Big news from DFJ Growth. We’ve closed our fifth and largest fund yet, raising $1.2 billion for DFJ Growth V. We started with a target of $800 million, but our incredible investors turned out in force and with enthusiasm to help this new fund become something much larger. Given how challenging the fundraising landscape is right now, this is a huge vote of confidence in our team and strategy. We’re incredibly grateful for the trust placed in us. To our awesome investors, we thank you for your partnership.

This milestone reflects a continuation of our proven approach and our passion for finding and backing extraordinary entrepreneurs changing the world through disruptive technology. It’s not just about writing checks — it’s about partnering with these visionaries. Once we are in, we are all in, engaged and lending our team, experience, and network to help our companies navigate the scaling journey. We are team players, where the only scorecard is our shared success.

Our Journey – Two Decades and Counting
When we started DFJ Growth back in 2005, we saw a shift happening. Public markets were demanding more maturity from venture-backed companies in order to IPO. We reasoned that this trend would cause companies to stay private longer, where they would need more capital to achieve the scale required for an IPO. We also felt the early-stage venture market was not well suited to provide the capital and expertise needed for this next stage of development. Our first fund was an early pioneer in the venture growth space, which has since become the largest segment in the private markets. 

Over the years, we’ve had the privilege of working with a truly visionary collection of founders who have pushed the boundaries in their fields and created industry-defining companies — Tesla, SpaceX, Coinbase, Unity — the list goes on. We’ve had a front row seat witnessing Tesla driving the electric vehicle revolution, SpaceX redefining aerospace and broadband, Coinbase opening the door to the crypto era, and Unity transforming gaming and 3D visualization. These are the kinds of bold ambitions we love to back, before they’re obvious and while there is room to run when no one is looking.

Looking Ahead: What We’re Excited About
We like to say that we spend our time imagining the future, then partnering with the extraordinary entrepreneurs who are bringing the future to life. With DFJ Growth V, we’re doubling down on areas of innovation we believe will define the future, including:

• AI Infrastructure and Applications: From consumer to enterprise, AI is set to change everything, and we want to help build the solutions that make it happen. Some of our existing companies include ScaleAI and xAI.
  
  
• Life Tech: The fusion of tech and biology is opening doors to precision medicine and health breakthroughs we couldn’t have imagined a decade ago, through companies like Cellanome, Cellares, Delfi, Neuralink, and Paradigm Health.
  
  
• Machine Assist: Think robotics, automation, sensors, and smart systems that enhance how we work and live, with companies including Formlabs and Neocis.
  
  
• New Frontiers: The aerospace, defense, and industrial sectors are undergoing a massive tech-driven modernization that is creating a new era of opportunity being pursued by Anduril, Hidden Level, SpaceX, and Vannevar Labs.

Growing Our Team
We are company builders at our core, and we’ve been expanding our team to help shepherd us through the next stage of this adventure. With this new fund, DFJ Growth has added talented investors to execute our strategy:

• Ramin Sayar, Venture Partner – Ramin is the former CEO of DFJ Growth portfolio company Sumo Logic, where he led their growth journey from $15M to over $300M ARR, including a successful IPO and PE-sponsored take-private three years later
  
  
• Max Sirenko, Venture Partner – Max is one of DFJ Growth’s early investment associates, returning after a decade after gaining highly valuable operating and scaling experience as a product manager and network engineer at portfolio companies Mapbox and SpaceX Starlink
  
  
• Will Morrison, Principal – Will joins from In-Q-Tel, the venture arm of the US government, where he led investments in the defense, aerospace, software, and cybersecurity sectors
  
  
• Brian Akin, Evan Fu, and Angel Duan – Joining DFJ Growth as investment associates to help identify and support the next wave of game changers

What’s Next?
We’re standing at the dawn of a new tech megacycle, with AI-enabled systems poised to impact nearly every aspect of life. It’s an incredibly exciting time to be doing what we do. We’ve been through these waves before, and though each is different than the others, it’s totally in our comfort zone. With DFJ Growth V, we stand ready to partner with founders who are thinking big and building the future. We believe the intersection of bold vision and relentless execution is where the magic happens—and that’s exactly where we want to be.

We are thrilled to embark on this next chapter, continuing to dream big, take risks, and back the founders who inspire us every day. While no one can know what the future holds, we constantly imagine it, and partner with the extraordinary entrepreneurs who are defining it.