Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

Coordinates: 37°25′25″N 122°12′37″W / 37.4237°N 122.2103°W / 37.4237; -122.2103

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) is a venture capital firm located on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park in Silicon Valley. The Wall Street Journal has called it one of the "largest and most established" venture capital firms in the world. The New York Times has called it "one of Silicon Valley’s top venture capital providers," and said that it is "one of Silicon Valley's most prominent venture capital firms." Reuters news service has called KPCB "one of the most successful venture capital firms in the world." KPCB was known as one of the more progressive venture capital firms in Silicon Valley when it came to hiring women, with 12 female partners out of 49 partners total. However in May 2012, partner Ellen Pao sued the firm for gender discrimination, which KPCB has vigorously denied. The case is ongoing.

KPCB specializes in investments in incubation and early stage companies. Since its founding in 1972, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has backed entrepreneurs in more than 500 ventures including AOL, Amazon.com, Citrix, Compaq, Electronic Arts, Genentech, Genomic Health, Google, Intuit, Juniper Networks, Netscape, Sun, Symantec, Verisign, WebMD and Zynga. More than 150 of the firm’s portfolio companies have gone public, and many other KPCB ventures have achieved success through mergers and acquisitions. KPCB focuses its global investments in three practice areas – digital, greentech and life sciences. Its team includes the world leading venture capitalist John Doerr; Sun Microsystem's co-founder Bill Joy; NASA rocket scientist K. R. Sridhar; former US Vice President Al Gore; and former US Secretary of State Colin Powell.

The firm is based in Menlo Park, California. It has offices in Shanghai, China and in Beijing, China.