CapitalG: Alphabet's independent growth fund — investor profile

CapitalG is Alphabet's independent growth fund — and it is deliberately not GV (Google Ventures), its sister fund under the Alphabet umbrella. CapitalG focuses on late-stage, growth-equity investing, writing large cheques into companies that have already found product-market fit and are ready to scale, while GV operates earlier at the seed and venture stages. With a single limited partner — Alphabet itself — CapitalG has patient, long-term capital and none of the typical fund-lifecycle pressures of a traditional VC.

Overview and thesis

CapitalG was founded in 2013 by David Lawee, Google's former vice president of corporate development, and was originally named Google Capital before rebranding to CapitalG in November 2016 following Alphabet's corporate restructuring. The firm is headquartered in San Francisco. Its thesis is concentrated and research-led: the portfolio is kept deliberately small so the team can spend months doing original research before writing a cheque and then work deeply with each company. CapitalG invests for profit, not strategically for Google — though portfolio companies gain unique access across Google, DeepMind, Search, Cloud and YouTube.

Sectors and stages

The fund targets growth and late-stage companies across enterprise tech, cybersecurity, fintech, consumer products and services, AI, data infrastructure, SaaS, and transportation tech. Typical cheques range from $75 million to hundreds of millions per company, and the firm maintains a concentrated portfolio of roughly 60 active companies.

Fund size

CapitalG manages approximately $7 billion in assets under management, with $4 billion+ deployed across approximately 55 companies since inception. Because its sole LP is Alphabet, the fund is not bound by a conventional ten-year fund cycle.

Notable portfolio

CapitalG's portfolio reads like a roll call of category leaders: Stripe, CrowdStrike, UiPath, Duolingo, Lyft, Airbnb, Zscaler, Robinhood, Webflow, Whatnot, Freshworks and Gusto. The firm has seen 16 IPOs and more than 20 acquisitions among its portfolio companies, and it recently participated in Supabase's $150 million round.

Partners and team

Laela Sturdy became Managing Partner in March 2023 after founder David Lawee retired; she had joined CapitalG in 2013 and led investments including Stripe, UiPath, Duolingo and Webflow. General partners include Gene Frantz, Derek Zanutto, Jesse Wedler, Jill Chase, James Luo and Alex Nichols — with Chase and Nichols promoted in January 2026, the first time the firm had promoted two GPs simultaneously.

Programs and resources

CapitalG's differentiator is its in-house growth team and its connections into Google's engineering, product, marketing, sales and people-operations experts worldwide. Portfolio leaders can tap Alphabet's technical depth and go-to-market scale, plus a peer community of fellow growth-stage CEOs. The firm describes its goal as being the first call and the most consequential partner for every team it works with.