Austin-based enterprise agency 8VC, led by controversial Palantir founder Jon Lonsdale, has raised $880 million in its fifth fund.
In a weblog submit printed at the moment, Lonsdale — who serves as 8VC’s basic accomplice — mentioned that his agency’s mission is “to repair a damaged world.”
Whereas he didn’t specify which industries the brand new fund would goal or common examine dimension, Lonsdale did reveal that 8VC now manages “over $6 billion in dedicated capital” and that it plans to speculate “at each stage,” in addition to construct corporations itself. He additionally shared that the 8VC crew has grown to greater than 60 folks.
In 2020, 8VC famously moved its headquarters from San Francisco to Austin, Texas. On the time, Lonsdale tweeted that Austin was “*far* extra tolerant of ideological variety than SF.” He added: “It’s typically a good suggestion to have superior left hippies round for nice tradition / music / meals and so forth … simply reasonably they don’t all run the state.”
At the moment, he wrote that 8VC’s new headquarters within the Texas capital have “turn out to be a magnet for entrepreneurs and builders from the world over.”
The fund is believed to be the greatest Texas-based enterprise fund for startups, in accordance with AustinInno.
Lonsdale’s submit concerning the new fund struck a philosophical tone. “There are big challenges going through our civilization, to make certain, and challenges to entrepreneurship as properly,” he wrote. “However as entrepreneurs, damaged issues current alternatives. And once we look deeper we see wonderful transformations happening throughout us. AI is remodeling the world inside and outdoors of computer systems; genomic engineering and new scientific data are remodeling the world of cells; superior manufacturing is remodeling the world of machines; new enterprise fashions, incentives and innovation are remodeling how we obtain our healthcare. These are a number of of our frontiers.”
Through the years, 8VC has invested in corporations spanning quite a lot of industries similar to logistics, life sciences, healthcare, IT infrastructure, authorities and protection, monetary providers, shopper and enterprise. In line with PitchBook, it has made round 500 investments altogether. Amongst its portfolio corporations are Asana, Mix, Flexport, hims and hers, Mammoth Biosciences, Elon Musk’s The Boring Firm, Qualia and Want.
At instances, Lonsdale has attracted as a lot consideration to himself as his portfolio corporations. Early final 12 months, he made headlines and ruffled quite a lot of feathers after his tweets about “woke” tech variety. Different controversies during which he has been embroiled embody a breakup with earlier investing companions and a high-profile lawsuit filed by a former Stanford scholar that was later dropped.
Lonsdale additionally, in relation to the paternity depart of Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, tweeted in late 2021 that “any man in an vital place who takes 6 months of depart for a new child…a loser.”
He has typically defended himself towards subsequent backlashes, saying his phrases had been misconstrued or taken out of context.
In a New Yorker article this month on the transformation of Austin in recent times from liberal bastion to “nearer to libertarianism than to liberalism,” Lonsdale talked with the article’s creator about his adopted metropolis, telling him that a part of its enchantment is that politics might be mentioned in a civil method.
“In San Francisco,” Lonsdale is quoted as saying, “once I would go towards somebody, they’d be, like, ‘You’re an evil individual.’ So there’s one thing nonetheless very wholesome about Texas. I actually hope we are able to maintain it this manner.”
In line with SEC filings, 8VC closed its final flagship fund with $640 million in capital commitments in 2021; it has additionally raised quite a few particular goal automobiles in recent times, present filings.
