Limited liability company | |
Industry | Venture capital |
Founded | 1995 |
Headquarters |
Menlo Park, California, United States San Francisco, California, United States |
Website | www.benchmark.com |
Benchmark is an American venture capital firm responsible for the early stage funding of numerous successful startups including Dropbox,Twitter, Uber,Snapchat, and Instagram.
In 1997, the firm invested $6.7 million in eBay, which made it worth more than $5 billion by the spring of 1999.
Other high-profile investments include CyanogenMod,Domo,New Relic,Nextdoor,Stitch Fix,WeWork,Yelp,Zendesk,Zillow and Zipcar.
Benchmark is noted for creating the first equal ownership and compensation structure for its partners. The "maverick" firm differs from most VC firms, which are named for their founders and are structured hierarchically; Benchmark is "a lean operation in which its six full-time partners share profits equally."
The firm announced in May 2012 it would be expanding beyond its Menlo Park, California headquarters by opening a second headquarters with more than 10,000 square feet in San Francisco’s emerging tech corridor, the Mid-Market neighborhood.
Benchmark Capital was founded in 1995 by four partners. Bob Kagle was a marketing expert with VC experience at Technology Venture Investors. Bruce Dunlevie also came from VC experience at Merrill Pickard Anderson & Eyre. Andy Rachleff had a background in network equipment and telecommunications. Kevin Harvey had invested in a database software company while at Merrill Pickard.