Founders Fund company
Overview
Founders Fund is an American venture capital firm founded in early 2005 and based in San Francisco, with roughly $17 billion in total assets under management as of 2025. It was founded by Peter Thiel, Ken Howery and Luke Nosek, and raised its first fund of $50 million from individual entrepreneurs and angel investors in January 2005. The firm was the first institutional investor in SpaceX and Palantir Technologies and an early investor in Facebook; its partners have been founders, early employees or investors at PayPal, Palantir, Anduril and SpaceX. Its investment record includes Airbnb, Anduril, DeepMind, Rippling, Facebook, Ramp, Palantir, Polymarket, Pudgy Penguins, SpaceX, Spotify, Stripe, Neuralink and Nubank. Philosophically it was conceived as an early-stage fund with Thiel's contrarian bent, betting early and aggressively on founders it deems trustworthy. Notable partners include Peter Thiel, Trae Stephens and Mike Solana; former partners include Brian Singerman, Keith Rabois, Cyan Banister, Ken Howery, Kevin Hartz, Sean Parker and Bruce Gibney. Fund sizes escalated steadily: $220 million (2007), $250 million (2010), $625 million (2011), $1 billion across a fifth suite (2014), $1.3 billion (2016), $3 billion across a seventh flagship and first growth fund (2020), and over $5 billion in 2022 taking AUM past $11 billion. In March 2023 the firm cut its eighth venture fund roughly in half, from about $1.8 billion to about $900 million, at Thiel's instigation on the view that 'venture capital is due for a slimdown' — a move that met internal resistance. In 2025 it raised Founders Fund Growth III at $4.6 billion for late-stage investments. Sean Parker joined in 2006.
Within the DeFi Intel graph, Founders Fund connects to 7 tracked entities, most strongly to Sentient, Polymarket, Polymarket Prediction Market.
Relations
Top connections in the DeFi Intel knowledge graph (confidence-weighted, 7 of 7 total).
| Relation | Connected entity | Confidence |
|---|---|---|
invested_in | Sentient | 96% |
funded_by | Polymarket | 95% |
led-funding | Polymarket Prediction Market | 95% |
led | Polymarket Series B | 95% |
founded | Peter Thiel | 95% |
invested_in | Polymarket | 90% |
invested_in | Bittensor | 60% |
Frequently asked questions
What is Founders Fund?
Founders Fund is a vc tracked in the DeFi Intel knowledge graph. It is connected to 7 other tracked entities, most strongly to Sentient, Polymarket, Polymarket Prediction Market.
What type of entity is Founders Fund?
Founders Fund is classified as a vc (company) in the DeFi Intel knowledge graph.
What is Founders Fund connected to?
In the DeFi Intel knowledge graph, Founders Fund is linked to 7 other tracked entities, most strongly to Sentient, Polymarket, Polymarket Prediction Market.
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