Formation 8

Last updated
Formation 8-1
Company type Private
Industry Private equity
Founded2011
FounderJoe Lonsdale
Brian Koo, Jim Kim
Headquarters501 2nd Street
San Francisco, California
Products Venture capital
Total assets $948,000,000
Website www.formation8.com

Formation 8 was an American venture capital firm founded in 2011 by Joe Lonsdale, Jim Kim, and Brian Koo. [1] The company was headquartered in San Francisco, California.

Contents

The firm was one of the most successful venture capital firms in the industry before abruptly disbanding in November 2015. [1]

History

The company was founded in 2011 by three partners: Jim Kim, Brian Koo and Joe Lonsdale. The team was later joined by James Zhang of Softbank China Venture Capital and BioDiscovery and Tom Baruch, founder of CMEA Capital and Director of Intermolecular. The firm added Gideon Yu, the former Facebook Chief Financial Officer who is now president of the San Francisco 49ers, as a special adviser to the firm. [2]

In 2012, Formation 8 intended to close its first round fund with $200 million, but delayed until 2013 to accommodate more limited partners. [3] In April 2013, it closed its first round fund with $448 million. [4] It recorded a net internal rate of return (IRR) of 95%, easily making it one of the best performing funds in the industry. Its notable hits included Oculus, acquired by Facebook for $2 billion, and RelateIQ, the startup bought by Salesforce.com for $390 million.[ citation needed ]

In 2013, Fortune Magazine described the firm as "the hottest venture capital since Andreessen." [5]

In December 2014, it closed a second fund of $500 million, and added some billion dollar unicorn startups to it portfolio, including Illumio and South Korean mobile company Yello Mobile. [6]

In November 2015, the company disbanded, and the founders went their separate ways, reportedly because the founding partners had different investment strategies and interests. [7] Axios reported closure was due to a string of bad investments and Koo leveraging a fund without limited partner approval via a loan. [8]

Portfolio companies

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Draper Fisher Jurvetson</span> American venture capital firm

Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) is an American venture capital firm. In January 2019, DFJ Venture, the early-stage team, spun out and formed Threshold Ventures. DFJ Growth continues to be managed by co-founder John Fisher and co-founders Mark Bailey, Randy Glein, and Barry Schuler.

Sequoia Capital is an American venture capital firm headquartered in Menlo Park, California which specializes in seed stage, early stage, and growth stage investments in private companies across technology sectors. As of 2022, the firm had approximately US$85 billion in assets under management.

Benchmark is a venture capital firm founded in 1995 by Bob Kagle, Bruce Dunlevie, Andy Rachleff, Kevin Harvey, and Val Vaden.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Index Ventures</span> European worldwide venture capital firm

Index Ventures is a European venture capital firm with dual headquarters in San Francisco and London, investing in technology-enabled companies with a focus on e-commerce, fintech, mobility, gaming, infrastructure/AI, and security. Since its founding in 1996, the firm has invested in a number of companies and raised approximately $5.6 billion. Index Venture partners appear frequently on Forbes’ Midas List of the top tech investors in Europe and Israel.

Highland Capital Partners is a global venture capital firm with offices in Boston, Silicon Valley, and San Francisco. Highland has raised over $4 billion in committed capital and invested in more than 280 companies, with 47 IPOs and 134 acquisitions.

Redpoint Ventures is an American venture capital firm focused on investments in seed, early and growth-stage companies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Dixon</span> American tech entrepreneur, investor

Chris Dixon is an American internet entrepreneur and investor. He is a general partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, and previously worked at eBay. He is also the co-founder and former CEO of Hunch. He was #1 on the Midas List in 2022. Dixon is known as a cryptocurrency and Web3 evangelist.

Greycroft LP is an American venture capital firm. It manages over $2 billion in capital with investments in companies such as Bird, Bumble, HuffPost, Goop, Scopely, The RealReal, and Venmo. Greycroft was founded in 2006 by Alan Patricof, Dana Settle, and Ian Sigalow. The firm is headquartered in New York City and Los Angeles.

