Austin-based enterprise agency 8VC, led by controversial Palantir founder Jon Lonsdale, has raised $880 million in its fifth fund.
In a weblog publish printed in the present day, Lonsdale — who serves as 8VC’s basic associate — 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 test measurement, 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 individuals.
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.”
Right this moment, he wrote that 8VC’s new headquarters within the Texas capital have “develop into 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 line with AustinInno.
Lonsdale’s publish 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 going down 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 couple of of our frontiers.”
Over time, 8VC has invested in corporations spanning a wide range of industries reminiscent of logistics, life sciences, healthcare, IT infrastructure, authorities and protection, monetary providers, shopper and enterprise. In keeping 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 yr, he made headlines and ruffled quite a lot of feathers after his tweets about “woke” tech variety. Different controversies wherein he has been embroiled embrace 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 go away of Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, tweeted in late 2021 that “any man in an necessary place who takes 6 months of go away for a new child…a loser.”
He has typically defended himself towards subsequent backlashes, saying his phrases have been misconstrued or taken out of context.
In a New Yorker article this month on the transformation of Austin lately 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 may be mentioned in a civil method.
“In San Francisco,” Lonsdale is quoted as saying, “after I would go towards somebody, they’d be, like, ‘You’re an evil particular person.’ So there’s one thing nonetheless very wholesome about Texas. I actually hope we will preserve it this manner.”
In keeping 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 function automobiles lately, present filings.
