What Slowdown? Founders Fund Latest To Close Two New Monster Funds

San Francisco-based Founders Fund is the latest VC firm to raise large new funds, as first reported by Bloomberg.

According to the report, the firm has closed more than $5 billion in two new funds that will be dedicated to both early- and late-stage investing. The funds increase Founders Fund’s assets under management to $11 billion.

The new funds are broken down into a $1.9 billion venture fund and a $3.4 billion growth fund.

Founders Fund—a highly recognized firm whose investments over the years include Airbnb, Palantir and Stripe—joins a growing list of big-name firms raising new monster funds. In January, Andreessen Horowitz raised $9 billion for three new funds, and Insight Partners announced last month it had closed a $20 billion fund. And this week, San Francisco-based crypto asset management firm Electric Capital announced the close of a new $1 billion fund.

Much has been made of the slowdown in venture funding announcements since global tensions and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine ratcheted up. If there is an actual slow down—right now it is likely many companies are holding back news so it is not buried under more pressing headlines—VCs have mentioned there could be a slowdown in funds being raised.

That would be a large reversal of what has occurred in the past few years. One venture capitalist even mentioned that if a real correction occurs, it is possible for firms to decrease fund size and give money back to LPs.

It’s nearly a certainty a firm such as Founders Fund will not be doing that, but it is eye-catching to see fund announcements of this size at the same time that actual funding seems to be slowing down.

Illustration: Li-Anne Dias.

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