风投公司KPCB募集6亿美元基金，希望“回归本源”

著名风投公司KPCB宣布，已经为第18只旗舰基金正式募集6亿美元。该基金着重投资早期机会，关注领域包括消费者、创业，硬科技和金融科技等。

“我们重新思考战略也研究了历史，答案非常明确：我们要‘回到未来’，回归公司的本源。”KPCB发表的博文称。

讽刺的是，公司里已经没剩下多少原先的DNA，想回归本源有点困难。

2018年12月，时任KPCB管理合伙人的艾瑞克·冯宣布，在投资早期消费创业公司三年多后，他会离开公司。去年早些时候，合伙人林恩·周-欧基夫和贝丝·塞登伯格也都离开了公司。

这意味着参与KPCB之前17只基金的五位管理合伙人里，只有两位参与管理最新的基金。特德·施莱恩和谢文暄将带着相对新一点的同事马默恩·哈米德（之前负责社交资本）和伊利亚·福施曼（之前负责指数创投），负责新的创投基金。

“如果回望KPCB的历史就会发现，之前我们是特别注重支持创业初期企业家的小公司。”加入KPCB才10个月的福施曼向《财富》杂志的《Term Sheet》栏目介绍最新募资情况时表示。“这正是我们现在想做的。我们要转向精品化，高度个性化。”

在决定走“精品化”路线的四个月前，“互联网女王”玛丽·米克尔与KPCB成长投资团队集体离职，另行募集了12.5亿美元的基金，起名叫“债券”。

当然，KPCB希望“回归本源”的原因很明确，早期投资往往收益丰厚。这家已成立47年的公司曾经战绩辉煌，一些早期投资的公司后来成长为行业巨头。不过多年前KPCB辉煌的时代便已结束。

过去十年引领科技行业的一些大笔投资里，例如Facebook、推特（Twitter）和Snapchat，KPCB都错过了早期投资机会。《Term Sheet》栏目收集的回报率数据显示，KPCB早期投资收益率相当难看。

一家有限合伙人投资过KPCB之前好几只基金，但最新的旗舰基金并未参与，他们认为从团队组成来看，现在的KPCB更像是新公司。该有限合伙人告诉我，鉴于过去十年里早期投资团队向投资人交出的成绩相当平庸，未来回报率前景比较积极。

在华丽的“回归本源”口号背后，KPCB面临的现实是团队比较新，也要采取全新战略。6亿美元的新基金意义重大，因为这很可能也是该公司东山再起的最后一次机会。（财富中文网）

译者：冯丰

The storied venture firm announced it has officially raised $600 million for its 18th flagship fund. The fund will focus on early-stage investing across sectors including consumer, enterprise, hard tech and fintech.

“As we deliberated our strategy and studied our history, the answer was clear: we’re going ‘back to the future’ returning to Kleiner’s roots,” reads a Kleiner blog post.

Ironically, there isn’t much of the old Kleiner DNA left at at the firm to help it return it to its roots.

In December 2018, Kleiner general partner Eric Feng announced he would leave the firm after more than three years of investing in early-stage consumer startups. Partners Lynne Chou-O’Keefe and Beth Seidenberg also left earlier last year.

This means only two of the original five GPs who were part of the Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers XVII fund are staying on for the latest fund. Ted Schlein and Wen Hsieh will lead the venture fund alongside relative newcomers Mamoon Hamid (ex-Social Capital) and Ilya Fushman (ex-Index Ventures).

“If you look at the history of Kleiner, it was a very small firm focused on backing entrepreneurs at the earliest stages,” Fushman, who has been at Kleiner for 10 months, tells Term Sheet about the latest fundraise. “That’s what we want to do. We want to do it in a boutique-style now, which is very-high touch.”

The “boutique style” approach comes four months after news that Mary Meeker, along with the rest of Kleiner’s growth investment team, would spin out of the storied firm and raise their own $1.25 billion fund called “Bond.”

Of course, it’s obvious why Kleiner wants to “return to its roots” — early-stage is where the big money is made. The 47-year-old firm used to be a hit machine, making investments in the early rounds of knockout companies that went on to become industry titans. But Kleiner’s glory days ended years ago.

The firm missed the early window on some of the biggest deals that defined the last decade — Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat. Returns across its early-stage practice have suffered as a result, according to return data obtained by Term Sheet.

A limited partner, who has invested in several of Kleiner’s previous funds but did not participate in the latest flagship vehicle, views Kleiner as a brand new firm because of the composition of the team. They tell me, however, the turnover at the firm is a positive given the stretch of mediocre returns that the early-stage team has delivered to its investors over the last decade.

Behind its flashy ‘Back to the Future’ slogan, Kleiner’s reality is that it’s a new team with a new strategy. A lot is riding on this $600 million fund as this is likely the firm’s last attempt at re-gaining the momentum and relevance it once had.