Kyber Knight Capital – a pioneering new venture capital firm focused on pre-seed and seed investments in early-stage technology start-ups – launched recently with a $120 million inaugural fund.
Founded by venture capital veterans and experienced founders Sunny Dhillon and Linus Liang, Kyber Knight offers a hands-on approach with founders and provides them with inside access to its exclusive network of luminary investors, including Alphabet Chairman John Hennessy; Bain Consulting’s global head Manny Maceda; former Dreamworks Animation President Chris DeFaria; former President and CEO of eBay and Hewlett Packard Meg Whitman; former MGM Chairman and CEO Gary Barber; previous Warner Brothers Chairman and CEO Kevin Tsujihara and former Chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company Michael Eisner. And additional backers include founders of some of Silicon Valley’s most transformational companies, such as Joe Gebbia of Airbnb, Michael Mente of Revolve, PayPal’s David Sacks, and Zynga’s Mark Pincus. Senior financial industry titans from KKR, Oaktree, Apollo, Goldman Sachs, and New Enterprise Associates are also part of the Kyber Knight cap table.
The firm is also supported by institutional investors including consulting behemoth McKinsey, the Smithsonian Museum Endowment, and a major California pension fund, among others. Such investors add further breadth and depth to the firm’s network.
The firm already invested in 12 soon-to-launch companies at the pre-seed or seed stage and had markups from Sand Hill Road top-tier funds leading follow-on financing rounds. And the investments range from robotics and automation in traditional manufacturing and construction to sales enablement, e-commerce, and AI technology. Kyber Knight plans to invest in approximately 40 to 50 companies with its debut fund.
KEY QUOTES:
“Knowing the right people and getting in with quality customers early is essential to startup growth, especially at the pre-seed and seed stage. It can make or break a company,” said Dhillon. “Linus and I have built extensive professional networks over the course of our careers, and we created Kyber Knight to extend those advantageous connections to our portfolio companies. We bring deep sector expertise and are taking a hands-on approach to develop the right growth strategy to bring each of these game-changing companies to market fast while ensuring that they establish a robust pipeline, setting them up for long-term success.”
— Sunny Dhillon
“In the current economic climate, startups need the right guidance. They need someone willing to do the hard work with them, to vouch for their ideas, team and execution plans, and who will open doors and make introductions on their behalf. Sunny and I are not shy. We are long-time entrepreneurs and investors ourselves, and we love nothing more than rolling up our sleeves to turn a new idea into a thriving company.”
— Linus Liang
