Thrive Capital is a New York City-based venture capital firm founded in 2009 by Joshua Kushner, a Harvard graduate and former Goldman Sachs analyst who launched the firm at age 24 with initial seed funding of $5 million from General Catalyst co-founder Joel Cutler. From a minimal public presence and a single-sentence website in its early years, Thrive has grown into one of the most powerful and closely watched firms in venture capital, now managing approximately $50 billion in assets across ten funds. The firm is rooted in a philosophy of extreme concentration and long-term partnership, backing a small number of category-defining companies and committing deeply over many years rather than spreading capital broadly. Thrive is widely known as one of the earliest and most significant backers of OpenAI, Stripe, and SpaceX, three of the most valuable private companies in the world, and has built a reputation for being the investor founders call on during difficult markets when others step back.
Thrive X, the firm's tenth fund, closed in February 2026 at over $10 billion, making it the largest fund in Thrive's history and nearly double the size of Thrive IX, which closed at $5 billion in 2024. The raise was heavily oversubscribed, meaning the firm turned away billions in prospective LP commitments. Of the $10 billion total, $1 billion is designated for early-stage investments and $9 billion for growth-stage investments, reflecting Thrive's dual mandate of staying close to inception-stage companies while deploying significant capital into its highest-conviction portfolio companies as they scale.
Known LPs in the fund include the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, which committed across the main fund, the Thrive Capital Partners X Growth vehicle, and a dedicated Opportunity Fund. The fund's fundraising trajectory tells the story of the firm's compounding momentum: Thrive VI closed at $1 billion in 2018, Thrive VII at $2 billion in 2021, Thrive VIII at $3 billion in 2022, and Thrive IX at $5 billion in 2024.
Kushner announced the close publicly on X, framing the fund around patience and discipline rather than scale for its own sake, writing that "in this moment, exposure alone is not a strategy." The firm had $23 billion in discretionary assets at the end of 2024, prior to the close of Thrive X. Thrive also has a history of participaton in the GP stakes market, with Goldman Sachs' Petershill unit having previously acquired a 3 percent stake in the firm, later repurchased and resold to a group including KKR co-founder Henry Kravis and 3G Capital co-founder Jorge Paulo Lemann.
Leadership
Thrive Capital is led by Joshua Kushner, who serves as Founder and CEO and has remained the firm's central figure across its entire history. Kushner is also co-founder of Oscar Health, the technology-driven health insurance company, and is a minority owner of the Miami Heat. Kareem Zaki is a partner at the firm and has been a public spokesperson for Thrive's strategy, particularly around its concentrated, founder-first approach. Nabil Mallick serves as Chief Operating Officer and has been credited with building out Thrive's internal AI tools for financial and market analysis, which the firm uses to inform its advice to portfolio companies. Nitin Nohria, former dean of Harvard Business School, has served as the firm's executive chairman since 2022. Thrive operates as a lean team relative to its fund size, which is intentional and reflects its concentration strategy.
Investment Strategy
Thrive's strategy is built around a core principle the firm calls "commit deeply to a small number of founders." The firm writes checks to roughly a dozen new companies annually across all stages of growth, and it expects to scale those positions aggressively as portfolio companies grow. Rather than broad diversification, Thrive looks for companies it believes can become structurally dominant in their category and then commits to them with the kind of loyalty it describes as "ride or die." The firm has publicly stated that it does not invest in competing companies within the same space, a discipline Kushner has described as deciding which team you are going to play on and staying on that team. Thrive also incubates companies, having spun up twelve businesses to date, with at least six reaching unicorn status. A notable example of its incubation muscle is Cursor, the AI-powered code editor. The firm is known for being a contrarian deployer, having distributed 64 percent of all capital raised during the overheated 2021 market, then aggressively adding to positions in SpaceX, Stripe, OpenAI, Databricks, Ramp, and Wiz during the 2022 to 2023 downturn when most other investors stepped back. This timing has been cited by founders, including Ramp CEO Eric Glyman, as the defining characteristic of what makes Thrive an exceptional partner. The firm provides extensive portfolio services covering pricing strategy, recruiting, go-to-market execution, and communications.
Notable Investments
Thrive's portfolio reads as a roll call of the most consequential technology companies of the past fifteen years. Early bets include:
The firm has also backed Nubank, the Brazilian digital bank, and A24, the film and entertainment company.
Notable Exits
Thrive has generated substantial returns across multiple exit types. Among its most celebrated exits are:
Ten Thrive portfolio companies went public in 2021 alone, including Affirm. Over the past five years, Thrive's funds have generated considerable liquidity for LPs, with IPO discussions ongoing around both OpenAI and SpaceX potentially representing unprecedented return events for the firm.
Other
Founders considering Thrive should understand that the firm writes very few new checks each year, roughly a dozen across all stages, making it one of the most selective investors in venture capital at any check size. The quality of Thrive's portfolio and its demonstrated willingness to stay committed during down markets have made it a widely sought-after partner, particularly for companies building in AI, defense technology, fintech, and enterprise infrastructure. Thrive's concentration model means that founders who do secure a partnership with the firm often receive a level of operational and network support that goes well beyond what most VCs offer. One contextual note: Kushner's brother Jared Kushner is son-in-law to President Donald Trump, a relationship that has generated political attention over the years, though Jared sold his entire Thrive stake in 2016 to avoid any conflict of interest concerns. Founders should also be aware that Thrive has publicly stated it does not invest in competing companies, so founders in categories where Thrive already has a deep relationship should confirm alignment before pursuing a conversation.
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