge bets in three months show a split approach: Granola's round ran through UK-based Index Ventures, while CuspAI's closed with no UK vehicle at all, only Bezos Expeditions and EQT in the frame. Kleiner Perkins has stated a preference for investing in the UK and broader European market alongside the US, Middle East, and Canada, but the CuspAI structure suggests that preference does not always extend to routing capital through UK-domiciled co-investors.