Anthology Fund

Anthropic announced the $100 million Anthology Fund in partnership with Menlo, which provided the financing. The launch package included access to Anthropic products and research, $25,000 in model credits and Menlo’s company-building support.⁠[1]

Menlo announced an inaugural cohort of eighteen companies selected from thousands of applications across research, back-office operations, healthcare, consumer products and security. Disclosed companies included Mercor, All Hands, GoodfireGoodfireGoodfire is an AI interpretability research company founded in 2024 and based in San Francisco. Organized as a public benefit corporation, it was co-founded by Eric Ho, Tom McGrath and Daniel Balsam. Its research and products, including Ember and Silico, focus on understanding, debugging and monitoring neural networks.Open the full entry, Accordance, Brellium, New Lantern, Alma, Astrix and BeHeard; some remained undisclosed.⁠[2]

A second-quarter update reported more than thirty companies backed during the first year. Menlo made follow-on investments and/or led rounds in Goodfire, OpenRouterOpenRouterOpenRouter is an AI model marketplace and gateway launched in 2023. Its API and chat interface connect models and inference providers, with routing, observability, cost management and enterprise controls. Its co-founders include Alex Atallah, Louis Vichy and Chris Clark. Stripe announced an agreement to acquire OpenRouter in August 2026.Open the full entry and Wispr FlowWispr FlowWispr Flow is an AI voice-input product and brand developed by Wispr. It turns natural speech into text within applications and has expanded into meeting notes. Founded in 2021 by Tanay Kothari and Sahaj Garg and based in San Francisco, Wispr initially explored wearable voice interfaces before focusing on Flow software in 2024.Open the full entry, and added six other companies that quarter, including Abacus, Turing and Chai Discovery.⁠[3]

The update listed $30,000 in Anthropic credits, $100,000 in AWS credits and events with Anthropic technical leaders. These were the benefits described in that dated announcement, alongside founder gatherings for technical discussion and peer exchange.⁠[3]

The third-quarter update reported more than forty-five portfolio companies, with twelve additions spanning AI co-scientists for biology, payments infrastructure, customer-experience agents and compute marketplaces. Menlo also named Clerk, WisdomAI, Ndea and Prime Intellect among Anthology companies.⁠[4]

In its fiftieth-anniversary announcement, Menlo said Anthology had backed more than sixty companies. A footnote distinguished two completed acquisitions—Fintool by Microsoft and Graphite by Cursor—from Cisco’s May 2026 announcement of its intention to acquire Astrix Security.⁠[5]

After OpenRouter signed an agreement to be acquired by Stripe, Menlo described investing through Anthology in March 2025, leading the Series A in May 2025 and later participating in the Series B. The sequence illustrates the fund’s approach of establishing an early relationship and extending Menlo’s support in subsequent rounds.⁠[6]

The official program covers pre-seed, seed and Series A investments as lead or participating investor, with checks starting at $100,000. Menlo aims to follow promising early investments as companies demonstrate product-market fit. Using Claude is not mandatory, although alignment with Anthropic and the wider AI ecosystem matters.⁠[7][3]

The launch identified five focus areas: AI infrastructure, novel industry applications, consumer AI, trust and safety tools, and technologies with broader societal benefits. Healthcare, education, research, legal services and energy were illustrative applications rather than an exhaustive sector list.⁠[1]

The program lists Tim Tully, Matt MurphyMatt MurphyMatt Murphy is a partner at Menlo Ventures focused on AI infrastructure and enterprise software. He worked at Sun Microsystems and Netboost and spent about fifteen years at Kleiner Perkins before joining Menlo in 2015. His disclosed investments include Anthropic, OpenRouter, Lovable, Harness, Carta and Legora.Open the full entry, Joff Redfern, Amy Wu Martin, Deedy DasDeedy DasDeedy Das, also known as Debarghya Das, is a partner at Menlo Ventures investing in AI, infrastructure and enterprise software. Previously an engineer at Facebook and Google and an early builder of Glean and Glean Assistant, he helped launch the Anthology Fund with Anthropic.Open the full entry and Venky GanesanVenky GanesanVenky Ganesan is a partner at Menlo Ventures investing in AI software, cybersecurity and infrastructure. He co-founded Trigo Technologies, invested at Globespan Capital Partners and joined Menlo in 2013. He appeared on the Forbes Midas List from 2013 through 2015 and formerly chaired the National Venture Capital Association.Open the full entry on its investment team. Applications are rolling, followed by meetings, due diligence and an investment decision. It favors US-based companies while considering international businesses, and describes quarterly deep dives, twice-yearly demo days and shared workspace access.⁠[7]

Program information and application access: https://menlovc.com/menlo-anthology-fund/ (opens in a new window).⁠[7]