DFJ Growth Research
Investment Thesis
DFJ Growth is a Silicon Valley-based growth-stage venture capital firm founded in 2005 by John Fisher, Barry Schuler, Randy Glein, and Mark Bailey (now Partner Emeritus), building on the legacy of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, whose roots trace back to William Henry Draper Jr.'s Draper, Gaither & Andersen, one of the first Silicon Valley venture firms. The firm was conceived to fill the funding gap between early-stage venture capital and the public markets, reasoning that young technology companies could scale more efficiently and durably by staying private longer. DFJ Growth backs visionary founders building transformative technologies capable of creating very large, category-defining markets, and explicitly seeks out sectors and situations "before they are obvious to others." The firm positions itself as a hands-on partner ("Sherpa") for the scaling journey rather than a passive check-writer, drawing on 200+ years of collective operating, entrepreneurial, and investing experience across the team.
Sector Focus
DFJ Growth invests across AI and AI infrastructure, robotics and automation, biotech and life sciences, healthcare, fintech, defense and aerospace/space-tech, industrial technology, enterprise SaaS, and energy. Historically the firm has been especially active in frontier and "disruptor" categories — aerospace/defense (SpaceX, Anduril, Impulse Space, Hidden Level, Saronic), enterprise software and infrastructure (Anaplan, Box, Cohesity, Sumo Logic, Modular), fintech/crypto (Coinbase), and life sciences/biotech automation (Cellares, Neuralink, Neocis). Recent public commentary from the firm emphasizes AI infrastructure, "machine assist" technologies, and new frontiers in aerospace and defense as current areas of focus.
Stage Focus
DFJ Growth is a growth-stage investor, typically engaging with companies from Series C onward, generally looking for meaningful commercial traction (reported industry commentary cites a rough bar of ~$10M+ run-rate or a clear monetizable audience) rather than early product-market-fit risk. The firm also continues to support portfolio companies through later financing rounds as they scale toward IPO or strategic exit.
Check Size
Typical check size is not publicly disclosed. Given the firm's $1.2B fifth flagship fund (closed May 2025) and history of writing large growth checks into companies like SpaceX, Anduril, and Coinbase, checks likely range from the high single digits to tens of millions of dollars per round, with the ability to commit significant follow-on capital to winners.
Lead Tendency
Unclear from public sources. DFJ Growth was an early, foundational investor in several now-iconic companies (SpaceX and Tesla in 2009, Coinbase in 2014) but its more recent large rounds — such as Anduril's 2026 $5B Series H — have been co-led by other firms (e.g., Thrive Capital and Andreessen Horowitz), with DFJ Growth participating as a continuing/existing investor rather than confirmed lead. Treated as "unknown" pending better-sourced confirmation.
Recent Activity
DFJ Growth closed its fifth and largest fund, DFJ Growth V, at $1.2 billion in May 2025, its biggest fund in two decades of investing. The firm remains active in its existing portfolio: Anduril raised a $5B Series H in May 2026 at a $61B valuation and won a $20B U.S. Army enterprise IT/Lattice contract in March 2026; xAI merged with SpaceX in a deal valuing the combined entity at roughly $1.25T (announced February 2026); and portfolio company Modular agreed to be acquired by Qualcomm for ~$3.9B in stock (announced June 2026). The firm also added Ramin Sayar (former Sumo Logic CEO) and Max Sirenko as Venture Partners.
Portfolio Highlights
DFJ Growth's portfolio spans 90+ companies with 23 unicorns, 7 IPOs, and 31 acquisitions since inception. Marquee names include SpaceX (2009), Tesla (2009, NASDAQ: TSLA), Coinbase (2014, NASDAQ: COIN), Box (2011, NYSE: BOX), Anaplan (2014, acquired/formerly NYSE: PLAN), Twitter (2011) and its successor X (continued investment through the 2022 take-private), Unity (2016, NYSE: U), SolarCity (2007, acquired by Tesla), Sumo Logic (2015, NASDAQ: SUMO), Armis (2020, acquired by ServiceNow), and Patreon (2017). Current high-profile active positions include Anduril (2022), Neuralink (2019), Commonwealth Fusion Systems (2021), Cellares (2023), Cohesity (2020), Scale AI (2024), xAI (2023), Ring (2016, acquired by Amazon), Hidden Level (2024), Impulse Space, Mapbox, Neocis, Saronic, The Boring Company, Vannevar Labs, and Modular (agreed to be acquired by Qualcomm in 2026).
Team
- Barry Schuler — Founder and Managing Partner
- Randy Glein — Founder and Managing Partner
- John H. N. Fisher — Founder and Managing Partner
- Sam Fort — Partner
- Justin Kao — Partner
- Jocelyn Kinsey — Partner
- Kevin Tu — Partner
- Ramin Sayar — Venture Partner (former CEO of DFJ Growth portfolio company Sumo Logic)
- Maxim Sirenko — Venture Partner (returned to the firm after operating roles at Mapbox and SpaceX Starlink)
- Chris Shanahan — Principal
- Will Morrison — Principal
- Rob Ciechowski — Senior Associate
- Brian Akin — Senior Associate
- Angel Duan — Associate
- Mark Bailey — Founder and Partner Emeritus
Decision Process
DFJ Growth operates as a multi-partner partnership (three founding Managing Partners plus additional Partners and Venture Partners), consistent with a partnership-style decision process rather than a solo-GP model.
Founder Preferences
The firm explicitly looks for founders with "a burning ember poised to erupt" — visionary, category-defining entrepreneurs who refuse to accept the status quo and are fully committed to seeing a bold idea through to a large, durable company. DFJ Growth favors founders building in sectors or situations that others may initially avoid, before they become consensus.
Geographic Focus
DFJ Growth is headquartered in Menlo Park, California (2882 Sand Hill Rd, Ste 150), in the heart of Silicon Valley, but the firm describes its focus as a "Silicon Valley state of mind, everywhere" — it invests wherever exceptional entrepreneurs are building, not exclusively in the Bay Area.