By
Mayowa Adebajo
April 19th, 2024
8VC has been investing in diverse businesses and companies from sectors such as life sciences, logistics, IT infrastructure, financial services, government and defense, consumer, and enterprise.
8VC, the Austin-based venture capital firm led by Palantir founder Joe Lonsdale, has raised a staggering $880 million in its fifth funding round. This news comes despite greater macro uncertainty and the drying up of capital in global markets.
In his recent blog post, Lonsdale, who is also 8VC’s general partner, stated that the firm’s mission is to “fix a broken world”. He further added that 8VC is currently managing more than $6 billion in committed capital and they further plan to invest “at every stage”. Furthermore, Lonsdale also said that the team at 8VC has expanded to more than 60 people.
Back in 2020, venture capital firm 8VC shifted its office from San Francisco to Austin. Lonsdale said that 8VC’s new headquarters in the Texas Capital have “become a magnet for entrepreneurs and builders from the world over”. Striking a philosophical tone in his blog post, Lonsdale wrote:
“There are huge challenges facing our civilization, to be sure, and challenges to entrepreneurship as well. But as entrepreneurs, broken things present opportunities. And when we look deeper we see amazing transformations taking place all around us.
AI is transforming the world inside and outside of computers; genomic engineering and new scientific knowledge are transforming the world of cells; advanced manufacturing is transforming the world of machines; new business models, incentives and innovation are transforming how we receive our healthcare. These are a few of our frontiers.”
Venture Capital Firm 8VC Investments across Industries
Over the past few years, 8VC has invested in diverse businesses and companies from sectors such as life sciences, logistics, IT infrastructure, financial services, government and defense, consumer, and enterprise. As per the data on PicthBook, 8VC has made over 500 investments so far.
Some of the popular companies in its portfolio include Asana, Flexport, Blend, Mammoth Biosciences, Elon Musk‘s The Boring Company, and others.
But 8VC partner Joe Lonsdale has been at the center of several controversial discussions. Last year in early 2022, he made headlines with his tweets on “woke” tech diversity. Some of the other controversies that he’s part of include his breakup with earlier investing partners as well as a high-profile lawsuit filed by a former Stanford student.
Interestingly, he said that Texas has been more accepting of his views instead of his time in San Francisco. “In San Francisco,” Lonsdale is quoted as saying, “when I would go against someone, they’d be, like, ‘You’re an evil person.’ So there’s something still very healthy about Texas. I really hope we can keep it this way.”
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