James J. Goetz is an American venture capitalist and businessman who is a partner with Sequoia Capital. Goetz is known for his focus on mobile and enterprise startups, including successful investments in AdMob, WhatsApp, Chartboost and GitHub. In 2017, Goetz announced he was stepping back from his leadership role with Sequoia, but continues to invest and represent the firm on company boards.

Andreessen Horowitz is a private American venture capital firm, founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. The company is headquartered in Menlo Park, California. As of April 2023, Andreessen Horowitz ranks first on the list of venture capital firms by assets under management, with $42 billion as of May 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SOSV</span> Venture capital firm

SOSV is a venture capital firm that provides pre-seed, seed, venture and growth stage funding to startups in the technology sector. The company conducts seed accelerator programs in Asia and the United States of America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Optimizely</span> American software company

Optimizely is an American company that provides digital experience platform software as a service. Optimizely provides A/B testing and multivariate testing tools, website personalization, and feature toggle capabilities, as well as web content management and digital commerce.

Uncork Capital is a venture capital firm based in San Francisco, California, founded by Jeff Clavier. Considered one of the most active established seed funds in Silicon Valley, it has invested in companies such as Postmates, Eventbrite, Fitbit, and SendGrid.

Shasta Ventures is an early-stage venture capital investment firm located in Silicon Valley that invests in enterprise and technology consumer startups. It is located on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spark Capital</span> American venture capital firm

Spark Capital is a venture capital firm in the United States, responsible for early-stage funding startups of consumer, commerce, FinTech, software, frontier, and media sectors. It has branches in San Francisco, Boston, and New York City.

YourMechanic is an American company that provides mobile automotive repair and maintenance services to vehicle owners at their location, such as their home or office.

Neighborly was a San Francisco–based financial technology startup focused on financing and deploying fiber-optic broadband infrastructure in communities around the U.S. The company aimed to deliver critical fiber broadband infrastructure to communities, and opportunities to investors interested in closing the digital divide.

Version One Ventures is a Vancouver-based, early-stage venture capital firm founded by Boris Wertz and run by him and his investing partner Angela Tran. The company provides investments to startups, primarily in SaaS, marketplace, cryptocurrency, financial tech, and healthcare industries.

Grovo is a New York City–based technology company that provides a SaaS microlearning platform with a built-in tool for content creation.

Geoffrey Woo is an American entrepreneur and venture capitalist who is the founder of HVMN, Archive, and Anti Fund, a venture capital firm he co-founded with Jake Paul.

References

  1. 1 2 "A partner at top Silicon Valley firm Formation 8 explains why the VC dream team just broke up". businessinsider.com. 2015-11-14. Retrieved 2017-08-04.
  2. ↑ "New VC fund Formation 8 has $450M, star partners". Silicon Valley Business Journal . April 12, 2013. Retrieved November 14, 2018.
  3. ↑ "Formation 8 Raises Its First Fund Of $448M To Plug Silicon Valley Startups Into Asian Conglomerates". TechCrunch . April 18, 2013. Retrieved November 14, 2018.
  4. ↑ "SEC Form D". SEC. Retrieved November 14, 2018.
  5. ↑ "The hottest VCs since Andreessen". CNN. April 11, 2013. Retrieved November 14, 2018.
  6. ↑ Ryan Lawler (December 3, 2014). "Formation 8 Closes Its $500 Million Second Fund". TechCrunch .
  7. ↑ "What Caused Formation 8 To Split, and What Comes Next?". fortune.com. 2015-10-11. Retrieved 2017-08-04.
  8. ↑ "Behind the failure of VC firm Formation Group". AXIOS. Retrieved 29 August 2023.
  9. ↑ "Israeli Internet-of-Things co Augury raises $7m - Globes". 27 August 2015.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.