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Spark Capital's Yasmin Razavi has a reputation for refusing to make gut calls. Her methodical decision to invest in Anthropic is now set to generate one of the biggest fortunes in Silicon Valley history, as Anthropic prepares to IPO.

Many venture firms, including Lightspeed and Menlo Ventures, are major Anthropic investors, but Spark is the only traditional VC firm named in the filing. And it's not just a few mentions. Spark is named more than 50 times.

The reason Spark gets the most ink is because Yasmin Razavi has a board seat after being the first institutional investor in the company, leading the $450 million Series C at a $4.5 billion valuation in May 2023.

This was just six months after ChatGPT was released to the public, and the jury was out on whether a rival like Anthropic could catch up. Many balked at the price, calling it too expensive.

"It was a big leap of faith, but this was the team that built GPT-3," Razavi told Forbes.

The filing says that Spark has invested $777 million in Anthropic across six financings since then, including $75 million in the first pivotal round at $11.22 per share.

Spark was already known for making early bets on Postmates and Discord, but it was the Anthropic investment that transformed the firm's Silicon Valley reputation from a good venture firm to a great one.

Razavi said she has been continuously wowed by CEO Dario Amodei.

"Every year, he puts out outrageous numbers, but somehow they magically become true," Razavi told Forbes. "Dario never misses."

Soon, Amodei will face a greater test: the public markets.

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Katie Roof

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Katie is Editor at Large for Business Insider and also a Global Reporter for the Axel Springer Global Reporters Network, working with sister publications including Politico and The Telegraph. She has been a frequent television commentator and on-stage moderator. She is an LA Press Club award winner for her reporting on SpaceX and has broken more than 1,000 stories, which also earned her the TBPN accolade "scoop athlete of the century."

Ben Bergman

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I'm chief correspondent at Business Insider, where I cover the tech industry with a focus on venture capital and startups. I'm the co-author of VC Insider, a new newsletter on the deals, drama, and people moving billions in Silicon Valley.I can frequently be seen on CNN and other channels providing analysis on a range of business and economic topics. I also appear often at dozens of the biggest events around the world, including the World Economic Forum, HumanX, and Web Summit.Please get in touch if you have a story to tell. For tips (not pitches), you can message me securely on Signal @BenBergman.11Previously, I was a senior reporter at LAist/Southern California Public Radio, where I covered business and economics. I have also written for The New York Times and Columbia Journalism Review and was a reporting intern at The Times. I started my career as a producer for NPR's Morning Edition and also produced award-winning documentaries for public television.I spent the 2017-2018 academic year at Columbia Business School as a Knight-Bagehot fellow. After that, I oversaw the development of The Journal, a daily podcast produced by The Wall Street Journal and Gimlet Media.Originally from Seattle, I graduated cum laude from Occidental College in Los Angeles with a degree in politics.In my free time, I love skiing, tennis,  poker, and cheering on the Seattle Seahawks. I competed in the 2024 World Series of Poker Main Event but sadly did not win. 

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