Benchmark
Private
IndustryVenture capital
Founded1995 (age 31)
FounderBob Kagle
Bruce Dunlevie
Andy Rachleff
Kevin Harvey
Val Vaden
Location140 New Montgomery
San Francisco, California, United States
Key peoplePeter Fenton, General Partner
Eric Vishria, General Partner
Chetan Puttagunta, General Partner
Jack Altman, General Partner[1]
Everett Randle, General Partner[1]
Sarah Tavel, Venture Partner
Websitewww.benchmark.com

Benchmark Capital Advisors LLC (commonly known as Benchmark) is an American venture capital firm founded in 1995 by Bob Kagle,[2] Bruce Dunlevie, Andy Rachleff,[3] Kevin Harvey,[4] and Val Vaden.[5] The firm is known for its equal partnership structure[6] and focus on early-stage investing, typically leading the first institutional round of funding while taking a board seat with each company it invests in.[3]

Founding, partner structure

Benchmark was founded in 1995[6] by five partners: Bob Kagle,[2] Bruce Dunlevie, Andy Rachleff,[3] Kevin Harvey,[4] and Val Vaden.[5] The firm is noted for creating the first equal ownership and compensation structure for its partners,[7] where there are no "junior partners" or "senior partners," and there are also no CEO-like position held,[8] differing from other VC firms which are named for their founders and are structured hierarchically.[9] The firm has stated the reason for maintaining this approach is to "force discipline and accountability to focus on what matters" for its founders and limited partners,[3] as their profits are driven by investment performance as opposed to management fees.[6] The collective decision-making structure also means that Benchmark shares responsibility for the performance of the companies the firm invests in, not just the single partner who joins the company's board of directors.[3][6]

Prior partners with the firm include Bill Gurley (who stepped back from his position after serving with the firm for twenty-one years),[10] Mitch Lasky, and Matt Cohler (who each stepped back from their roles as partners after each spending more than a decade with the firm),[11] and Victor Lazarte.[12]

Investments

The firm's most successful investment was a 1997 investment of $6.7 million in eBay for 22.1% of the company.[13] In 2011, it invested $12 million for an 11% stake in Uber, worth $7 billion in 2019 and $9.4 billion in 2023.[14]

Benchmark’s first eight funds, raised and invested between 1995 and 2019, returned more than seven and a half times the money invested, net of fees and carry.[6]

The firm has made exits from several companies,[15] including Amplitude,[16] Asana,[17] Confluent,[18] eBay,[13] Elastic,[19] Manus,[20] New Relic,[21][22] Nextdoor,[23][24] Red Hat,[25] Snap,[26][27][28] Stitch Fix,[29][30] and Uber.[31][32]

In August 2017, Benchmark filed a lawsuit against Uber co-founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick, alleging that he had misled the board in order to gain control of additional board seats.[33] The lawsuit sought Kalanick's removal from Uber's board of directors and was described as "unprecedented" in Silicon Valley venture capital circles.[34] The litigation was eventually dismissed in January 2018 as a condition of SoftBank's investment in Uber.[34] Following the Uber litigation, several entrepreneurs criticized Benchmark,[33][35] while some industry observers, like Mark Suster of Upfront Ventures defended Benchmark's actions as necessary corporate governance.[35]

Benchmark has pursued leadership changes at other portfolio companies, including solar technology company Nanosolar, where founder Martin Roscheisen was removed from his position, resulting in the firm drawing criticism from Roscheisen.[35]

As of 2026, Benchmark's 2020 fund is worth more than 10 times what investors put in.[1] The 2020 fund investments include Fireworks, Mercor, Sierra, and Legora.[1][36] At this same time, it was reported Benchmark’s 2024 fund sits at 3 times investors initial investment, based on cash distributions and the paper value of remaining investments. The 2024 fund includes stakes in Manus, which Meta Platforms Inc. agreed to buy for $2 billion in 2025.[1][20]

List of investments
BusinessSource
1-800-Flowers[citation needed]
Airtable[37]
AOL[citation needed]
Art.com/Allposters.com[citation needed]
Benchling[38]
CTERA Networks[citation needed]
Cerebras Systems[39]
Chainalysis[40]
Cockroach Labs[41]
CouchSurfing[42]
Demandforce[citation needed]
Digits[43]
Discord[44]
Duo Security[45]
Domo, Inc.[46][47]
Docker[48]
Dropbox[49]
EBags.com[citation needed]
Fireworks AI[36]
Friendster[citation needed]
HackerOne[50]
Instagram[51][52]
JAMDAT[citation needed]
Juniper Networks[citation needed]
Legora[1]
Marin Software[53]
Mercor[36]
Metacafe[citation needed]
Minted[citation needed]
Modern Treasury[54]
MySQL[citation needed]
OpenTable[citation needed]
Optimizely[55]
Palm, Inc.[citation needed]
ResearchGate[56]
Seeking Alpha[citation needed]
Sierra AI[36]
ServiceSource[citation needed]
Sketch[57]
Solv[58]
Twitter[59]
Tellme Networks[60]
Vessel[61]
WeWork[62][63][64][65]
Xapo[66]
Yelp, Inc.[67]
Zendesk[68]
Zillow[69]
Zipcar[70]
Zuora[71][72]

Benchmark Capital was featured in the Apple TV+ original TV series WeCrashed starring Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway. In the show, Anthony Edwards portrays Benchmark co-founder Bruce Dunlevie, who became WeWork's first major investor on the 1st of April in 2012 when Benchmark led WeWork's $17 million Series-A seed funding.[73]

Benchmark was also featured in the Showtime original Super Pumped starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt. In the series, Kyle Chandler plays former Benchmark general partner Bill Gurley, portraying his involvement in leading Ubers' $11 million round of fundraising in February 2011.[74]

See also

References

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