Renowned Morgan Stanley Internet analyst Mary Meeker has left her post of nearly 20 years to become a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), the famed venture capital firm that has backed everyone from Amazon and Google to Zynga.
“We’re at the beginning of another great wave of tech innovation and I am incredibly excited by the opportunity to help the next generation of Internet technologies and leaders,” said Meeker on the news.
Meeker’s addition to the Kleiner Perkins team is quite significant. The rise of “super angels” has led to stiff competition among investors, but Meeker’s expertise should help the firm stay ahead of industry trends and make even more informed investments, especially in the the social arena.
Kleiner Perkins has been criticized in the past for being slow to embrace the social startups — the firm passed on investing in Twitter early on. And KPCB Partner John Doerr recently admitted that, “I submit with all honest humility, we got that one wrong.” The firm’s newly launched $250 million sFund marks a dedicated initiative to back social innovation moving forward.
“Mary was an early supporter of some of the biggest technology investment winners of the past 20 years,” said Doerr. “Her advice and support are already highly sought after by entrepreneurs and in this new role, she will be able to spend even more time providing more direct assistance.”
Recently, Meeker gave a fascinating presentation at the Web 2.0 Summit — an annual tradition — on Internet and mobile trends.
Image courtesy of Flickr, niallkennedy
More About: investing, Kleiner Perkins, kpcb, Mary Meeker, venture capital
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