Samir Kaul

Background

Samir Kaul is a Founding Partner and Managing Director at Khosla Ventures, where he has been since the firm’s inception in late 2005 ¹². His investment interests span AI, advanced technology, health, sustainability, and food ¹.

Before co-founding Khosla Ventures, Kaul spent five years at Flagship Ventures (now Flagship Pioneering), where he started and invested in early-stage biotech companies ¹². During that time, he co-founded Helicos BioSciences alongside Stanford’s Stan Lapidus and Steve Quake, a company that became a leader in developing single-molecule sequencing instruments ¹. He also served as founding CEO of Codon Devices ².

Earlier in his career, Kaul led the Arabidopsis Genome Initiative at Craig Venter’s Institute for Genomic Research ¹. He published seven peer-reviewed papers in genomics, including a landmark Nature paper detailing the first complete genome of a flowering plant (Arabidopsis thaliana, 2000) with over 2,774 citations ¹.

Kaul holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, a Master of Science in Biochemistry from the University of Maryland, and a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from the University of Michigan ¹³. He joined The Michael J. Fox Foundation Board of Directors in 2025 ³, is a current board member and Development Committee chair at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital ¹³, and has endowed the directorship of the Michigan Institute for Computational Discovery and Engineering ³. He also established a Professorship of Biomedical Innovation and Translation between Harvard Medical School and Harvard Business School ³.

Stated Thesis

Kaul has publicly stated that he embraces technical and scientific risk in established, large markets while avoiding market risk: “I don’t want to take any market risk. I want the market to be big. But I also really like to pride myself on finding a market for technology that’s yet to innovate. Because I want to take large technical risks” ⁴.

He has described his investment philosophy as deliberately non-conservative: “I think in this business, being conservative is a real problem, because we’re in the business of returning 20% or greater net IRR to our investors” ⁴.

On follow-on investing, Kaul has criticized the standard pro-rata approach: “We should either do more than pro rata or much less to zero of pro rata because we get to change our bet” ⁴. He views each subsequent round as a fresh decision point rather than an automatic follow-on.

Khosla Ventures’ website describes his focus areas as AI, advanced technology, health, sustainability, and food ¹.

Inferred Thesis

Based on 24 verified investments in the portfolio table below, the following patterns emerge. Note: This represents a fraction of Kaul’s total investment activity; patterns may shift with additional data.

Sector Allocation (24 verified investments)

• Healthcare / Health-tech: 7 companies (29%) — Guardant Health, Oscar Health, Iora Health, Rightway Health, Connie Health, Mirvie, IgGenix ¹⁵⁶⁷⁸⁹
• Deep Tech / Energy / Sustainability: 5 companies (21%) — QuantumScape, Mainspring Energy, NanoH2O, Ceibo, AltaRock ^1101112
• AI / Software: 4 companies (17%) — Primer, Moonvalley, Statespace, Raxium ¹¹³¹⁴
• Food / Agriculture: 3 companies (13%) — Impossible Foods, Granular, LS9 ¹¹⁵
• Enterprise / Infrastructure: 2 companies (8%) — Nutanix, Traba ¹¹⁶¹⁷
• Biotech / Genomics: 2 companies (8%) — Ultima Genomics, Helicos BioSciences ¹¹⁸
• Space: 1 company (4%) — Varda Space Industries ¹¹⁹

Stage Distribution

Based on verifiable round data, Kaul invests across stages from seed through growth. His exits include companies backed from Series A or B through IPO (Guardant Health, Nutanix, Oscar Health, QuantumScape). He led Khosla’s participation in Nutanix’s Series B ¹⁶, Guardant Health’s Series B ⁵, QuantumScape’s Series A ¹⁰, and Traba’s Series A ¹⁷. He has also participated in later-stage rounds such as Rightway’s Series C ⁷ and Varda’s Series C ¹⁹.

Geographic Patterns

The portfolio skews heavily toward Bay Area-based companies, consistent with Khosla Ventures’ Menlo Park headquarters. Notable exceptions include Traba (New York) ¹⁷ and Ceibo (Chile) ¹².

