IVP

About

IVP (Institutional Venture Partners) is one of the oldest and most established venture capital firms in Silicon Valley, founded in 1980 by Reid W. Dennis ¹. Dennis began his venture investment career in 1952 as an analyst at Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company, and in 1974 secured a $5 million commitment from American Express to form Institutional Venture Associates ¹. After his partners departed in 1980, Dennis renamed the firm Institutional Venture Partners and raised a $22 million fund ¹. Dennis passed away in March 2024 ².

The firm is headquartered in Menlo Park, California, with additional offices in San Francisco and London ³. IVP focuses exclusively on later-stage technology companies, almost exclusively investing at Series B, backing approximately a dozen companies per year ⁴.

Over four decades, IVP has raised 18 funds with steadily increasing sizes: $22 million (Fund I, 1980), $40 million (Fund II, 1982), $115 million (Fund V, 1988), $600 million (Fund XII, 2010), $1 billion (Fund XIV, 2012), $1.5 billion (Fund XVI, 2017), $1.8 billion (Fund XVII, 2021), and $1.6 billion (Fund XVIII, 2024) ¹²⁵. The firm has accelerated over 400 companies, achieved 130+ IPOs, and produced 41 unicorns ⁴⁶.

IVP’s investment team includes over 20 partners and principals covering sectors including AI, enterprise infrastructure, consumer, fintech, gaming, cybersecurity, digital health, and SaaS ⁷. The firm expanded into European markets over a decade ago, with notable investments in Supercell, UiPath, Wise, DeepL, and others ⁶.

Stated Thesis

IVP publicly describes itself as a growth-stage firm that invests in “breakout companies” at critical inflection points, before broader market recognition ⁴. The firm backs companies scaling from millions to hundreds of millions in revenue and expanding from one market to many ⁴.

Steve Harrick explained the firm’s name literally: “‘Institutional’ refers to their investor base of institutions, ‘venture’ speaks to their focus, and ‘partners’ reflects their organizational structure” ².

The firm emphasizes deliberate, concentrated investing: “We are deliberate by design. Focus allows us to go deep into each company and its business” ⁴. IVP describes itself as a “proactive sounding board” that activates expertise at critical moments ⁴.

Tom Loverro has stated: “IVP invests in the fastest-growing technology companies and software is the majority of what we do. We are highly selective. We partner with exceptional management teams to build software companies of consequence” ⁸.

Reid Dennis articulated the firm’s founding philosophy in a 2009 UC Berkeley interview: “I think there are better ways to get along in this life, and you can do very, very well by betting on the best people and people that you’d enjoy working with” ².

Inferred Thesis

Based on 120+ verified investments from the firm’s portfolio page, the following patterns emerge.

Sector breakdown (120+ verified investments): Enterprise software and SaaS represent the largest category — approximately 35 of 120+ investments (29%), including Slack, Datadog, HashiCorp, MuleSoft, GitHub, Marketo, Zendesk, AppDynamics, and Rubrik. Consumer internet and media represent approximately 30 of 120+ (25%), including Netflix, Snap, Twitter, Discord, Nextdoor, Dropbox, and MasterClass. Fintech accounts for approximately 15 of 120+ (12%), including Robinhood, Klarna, Brex, Coinbase, SoFi, and NerdWallet. Digital health represents approximately 10 of 120+ (8%), including Hims & Hers, Lyra Health, Abridge, Hello Heart, and Aledade. Gaming represents approximately 8 of 120+ (7%), including Supercell, Zynga, Niantic, and Dream Games. Cybersecurity accounts for approximately 8 of 120+ (7%), including CrowdStrike, Obsidian Security, and Sublime Security. Infrastructure and data represents approximately 10 of 120+ (8%), including Pure Storage, ClickHouse, and Chainguard ⁹.

Stage distribution: Almost exclusively Series B, with typical equity checks of $30-40 million per investment ⁵. The firm invests in approximately 12 companies per year ⁴.

Geographic concentration: Primarily U.S.-based investments, with a growing European presence (DeepL, Supercell, UiPath, Wise, Aiven, Pigment, SEON, Veriff, Kittl) representing approximately 15% of the portfolio ⁶⁹.

Co-investor patterns: Given IVP’s growth-stage focus, the firm frequently co-invests with other late-stage funds including Tiger Global, Coatue, a16z Growth, and Insight Partners.

Portfolio evolution: More recent investments show an increasing emphasis on AI (Perplexity, Anthropic, Glean, Abridge, LangChain, Gamma) alongside continued enterprise software and security investments ⁹.

Notable gaps: The firm rarely invests at seed or Series A despite being called a “venture” firm. Check sizes are typically $30-40 million, far larger than most early-stage investors.

Portfolio

This table represents approximately 30% of 400+ total investments over 44 years. Earlier vintage investments (pre-2000) are less well documented in current sources.

In Their Own Words

“I think there are better ways to get along in this life, and you can do very, very well by betting on the best people and people that you’d enjoy working with.” — Reid Dennis, Founder, 2009 UC Berkeley interview ²

“IVP invests in the fastest-growing technology companies and software is the majority of what we do. We are highly selective. We partner with exceptional management teams to build software companies of consequence. There are more high quality, high growth software companies every day and they are growing faster and with better metrics than every generation before it.” — Tom Loverro, General Partner ⁸

“We firmly believe right now that we’re in a down cycle in venture capital, and it doesn’t bother us one bit. But yet there’s a frenzy going on in AI, we have to figure out how to pick the best companies and build them towards future liquidity.” — Steve Harrick, General Partner ⁸

What Founders Say

Somesh Dash, IVP partner, has described the firm’s approach to founder relationships: “IVP supports startup founders and pushes them when they need to be pushed. The ultimate job of an investor should be to be sounding boards to founders and not have a ‘Control Mentality.’ To be in some sense tough critics in private, and the biggest cheerleaders in public, is the way to encourage founders, especially in difficult times” ¹⁰. Note: this is a partner’s description of the firm’s approach, not an independent founder testimonial.

No independently sourced founder testimonials found from third-party sources at this time. The firm’s track record of 130+ IPOs and 41 unicorns from 400 investments suggests strong founder outcomes, but specific quotes from portfolio founders could not be independently verified.

Sources