Spark Capital’s Yasmin Razavi has a reputation for refusing to make gut calls. Her methodical decision to invest in Anthropic is now set to generate one of the biggest fortunes in Silicon Valley history, as Anthropic prepares to IPO.
Many venture firms, including Lightspeed and Menlo Ventures, are major Anthropic investors, but Spark is the only traditional VC firm named in the filing. And it’s not just a few mentions. Spark is named more than 50 times.
The reason Spark gets the most ink is because Yasmin Razavi has a board seat after being the first institutional investor in the company, leading the $450 million Series C at a $4.5 billion valuation in May 2023.
This was just six months after ChatGPT was released to the public, and the jury was out on whether a rival like Anthropic could catch up. Many balked at the price, calling it too expensive.
“It was a big leap of faith, but this was the team that built GPT-3,” Razavi told Forbes.
The filing says that Spark has invested $777 million in Anthropic across six financings since then, including $75 million in the first pivotal round at $11.22 per share.
Spark was already known for making early bets on Postmates and Discord, but it was the Anthropic investment that transformed the firm’s Silicon Valley reputation from a good venture firm to a great one.
Razavi said she has been continuously wowed by CEO Dario Amodei.
“Every year, he puts out outrageous numbers, but somehow they magically become true,” Razavi told Forbes. “Dario never misses.”
Soon, Amodei will face a greater test: the public markets.
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