Founder Profile Patterns

Kaul’s genomics background informs a pattern of backing scientist-founders and deep-tech teams. He has stated that his 1990s genomics work informed later investments in Guardant Health, Ultima Genomics, and Mirvie ⁹. He has described seeking “high-agency entrepreneurs” who can navigate deep-tech uncertainty ¹.

Co-investor Patterns

Frequent co-investors across Kaul’s portfolio include Sequoia Capital (Guardant Health), Founders Fund (Traba, Varda Space Industries), General Catalyst (Moonvalley, Traba), and Lightspeed Venture Partners (Nutanix) ^514161719.

Notable Gaps

While Kaul’s stated focus includes AI broadly, his verified portfolio shows a stronger concentration in healthcare and hard sciences than in pure software or consumer AI. The “advanced technology” framing encompasses a wide range of deep-tech bets (batteries, copper extraction, space manufacturing) that go well beyond typical VC portfolios.

Portfolio

This table represents a subset of Kaul’s total investments. Only investments with verifiable sources are included.

In Their Own Words

On investing in liquid biopsy technology at Guardant Health: “We see this technology as highly disruptive and are pleased to partner with Guardant Health to help vastly improve cancer care through liquid biopsies.” — Samir Kaul, Guardant Health Series B announcement, April 2014 ⁵

On healthcare market disruption at Rightway: “PBMs are broken. Rightway’s approach of creating alignment and transparency while introducing its best-in-class navigation is poised to fundamentally disrupt a $500B market for employer pharmacy spend.” — Samir Kaul, Rightway Series C announcement, March 2021 ⁷

On venture conservatism: “Being conservative is a real problem, because we’re in the business of returning 20% or greater net IRR to investors.” — Samir Kaul, The Twenty Minute VC podcast ⁴

On follow-on strategy: “We should either do more than pro rata or much less to zero of pro rata because we get to change our bet.” — Samir Kaul, The Twenty Minute VC podcast ⁴

On risk preference: “I don’t want to take any market risk, so I want the market to be big.” — Samir Kaul, The Twenty Minute VC podcast ⁴

On founder support: “So many people throw mud at us but how many are willing to risk their own personal balance sheet to make payroll. This is leadership, entrepreneurship and the spirit of Silicon Valley personified.” — Samir Kaul, X post, March 2023 ²⁶

On women’s health and Mirvie: “Women’s own health needs have been historically under-resourced and under-researched and thus, less understood.” — Samir Kaul, Mirvie interview ⁹

On Mirvie’s technology: “What Mirvie is doing is going to be very powerful. I think it’s a direct analogy to the Framingham Study that created one of the biggest blockbuster areas of all — statins.” — Samir Kaul, Mirvie interview ⁹

What Founders Say

No independently sourced founder testimonials found. A LinkedIn testimonial from a professional contact states: “Samir Kaul is a truly unique talent in the venture industry, and an excellent human being… People are impressed by his technical depth, broad base of knowledge, personal style and commitment to his portfolio companies” ²⁷. However, this is not a confirmed portfolio founder quote.

Connections

• Board member, Guardant Health — joined board at Series B alongside Sequoia Capital’s Warren Hogarth ⁵
• Board member, The Michael J. Fox Foundation — joined 2025 ³
• Board member and Development Committee chair, UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital ¹³
• Board member, Jack Creek Investment Corp. — Chair of Nominating Committee ²⁸
• Board member, Fulfil Solutions ²
• Board member, Traba — since 2022 ¹⁷
• Board member, Ceibo ²
• Board member, Rightway Health ²
• Dean’s Cabinet, Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences ³
• Former board trustee, U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association ¹
• Former Flagship Ventures (now Flagship Pioneering) — co-founded Helicos BioSciences with Stan Lapidus and Steve Quake ¹
• Former researcher, Institute for Genomic Research — worked under Craig Venter ¹

Sources