Normally, discussions about Founders Fund, the venture capital firm founded by Peter Thiel, are all about the headlines their investments create. It’s apparently halving the size of its eighth venture capital fund. The fund was 2023 only funded to approximately $1.8 billion. Now, it is projected to close with a total of about $900 million. This decision is unusual in that it breaks the mold of many other multi-stage venture firms, most of whom are on the whole growing the size of their funds. Despite questions, Founders Fund has not responded to requests for comment on the apparent cut.
The firm is said to be on track to close fundraising for its third growth fund by the end of March. This bipartisan growth fund is set to grow to $3 billion over several years. In a break from past practice, Founders Fund will not be kicking off a new ninth core fund focused on early-stage companies. Given that the ninth core fund was just about raised three years ago, it marks a strong strategic move in the firm’s funding strategy.
Looking at the strength of Founders Fund’s subsequent portfolio of growth companies gives a good snapshot of their smart, early investments over the years. Prominent names in its portfolio include Anduril, SpaceX, Stripe, OpenAI and Figma. Founders Fund is leading the charge in Anduril’s most recent capital raise. This round, led by the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, is rumored to be as much as $2.5 billion, bringing the valuation of the company to $28 billion.
That’s the story at Founders Fund, too, which in early 2022 started raising a $3.4 billion growth fund. Since then, they completely invested this fund across 51 companies, including Rippling. Rippling had a soft launch in April when it raised $200 million. Founders Fund’s contribution is the firm’s largest check ever written. This further highlights the firm’s dedication to growing stage companies with solid investment backing.