Jan 11 (Reuters) - Venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins said
on Tuesday it had raised $1.8 billion through two new funds, as
it aims to expand into sectors such as fintech and consumer
after a record year for venture funding deals.
The firm raised $800 million and $1 billion for funds named
KP20 and Select2, to invest in early stage startups across
sectors. The company is also looking to tap into more
cryptocurrency investments.
Over the past five decades, the venture capital giant has
invested in some of the biggest technology companies, including
Alphabet Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Twitter Inc
and Uber Technologies Inc
The ongoing consumer shift towards digitization will
continue, driving up demand for tools offered by technology
companies, said Mamoon Hamid, partner at Kleiner Perkins.
Kleiner Perkins' fundraise follows that of Silicon
Valley-based venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz, which
raised a massive $9 billion through three new funds last week.
A total of 38,644 venture capital deals were made globally
last year, totaling $671 billion in volumes, higher than any
other year on record, according to data from PitchBook.
Kleiner Perkins said it had raised 20 early-stage venture
funds since it was founded in 1972.
A string of its portfolio companies listed on public
exchanges in New York last year, including language learning app
Duolingo Inc and online education platform Coursera Inc
, fetched a valuation of more than $5 billion each.
(Reporting by Sohini Podder and Manya Saini in Bengaluru;
Editing by Amy Caren Daniel)