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Benchmark

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Researched and published by the startup.ph editorial team from public sources — not a self-submitted profile.

Benchmark

VC Fund 📍 United States, North America

About Benchmark

Benchmark is a San Francisco-based venture capital firm (headquartered at 140 New Montgomery Street) founded in 1995 by five equal partners: Bob Kagle, Bruce Dunlevie, Andy Rachleff, Kevin Harvey, and Val Vaden. It is well known in the venture industry for a distinctive, deliberately flat partnership structure with no junior or senior partner titles and no CEO-like role — all partners share equal ownership and compensation, tied to investment performance rather than management fees.

Benchmark specializes in early-stage investing, typically leading a company's first institutional round and taking a board seat. Its historical fund performance has been unusually strong: the firm's first eight funds (1995-2019) returned more than seven and a half times invested capital net of fees and carry, and later funds have continued to perform well. Notable investments and exits include eBay ($6.7M for a 22.1% stake in 1997), Uber ($12M for roughly 11% in 2011), Instagram, Dropbox, Snap, Discord, Twitter, Asana, Zendesk, Yelp, and Zillow. Benchmark has no confirmed Philippines-specific investment activity or presence.

Investment Thesis

Benchmark concentrates on being the first institutional, lead investor into a small number of exceptional early-stage companies per partner per year, favoring deep, hands-on board-level involvement over a high-volume portfolio approach. Its focus areas span software, fintech, AI, and enterprise technology, with a long track record in consumer marketplaces and networks as well.

Portfolio Companies

eBay, Uber, Instagram, Dropbox, Snap, Discord, Twitter, Zendesk