Founders Fund

Founders Fund is a venture capital firm that invests in companies building revolutionary technologies.

ActiveVenture Capital

Updated: Mar 14, 2026 ·

About

Founders Fund is a venture capital firm established in 2005 and based in San Francisco, California. The firm is known for its investment strategy focused on companies that are building revolutionary technologies. Its core mission involves identifying and supporting ventures capable of rearchitecting entire industries, often with a strong emphasis on foundational hard engineering.

The firm provides capital and strategic guidance to entrepreneurs across various stages and sectors, seeking to foster significant technological and industrial transformation. Founders Fund aims to partner with visionary founders who are developing solutions designed to create lasting impact and reshape future landscapes.

Financial History

Total Raised

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Valuation

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Investments Made

Date	Company	Round	Lead Investor(s)	Co-Investor(s)
Feb 13, 2026	STARK	Venture Round	Founders Fund	—
Feb 12, 2026	Anthropic	$30.0B Series G	Coatue, D. E. Shaw & Co., Dragoneer Investment Group, Founders Fund, GIC, ICONIQ Capital, MGX	Accel, Addition, Alpha Wave Global, Altimeter Capital, AMP PBC, Appaloosa Management, Baillie Gifford, Bessemer Venture Partners, BlackRock, Blackstone Group, D1 Capital Partners, Fidelity, General Catalyst, Goldman Sachs Alternatives, Greenoaks, Insight Partners, Jane Street Capital, JP Morgan Chase, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Menlo Ventures, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, NVIDIA, NX1 Capital, Qatar Investment Authority, Sands Capital Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Temasek Holdings, TowerBrook Capital Partners, TPG, Whale Rock Capital Management, XN
Feb 11, 2026	Monaco	$10.0M Seed	—	Human Capital
Feb 11, 2026	Monaco	$25.0M Series A	Founders Fund	Alt Capital, Garry Tan, Human Capital, John Collison, MANTIS Venture Capital, Neil Mehta, Patrick Collison, Saga Ventures
Feb 3, 2026	Avalanche Energy	$29.0M Venture Round	RA Capital Management	8090 Industries, Congruent Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital, Overlay Capital, Toyota Ventures
Nov 1, 2025	Netic	$23.0M Series B	—	Greylock, Hanabi Capital, LGF, Dylan Field, Elad Gil
Oct 1, 2025	Deel	$300.0M Series E	—	Andreessen Horowitz, C2 Investment, Cambrian Ventures, Coatue, Electric Capital, Franklin Templeton Investments, General Catalyst, Gradient Ventures, Green Bay Ventures, Incisive Ventures, LGF, Ribbit Capital, Roosh Ventures, Seven Seven Six, Spark Capital, Y Combinator, Alexandre Scialom, Ben Lang, Elad Gil, Jeffrey Wilke, Justin Mateen, Vinay Hiremath, William Hockey
Oct 1, 2025	Peptilogics	$78.0M Series B	—	AAF Management Ltd., Presight Capital, Tachyon Ventures, Stefan Roever
Oct 1, 2025	EnduroSat	$100.0M Venture Round	—	Roni Hiranand, GV, Lux Capital
Oct 1, 2025	Limitless Labs	$10.0M Seed	—	10100, 1confirmation, Abstract Ventures, Kevin Hartz, Brainchild, Divergence Ventures, General Catalyst, New Form Capital, Polychain Capital, Robot Ventures, Sound Ventures, The Hit Forge, Thrive Capital, Balaji Srinivasan, Diego Berdakin, Dylan Field, Mark Pincus, Sahin Boydas, Stani Kulechov, Vitalik Buterin
Oct 1, 2025	zkr.	$7.0M Seed	—	Rexhep Dollaku, CRV, Data Tech Fund, General Catalyst, Index Ventures, Infinite Niches, Khosla Ventures, LAUNCH, Renegade Partners, Team Ignite Ventures, XFactor Ventures, Daniel Burka, Kevin Lin, Mark Pincus, Zachary Sims
Oct 1, 2025	Glue	$20.0M Series A	—	10100, 1confirmation, Abstract Ventures, Kevin Hartz, Brainchild, Divergence Ventures, General Catalyst, New Form Capital, Polychain Capital, Robot Ventures, Sound Ventures, The Hit Forge, Thrive Capital, Balaji Srinivasan, Diego Berdakin, Dylan Field, Mark Pincus, Sahin Boydas, Stani Kulechov, Vitalik Buterin
Oct 1, 2025	Substrate	$100.0M Series A	—	General Catalyst, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Y Combinator, Immad Akhund, Will Gaybrick
Oct 1, 2025	Mercor	$350.0M Series C	—	Benchmark, Felicis Ventures, Scott Sandell, Adam D'Angelo, Larry Summers
