More details appear on how to pay VCS and Windsurf foundations from the Google deal

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After weeks of revelation that Google Windsurf paid $ 2.4 billion to license its technology, with the employee of the executive at the same time, the higher talents, the implications of the deal are still The screaming of some founders and employees of startups Via Silicon Valley.

Google’s payment was divided into effectively starting into two equal parts, according to two people familiar with the deal. The investor part was $ 1.2 billion.

The other half was in the form of compensation packages of about 40 Widzurv’s employees who rented the technology giant with a large part of that of $ 1.2 billion to the founders participating in the startup, Varon Mohan and Douglas Chen, the sources say.

The deal was a good result for VCS, which included Greenoaks, Kleiner Perkins and General Catalyst. Windsurf raised a total About 243 million dollars As of the last increase in 2024, which is estimated at $ 1.25 billion, which means that the total return on investors was about 4X their original financing.

Greenoaks, which has led Windsurf for seeds and chain A and owns 20 % of the company, has returned about $ 500 million for its $ 65 million investments at the start of operation, according to a person familiar with the matter. Kleiner Perkins, which led the Windsurf’s B series, has returned about 3x her invested capital, according to another person familiar with the deal.

Google, Kleiner Perkins and Greenoaks refused to comment. General Kashif, Farun Mohan, and Douglas Chen did not respond to the comment.

However, most investors were aiming at a more important victory than the company.

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In February, Techcrunch reported that Kleiner Perkins was holding talks to lead a new round of financing to evaluate the startup, which was then known as Codeium, in A. 2.85 billion dollars evaluation. This deal did not happen, according to a person familiar with the matter, because Windsurf has instead agreed to buy it by Openai for $ 3 billion.

As we all know now, the Openai’s acquisition has revealed Google has passed in Through her organizing deal to provide returns to investors, obtain talents and IP without obtaining shares.

But what calms the valley is: While the Google deal was good for the founders and VCS, it did not benefit a large part of about 250 Windsurfs, especially after they expected a payment of the sale to Openai.

In the model acquisition, employees will receive funds for the shares they own, and they often have Their heavy schedule accelerated. However, Windsurf employees who were appointed during the past year did not receive a payment of the deal.

The Google deal was especially worrying about about 200 Windsurf employees who were not appointed by the search giant.

Instead of getting rid of each penny from paying Google to their own pockets, investors chose to leave the company with the capital of more than $ 100 million.

One of the sources says this was fully funded by VCS, which means that the total payment was about $ 1.1 billion. However, another person said that the founders were equal to leaving the company with a nest egg from the Google batch.

Many people said that the remaining funds of the company would have been sufficient to pay all the revenues of the remaining employees in an evaluation of each post in Google Deal, regardless of the time he spent with the company. However, doing this immediately could have been a problem, leaving the company with less money to work – with the founders, the main people – with no investors ready to finance a new increase. One of the people said that the remaining leadership was likely to be closed after such cash distributions. At the same time, another person claimed that the company has enough capital to pay employees and continue to work.

This difference in opinion is only part of the reason that the deal has become very controversial.

Moreover, at least some of the employees that Google rented, despite the attractive wages and benefits, have seen their grants and restart their time tables. This means that they will have to wait for an additional four years to obtain a total payment in Google shares, according to the people familiar with the deal.

Some of the best VC founders have condemned the start of the three -year operation for not sharing with all the people who helped build the company.

He wrote “Windsurf and other bad examples of the founders whose teams left behind and do not participate in the returns with their team.” Vinod Khosla on X. “Certainly, I will not work with its founders next time.”

After several days of forgetting after the announcement of the Google deal, the remaining Windsurf entity, under the leadership of the temporary CEO Jeff Wang, managed to sell himself to perception.

C change IP and Windsurf produced, and brought all the employees who were not appointed by Google.

While the conditions for the fine deal for this sale were not revealed, the acquisition allowed each employee to gain financially from the sale, according to Blog published by perception.

Two other sources appreciate my techcrunch estimation that perception paid $ 250 million to acquire the remaining Windsurf entity.

He did not respond to a request for comment.



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