The VC Notebook

Total Anthropic Victory.

We've raised $100m at a $1.15b valuation from @Accel, @GVteam, and existing investors to accelerate deployment of the most capable and accurate accounting agents across CAS, tax, audit, and advisory. Basis is used by 30% of the Top 25 accounting firms and dozens more across the Top 150. Today we're announcing the first accounting agent to complete a business tax workbook end-to-end. Our focus on production-grade, long-horizon agents means that 12 months from now, the work Basis handles will make even this look routine. We're looking for a few very intense people who want to build at the frontier.

We have raised a $23M Series A led by @lightspeedvp, with continued support from @generalcatalyst, @eqtventures & s16vc. Less than a year in > Over 30 enterprise customers, > 100.000+ hours saved annually > Customers cutting their close cycle by up to 8 days > 95% of reconciliations automated Grateful to our customers, investors, and the Stacks team. We're just getting started.

This is my second conversation with @JoshuaKushner. Josh started Thrive in 2011 and the firm now manages ~$50 billion. We cover the iconic investments that defined it: Instagram, Stripe, GitHub, and spend a lot of time on OpenAI. He explains how Thrive thinks about investing today and the three categories they're currently focused on. Josh also talks about how he built the firm – why they keep the team so small, why concentration is core to what they do, and what he's learned from A24 about enabling artists to create their best work. Throughout the conversation, Josh shares the personal stories that shaped him, from his grandmother surviving the Holocaust to lessons from Stan Druckenmiller and Jon Winkelried at formative moments in Thrive's history. Enjoy! open.spotify.com/episode/7nR…

Announcing Battery Ventures XV — $3.25 billion in new capital to back technology companies globally. We've invested through the dot-com boom, the mobile era and the cloud buildout, backing more than 530 companies across the venture-capital, growth and buyout markets. In the last five years alone, our stage-agnostic approach has generated more than $10 billion in liquidity. With four decades of pattern recognition and the same long-term conviction that's defined us since day one, we're ready to back the founders and teams building the next generation of iconic companies in the AI era. Now, back to work 💥 Read more about our plans for Battery Ventures XV: bit.ly/4qLFEKr

We are pleased to announce the close of Thrive X. Exceeding $10 billion, Thrive X comprises $1 billion designated for early-stage investments and $9 billion designated for growth-stage investments. We do not view this as a milestone, but as a commitment to the long work ahead. We view Thrive as a company. Our product is partnership - the willingness to commit deeply to a small number of founders, and to stand with them through momentum and adversity. This is the discipline we bring to our work, and the responsibility we accept when founders partner with Thrive. We do not hedge. Concentration demands loyalty to the founders and missions we back. In this moment, exposure alone is not a strategy. Judgment without commitment is not enough. Advantage will accrue to those who choose deliberately, commit deeply, and endure through difficult moments. Thrive was founded to be an enabling technology for the world we want to see. We are deeply aware that we are not the main character. The founders that we are fortunate enough to partner with are the artists. Our role is to help create the conditions where great work can come to life. We take a long view grounded in the belief that category-defining companies tend to create structural compounding advantages over long arcs. This fund reflects the continuity of our approach and the ways our work has deepened alongside the founders we support. We are grateful for the trust our Limited Partners place in us, and for the opportunity to work alongside those who are building with purpose, integrity, and courage. thrivecap.com/thrive-x

Today, we’re officially launching Accrual and announcing $75M in funding led by @generalcatalyst with participation from Go Global, @pruvencapital, @EdwardJones Ventures, and industry leaders. Accounting firms play a central role in financial decision-making, yet preparation, review, and client context are still spread across disconnected systems. As complexity and expectations rise, these fragmented workflows limit both capacity and consistency. Accrual is AI-native infrastructure built to unify preparation and review into a single system, removing mechanical work while preserving the accuracy, controls, and professional judgment firms depend on. More at accrual.com/launch

1/ Mercury 2025 Annual Letter @Mercury 2025 stats: * 50% YoY growth in customers to 300k * 59% YoY growth in transaction volume to $248bn The theme of the year was expanding beyond startups: we saw 73% of new customers came from outside AI or tech startup category 🧵

New episode of Uncapped with the full Benchmark partnership. They're arguably the best early stage venture firm of all time and have retained a model and approach that very few others have. I learned a ton, hope you enjoy.

Mamoon Hamid helped build one of Silicon Valley’s buzziest new VC firms, Social Capital, before joining Kleiner Perkins. bit.ly/46eZohT

We raised $500M at an $11B valuation to transform how people interact with technology.