Industry Finance Founded July 2005 Type of business Venture fund | Website www.foundersfund.com | |
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Key people Peter ThielKen HoweryLuke NosekBrian SingermanLauren GrossGeoff LewisScott Nolan Founders | ||
Founders fund venture capital
Founders Fund is an American San Francisco-based venture capital firm investing in companies building revolutionary technologies. The firm invests at all stages across a wide variety of sectors, including aerospace, artificial intelligence, advanced computing, energy, health, and consumer Internet, with a portfolio that includes Airbnb, Knewton, Lyft, Spotify, Stripe, and ZocDoc. Founders Fund was the first institutional investor in Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and Palantir Technologies, and one of the earliest investors in Facebook. The firm’s four General Partners, Peter Thiel, Ken Howery, Luke Nosek, and Brian Singerman, have been founders and early employees of companies including PayPal, Google, Palantir Technologies, and SpaceX. Formed in 2005, Founders Fund had more than $3 billion in aggregate capital under management as of 2016.
Contents
- Founders fund venture capital
- How to get funding from founders fund
- History
- Partners
- Investments
- References
How to get funding from founders fund
History
The firm was organized by Peter Thiel, Ken Howery, and Luke Nosek in early 2005 and raised its first fund of $50 million from individual entrepreneurs and angel investors in January of that year. Sean Parker, Co founder of Napster and ex-president of Facebook, joined in 2006. In 2007, the firm raised a new fund of $220 million.
In 2010, the firm raised its third fund, with $250 million in committed capital, and in 2011, a fourth fund with $625 million of committed capital was raised.
In 2014, Founders Fund raised a $1 billion fifth suite of funds, bringing the firm's aggregate capital under management to more than $2 billion.
Partners
As of the fall of 2014, the firm was made up of the following partners:
Former partners included:
Investments
Unlike many venture capital funds in Silicon Valley, Founders Fund does not limit itself to Web 2.0 companies. According to its website, Founders Fund invests in the following six areas:
Some of the firm's investments include Facebook, SpaceX, Spotify, Palantir Technologies, Airbnb, Lyft, Yammer, Stripe, 140 Proof, Knewton, Practice Fusion, Quantcast, Nanotronics Imaging, ZocDoc, Planet Labs, Pathway Genomics, Vicarious Systems, Flexport and Transatomic Power.