Venture Capital · Profile from Venture Capital Research Companion
Thrive Capital
Josh Kushner's New York firm that grew from a $5m seed vehicle in 2009 into one of the world's largest venture managers by betting heavily on a small number of category leaders, above all OpenAI, and that now extends into AI-enabled control ownership (Thrive Holdings) and permanent capital (Thrive Eternal).
At a glance
- Founded
- 2009, New York City
- Founders
- Joshua Kushner (sole founder; aged 24 at founding)
- Headquarters
- New York City; presence in San Francisco
- Ownership / structure
- Private; Kushner reported to own ~96.7% of the management company (Fortune, 2024). Minority stakes sold to Goldman Sachs Petershill (~3%, 2021) and a group of individuals including Bob Iger, Mukesh Ambani, Henry Kravis, Xavier Niel and Jorge Paulo Lemann (~3.3%, January 2023, at a reported ~$5.3bn firm valuation); SEC-registered investment adviser since 2021
- Leadership (2026)
- Josh Kushner (founder and managing partner); Nitin Nohria (executive chairman since 2022; former dean of Harvard Business School); long-time partners including Kareem Zaki and Vince Hankes (verify titles)
- AUM / capital raised
- ~$22bn+ raised across flagship funds through Fund X (2026); AUM reported at ~$50bn+ (2026)
- Stage focus
- Seed to late-stage growth, with most capital in growth; plus control (Thrive Holdings) and permanent capital (Thrive Eternal)
- Signature investments
- Instagram, Oscar Health, GitHub, Stripe, Spotify, Twitch, Compass, Robinhood (reported), Affirm, Nubank, Airtable, Ramp, Wiz, Databricks, OpenAI, Cursor (Anysphere), Scale AI, Physical Intelligence; disappointments: Oscar after IPO, Compass after IPO, 2021-vintage marks
9 deals and moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
2012
Instagram
Series B
2012
Oscar Health
Founding Investment
2013
Compass
Early-Stage Investment
2015
GitHub
Series B
2023
OpenAI
Tender Offer and Growth Rounds
2023
Ramp
Series D
2024
Cursor
Series A
2024
Databricks
Series J
2024
Wiz
Series E