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Welcome back! Elad Gil, the venture capitalist who made early investments in Perplexity, Harvey, Stripe and Airbnb, has doubled the target size of his new fund to nearly $3 billion from $1.5 billion earlier this summer, according to a person with direct knowledge of the fundraise. If Gil succeeds in raising that much money, it would be the largest known fund raised by a solo general partner. The new target hasn’t been reported. A larger checkbook would give Gil more money to double down on investments as they grow and as startups need to raise bigger funding rounds. In June, Gil invested in legal AI tech company Harvey’s $300 million round at a $5 billion valuation. In October, Harvey raised more capital at an $8 billion valuation. In a recent podcast interview, Gil said he has led investments of more than $500 million, which implies that he singlehandedly could be investing $250 million into a single round. Gil, who has backed more than 200 companies since he started investing in 2008, raised $1.1 billion in his last fund in 2023. His firm, Gil Capital, usually backs between 10 and 15 companies a year and also incubates companies. The entrepreneur began investing in startups by writing personal checks and putting together special purpose vehicles, one-off entities that raise money for a specific deal from limited partners or high net worth individuals. But as he’s hired more staff, he’s raised stand-alone funds, and he more recently has invested in startups that are looking to consolidate an industry through acquisitions and the use of AI. He’s already beefed up his team to accommodate the larger ambitions: Gil Capital has four other investors on his team and around six people helping with back-office and finance operations, he said on a podcast. He’s still the only general partner. “Everytime you go through a big technology shift, things are simultaneously over- and underhyped,” Gil said on the same podcast, adding that the AI “wave is going to be just like every other one.” A Figma Alumni Fund Initial public offerings and secondary stock sales are encouraging more startup employees to launch venture funds. Badrool Farooqi and Kyle Parrish, two early Figma employees, are raising a $75 million debut fund, according to two people with direct knowledge of the effort. The fund, which has not been previously reported, is focused on leading rounds in seed-stage startups. The firm plans to back around 25 to 30 companies with its first fund. Both Farooqi and Parrish have been angel investors for quite some time, backing dozens of startups including AI video upstart Runway and AI product development startup Linear. They’re launching the fund months after the design software firm raised $1.2 billion in its IPO. Other startup alumni are jumping on the trend of getting into venture capital. In August, I reported that a group of early OpenAI employees had launched a fund to back other OpenAI alumni, targeting a $100 million fundraise. With the IPO market set to reopen, and more private stock sales happening, such as those of Anduril and Crusoe, I expect to see more alumni funds pop up.
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