Spark Capital's Conviction Pays Off in Anthropic Investment

In venture capital, conviction often matters most when consensus is missing. In 2023, Yasmin Razavi led Spark Capital’s $450 million round into Anthropic at a $5 billion valuation, even as many traditional VCs stayed away from the company. At the time, Anthropic had no public product, no revenue and required massive capital to compete in AI. That bet has become one of Spark’s most consequential investments. Anthropic is now valued at $380 billion, and Spark’s initial $75 million check plus follow-on investments are worth at least $3 billion. Razavi, the only Anthropic investor with a board seat, debuts on the #ForbesMidas List as its highest-ranked newcomer at No. 13. https://lnkd.in/eZHfvRXw 📸: Guerin Blask for Forbes

In venture capital, conviction often matters most when consensus is missing. In 2023, Yasmin Razavi led Spark Capital’s $450 million round into Anthropic at a $5 billion valuation, even as many traditional VCs stayed away from the company. At the time, Anthropic had no public product, no revenue and required massive capital to compete in AI. That bet has become one of Spark’s most consequential investments. Anthropic is now valued at $380 billion, and Spark’s initial $75 million check plus follow-on investments are worth at least $3 billion. Razavi, the only Anthropic investor with a board seat, debuts on the Forbes Midas List as its highest-ranked newcomer at No. 13. https://lnkd.in/eZHfvRXw (Photo: Guerin Blask For Forbes) #ForbesMidas

The rush into pre-IPO investing is creating major hype and major risks. “There is a lot of opacity… so there’s a total lack of transparency and they are very expensive,” said Neena Mishra, CFA, FRM, director of ETF research at Zacks Investment Research. Mishra’s comments come as shares of Destiny Tech100, a fund offering exposure to private companies like Anthropic and SpaceX, swung wildly amid renewed scrutiny around SPVs and synthetic ownership structures tied to pre-IPO investing. Reporting by William G. and Isabel Wang via MarketWatch. https://lnkd.in/e5x4HCAT

Ashish Kumar, co-founder of The Fundamentum Partnership, has launched a new frontier-tech investment platform, Fundamentum Frontier Advisors (F2A), marking a deeper push into AI and deeptech investing. Nandan Nilekani has joined as an anchor investor in the platform. Strengthening the leadership team, former SIDBI Venture Capital executive Debraj Banerjee has come on board as General Partner to co-lead the AI and deeptech strategy. Read More: https://lnkd.in/gHJnQ8VB #Fundamentum #DeepTech #ArtificialIntelligence #VentureCapital #StartupFunding

In venture capital, conviction eventually becomes consensus—and consensus eventually becomes crowded. The investors climbing this year’s #ForbesMidas List are the ones who moved before the crowd arrived. Here are eight of the investors whose early bets helped define the current AI boom: https://lnkd.in/gPeWvkfg 📸: Guerin Blask for Forbes, Getty Images

High-impact update: the core narrative is evolving, click the link to learn more! Eclipse Ventures Secures $1.3 Billion to Accelerate the Physical AI Frontier Palo Alto-based venture capital firm Eclipse has successfully closed a $1.3 billion fund aimed at... #Stocks #Investing Read more: https://lnkd.in/gENbzPS2

Pillar Raises €12 Million to accelerate the expansion of its AI-powered construction operating system across Europe and Latin America. The seed funding round was co-led by Earlybird Venture Capital and Base10 Partners, with participation from Italian Founders Fund and Emblem. Read Full Article Here:- https://lnkd.in/gyrCDVTv #Pillar #ConstructionTech #PropTech #ArtificialIntelligence #StartupFunding #VentureCapital #DigitalTransformation #ConstructionIndustry #AI

Coatue, one of the biggest names in venture capital, has a new venture that is reportedly buying land near large power sources.

I recently had the chance to share my perspective on why I am optimistic about Germany as an innovation and investment hub with VentureCapital Magazin, alongside Oliver Hanisch, Verena Pausder, Joerg Landsch and Michael Richthammer. Thank you to Peter Köhler and Janine Heidenfelder for having me. Three things that give me real confidence: 1️⃣ Europe as a Deeptech hub. With proven strength in technological depth and the quality of its people, the "Power of the Buck" is increasingly complemented by the "Power of the Brain." Isar Aerospace and Marvel Fusion are proof that Europe can build internationally competitive Deeptech champions. 2️⃣ Founders are thinking in new dimensions. The best teams are not targeting unicorn exits. They are building towards centacorns, and those are the companies that make the real macroeconomic difference. 3️⃣ Europe is being re-rated. German startups raised €8.4bn in 2025, up 19%, and Q1 2026 started with record investments, reflecting a structural shift in investor sentiment towards Europe. Europe’s strength is structural. What remains is to unlock capital at scale and embrace a regulatory mindset built for growth. Innovate first, regulate smarter. You can read the full article here (🇩🇪): https://lnkd.in/d8s5yNYH

Imagine $1.1 BILLION distributed as seed funding to 1,000 female founders with actual, proven, revenue-generating products, who can't get funded (only 1.7% of all venture capital last year went to female founders). #FundFemaleFounders (From Ian Krietzberg's AI newsletter for Puck)