On Wednesday, NYC-based filed paperwork with the SEC indicating it’s fully raised . Valar Fund V is the firm’s largest flagship venture capital fund raised to date.
Valar’s fourth fund, closed in September 2018, topped out at just over $133 million. Its prior funds were each $100 million.
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An was made for Fund V on January 14, 2019. However, today’s filing indicates the firm didn’t formally close its first capital until April 1, 2019.
Valar Fund V closed capital from 57 investors. The firm paid $666,600 to New York-based and London-based Astir Capital Advisors, which acted as placement agents on the transaction, according to the filing.
The filing lists two managing members for the fund: and , both founding members of the firm.
There is a third founding partner, billionaire investor, and co-founder, and political provocateur , who is not listed on the filing. Thiel himself is not listed of the firm’s website, though his family office, , is.
Valar was spun out from Thiel Capital in 2014. Prior to launching Valar, Fitzgerald served as COO and general counsel to Thiel Capital, “where he helped manage Peter���s network of investments and businesses,” according to the firm’s website. McCormack also has a long working relationship with Thiel. He joined PayPal in 2001, helped launch Thiel’s global macro hedge fund in 2002, and later joined Thiel Capital after a short stint as an independently-operating San Francisco restauranteur.
In January, Valar Ventures signaling intent to raise its first “opportunity fund” targeting $200 million. And changed the name of the fund to Valar Velocity Fund 1, now targeting $150 million. The June filing was made before Valar Ventures officially closed capital for the later-stage follow-on fund and and the current fundraising status of that investment vehicle is not known. Both placement agents from flagship Fund V were listed on the filing for Velocity 1.
The majority of Valar’s deals are struck with seed and early-stage ventures. The firm’s most recently disclosed investment was with cryptocurrency lending operation which closed , which Valar led. Other recent seed and early-stage investments include VR prototyping startup , rent-to-own venture , and , a mobile-first tax preparation service provider based in Berlin, Germany.
Valar Ventures has made a few later-stage investments too. Most recently, it participated in of existing portfolio company , a leading European “challenger bank” which recently began rolling out in the U.S.. Valar Ventures led N26’s Series A round in 2015 and had followed on since then. It’s for maintaining long-term investing relationships like that between Valar and N26 that firms raise “opportunity” or “growth” funds: to maintain pro rata share in their best-performing portfolio companies. It’s unclear whether Valar invested in N26’s most recent round out of its opportunity fund.
Valar backer Peter Thiel was also co-founder of multi-stage venture firm , where he is listed as a partner. Thiel is also the principal benefactor of the Thiel Fellowship program, which grants money to young entrepreneurs.
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