Industry Private equity Website Official website Founded 2011 Type of business Private | Products Venture capital Founder Chamath Palihapitiya Headquarters Palo Alto Total assets 1.2 billion USD | |
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Social Capital, formerly known as Social+Capital Partnership, is a venture capital firm based in Palo Alto, California. The firm specializes in technology startups, providing seed funding, venture capital and private equity.
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The firm has "stood out strategically", according to Fortune, "with a focus on...healthcare, financial services and education...when those fields were...neglected by the VC community."
History
Social Capital was founded in 2011 by Chamath Palihapitiya, after previously working at Facebook. Mamoon Hamid and Ted Maidenberg also joined the firm that year as General Partners.
In 2015, Social Capital raised $500 million in their third and largest venture capital fund. PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel praised Palihapitiya's approach, and as of 2015 served as a limited partner.
Former Yahoo executive and CEO of SurveyMonkey, Dave Goldberg, said about the firm's approach: "Chamath genuinely wants to make an impact on the world."
Kleiner Perkins acquisition talks
In January 2015, Fortune reported that Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers was in acquisition talks with Social Capital. In March 2015, TechCrunch reported that the acquisition talks had fallen apart. According to TechCrunch, the Social Capital team wanted to come in and reorganize KPCB as part of the acquisition deal, and John Doerr and the other partners at KPCB were unwilling to let Social Capital take over the firm.
Investments
Social Capital invested in Yammer in 2011, which was later bought by Microsoft.
In 2012, the firm invested in Impermium, which was acquired by Google in 2014. Also in 2012, the firm was a venture investor in InstaEDU, acquired by Chegg in 2014. Social+Capital led a round of Series B funding for Wave Accounting.
In 2014, the firm was a leading investor in a $42.75M funding round for Slack Technologies.