Khosla Ventures doubles down on deep‑tech investments despite venture‑capital slump

During 2023 the venture‑capital market showed signs of slowing, with prominent investors such as Founders Fund and Tiger Global announcing cuts to their new funds. Khosla Ventures faced the same pressure but chose not to retreat.

The firm decided to raise fresh capital—a $500 M seed fund, a $1.6 B main fund and a $900 M growth fund—and to accelerate dealmaking. It increased the number of investments each quarter, backed notable rounds in Teamshares, Replit and Viome, and directed capital toward research‑intensive areas like nuclear fusion, humanoid robots and AI.

Increased quarterly deal count, raised a $500M seed fund, $1.6B main fund and $900M growth fund, and backed deep‑tech startups in nuclear fusion, humanoid robots and AI.

Khosla believed the long‑term potential of deep‑tech sectors outweighed short‑term market fatigue.

Its strong track record enabled it to raise new funds from LPs even as others struggled.

Competitors pulling back reduced competition for high‑quality, research‑driven startups.

In a downturn, doubling down on strategic, research‑intensive sectors can sustain deal flow and attract fresh capital.

By the end of 2023 Khosla had increased its deal count in each of the past three quarters and was on pace for a fourth consecutive quarter of growth. The firm’s focus on nuclear fusion, humanoid robots and AI positioned it at the forefront of emerging deep‑tech investment, while its overall investment tempo outpaced peers that were cutting back.