According to people close to the company, the Founders Fund is on track to sign a third growth fund fund at the end of March. The costumes belonging to Peter Thiel have raised $3 billion, TechCrunch and Axios also reported, sources said.
Funds that are primarily intended to invest additionally in successful late stage portfolio companies are expected to be significantly oversubscribed.
Founders Fund's previous $3.4 billion growth fund closed in early 2022 and is fully invested in companies like Rippling, which raised $200 million in April. The Founders Fund is also leading Anduril's latest pay raise, with a round of up to $2.5 billion at a $28 billion valuation, CNBC reports. Sources confirmed to TechCrunch that its share will become the largest Check Check Fund Fund that Founders Fund has ever written. It is unclear whether the company reported that its $1 billion investment in Andrill would come from its $3.4 billion funds in 2022.
The company will not raise its ninth core fund for early-stage businesses, as it essentially grew up three years ago. The Founders Fund reportedly cut significantly in 2023 at half the size of its eighth venture capital fund, which is roughly $1.8 billion. The remaining $900 million was pushed into the company's core Fund 9.
That's one of the reasons why we're so excited about this new growth fund. While most multi-stage ventures are raising more funds, they are at least trying to maintain the size of the peak ZIRP era, Founders Funds are limiting the size of their funds.
Investors have a reason to like it. Founders Fund has an enviable portfolio of growth companies that include Andrill and SpaceX, as well as Stripe, Openai and Figma.
The Founders Fund declined to comment.