Oct 1, 2025	Base Power	$1.0B Series C	—	8090 Industries, 8VC, Addition, Afore Capital, Altimeter Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Contrary Capital, CRV, Dragonfly Capital Partners, DST Global, Felicis Ventures, J2 Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Kohala Ventures, Lux Capital, M12, Marlinspike, NFX, Open AI Startup Fund, Ravelin Capital, Sequoia Capital, Thrive Capital, Trust Ventures, Verified Capital, Village Global, XYZ Venture Capital, Elad Gil, Eric Futoran, Larry Braitman, Lawrence Braitman, Ron Pragides
Sep 1, 2025	Belfort	$6.0M Seed	—	10100, 1confirmation, Abstract Ventures, Kevin Hartz, Brainchild, Divergence Ventures, General Catalyst, New Form Capital, Polychain Capital, Robot Ventures, Sound Ventures, The Hit Forge, Thrive Capital, Balaji Srinivasan, Diego Berdakin, Dylan Field, Mark Pincus, Nicolas Pinto, Sahin Boydas, Stani Kulechov, Vitalik Buterin, Willem Delbare
Sep 1, 2025	Omnara	$500K Seed	—	Andreessen Horowitz, Bain Capital Ventures, Better Tomorrow Ventures, Blackbird Ventures Australia, Conversion Capital, Daffy, Endure Capital, Fifth Wall, General Catalyst, QED Investors, Ravelin Capital, The Hit Forge, Village Global, Y Combinator, Zak Kukoff
Sep 1, 2025	The Interaction Company of California	$15.0M Seed	—	10100, 8VC, Adverb Ventures, Alchemy Ventures, Anti fund, BoxGroup, Contrary Capital, Foundation Capital, Fuel Capital, General Atlantic, General Catalyst, Giant Ventures, Green Bay Ventures, Greylock, Khosla Ventures, LGF, Lux Capital, Menlo Ventures, Paradigm, Pareto Holdings, Pioneer Fund, Predictive VC, Sequoia Capital, SignalFire, Signia Venture Partners, Soma Capital, Stellar Capital, Susquehanna Capital, SV Angel, The House Fund, Thrive Capital, Venture Highway, WndrCo LLC, Y Combinator, Bradley Horowitz, Chafic Kazoun, Cory Levy, Drew Houston, Dylan Field, Guillermo Rauch, John Collison, Ken Howery, Kulveer Taggar, Lisa Dolan, Mark Pincus, Patrick Collison, Saki Georgiadis, Scott Belsky, Shishir Mehrotra, Teddy Citrin
Sep 1, 2025	Irregular	$80.0M Series A	—	Dell Technologies Capital, Pareto Holdings, Pitchdrive, Sequoia Capital, SFC Capital, Ten Eleven Ventures, Y Combinator, Deepak Jeevan Kumar, Jodi Sherman Jahic, Stephen Pankhurst
Sep 1, 2025	The Interface	$500K Seed	—	Kevin Hartz, Altair Capital Management, Angel investor, AngelList, Anti fund, Brainchild, Craft Ventures, Heavybit, Infinite Niches, KAAN Ventures, LAUNCH, Paradigm, Positive Sum VC, Proton Enterprises, Shrug Capital, The Hit Forge, Todd and Rahul's Angel Fund, Trust Fund, Vibe Capital, Alex Rodriguez, Y Combinator, Anthony Pompliano, Babak Nivi, Karim Atiyeh, Kevin Hart, Kyle Vogt, Marcy Simon, Matthew Dellavedova, Moshe Lifschitz, Sahil Lavingia, Sahin Boydas, Scott Belsky
Sep 1, 2025	Cognition	$400.0M Series C	—	Alkeon Capital, Conviction Partners, Gaingels, Indeed.com, LGF, Otherwise Fund, Paradigm, Pear VC, Stellar Capital, bill weathersby, Elad Gil, John Collison, Karim Atiyeh, Konstantin von Unger, Tony Xu
Sep 1, 2025	Databricks	$1.0B Series K	—	8VC, Andreessen Horowitz, Ballistic Ventures, BoxGroup, Contrary Capital, General Catalyst, Giant Ventures, Greylock, Khosla Ventures, Lux Capital, Pareto Holdings, Sequoia Capital, Susquehanna Capital, Thrive Capital, Andy Bechtolsheim, Bradley Horowitz, Chafic Kazoun, Rob Theis, Scott Belsky, Teddy Citrin
Sep 1, 2025	Modal Labs	$87.0M Series B	—	8VC, Amplify Partners, BoxGroup, Contrary Capital, Essence VC, General Catalyst, Giant Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, Khosla Ventures, Lux Capital, M12, Menlo Ventures, Pareto Holdings, Redpoint Ventures, Red Swan Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Susquehanna Capital, Thrive Capital, Uncork Capital, Allison Pickens (Allison Pickens Ventures), Bradley Horowitz, Chafic Kazoun, Nkechi Iregbulem, Quinn Slack, Scott Belsky, Teddy Citrin
Sep 1, 2025	Periodic Labs	$300.0M Seed	—	Conviction Partners, Innovation Endeavors, Kima Ventures, Paradigm, Pear VC, Stellar Capital, bill weathersby, Elad Gil, Florian Douetteau, John Collison, Karim Atiyeh, Mei Z., Tony Xu
Sep 1, 2025	Enter	$35.0M Series A	—	Altair Capital Management, Foundamental, Index Ventures, Target Global, Greg Kidd

Financial History

Total Raised

N/A

Valuation

N/A

Deep Dive

Founders Fund is a San Francisco-based venture capital firm founded in 2005 that invests in companies developing revolutionary technologies with the potential to reshape industries and society. Its mission centers on backing bold entrepreneurs who pursue ambitious, high-impact innovations rather than incremental improvements. The firm maintains a founder-friendly, contrarian investment philosophy, supporting ventures across all stages and sectors, including aerospace, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, energy, and advanced computing. Founders Fund has played a pivotal role in the startup ecosystem by funding transformative companies such as SpaceX, Palantir Technologies, Facebook, Stripe, Airbnb, and Anduril, helping to accelerate breakthrough technologies with global impact[1][2][3].

Founded by Peter Thiel, Ken Howery, and Luke Nosek—key early PayPal figures—Founders Fund has evolved from a small group of visionary investors into a major player managing over $12 billion in assets as of 2023. The firm’s leadership includes notable partners like Brian Singerman and Trae Stephens, who have expanded its focus to include defense tech and space ventures. Its growth equity fund of $4.6 billion raised in 2025 marks the largest capital raise in its history, underscoring confidence in its strategy of backing high-risk, high-reward companies[1][6].

Core Differentiators

Contrarian, Founder-Centric Model: Emphasizes maximum support with minimal interference, trusting founders with bold visions and offering them significant autonomy[2][5].
Stage-Agnostic Investment: Provides flexible funding from seed rounds to growth equity, with check sizes ranging from $500K to $50M, allowing continuous support as companies scale[2][5].
Strong Network and Track Record: Early investments in iconic companies like Facebook and SpaceX demonstrate its ability to identify and nurture revolutionary ventures[1][3].
Operating Support and Incubation: Beyond capital, Founders Fund actively supports companies through strategic guidance and has incubated major startups such as Anduril, a leading defense technology firm valued at over $30 billion[6].

Role in the Broader Tech Landscape

Founders Fund rides the wave of deep technology and moonshot innovation, focusing on sectors where transformational change is possible but risky. Its timing is critical as advances in AI, aerospace, biotech, and defense converge with growing market demand for revolutionary solutions. The firm’s contrarian stance enables it to back technologies and founders overlooked by mainstream investors, influencing the broader ecosystem by setting high standards for ambition and impact. Its involvement in defense startups like Anduril also highlights its role in shaping the intersection of technology and national security[1][2][6].

Quick Take & Future Outlook

Looking ahead, Founders Fund is poised to continue expanding its influence by doubling down on frontier technologies and high-impact sectors such as space exploration, AI, and defense. The firm’s large growth equity fund signals readiness to support companies through later stages, potentially leading to more blockbuster exits. Trends like AI advancement, climate tech, and geopolitical tech competition will shape its investment focus. Founders Fund’s unique blend of contrarian philosophy, founder empowerment, and strategic incubation suggests it will remain a key catalyst for revolutionary innovation in the coming decade[1][6].

Sources

Frequently Asked Questions

What type of technological advancements does Founders Fund prioritize in its investments?

Founders Fund prioritizes investments in companies developing revolutionary technologies that aim to rearchitect industries. This often includes ventures built on foundational hard engineering principles, rather than incremental improvements.

Does Founders Fund focus on specific investment stages or sectors?

While the firm invests across various stages and sectors, its core focus remains on companies building revolutionary technologies that can rearchitect industries. This broad approach allows for flexibility in supporting impactful innovation.