Type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Investment management |
Founded | 2008 |
Founder | Brad Gerstner |
Headquarters | One International Place, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
Products | |
AUM | US$17.9 billion (2022) |
Number of employees | 29 (2022) |
Website | |
Footnotes /references [1] |
Altimeter Capital is an American investment firm based in Boston, Massachusetts and Menlo Park, California. [2] The firm focuses on technology investments in both public and private markets globally.
In 2008, Brad Gerstner founded Altimeter Capital in Boston, Massachusetts. [3] It was launched with less than $3 million from Gerstner's friends and family during the financial crisis of 2008. [3] [4] Prior to that, Gerstner worked at PAR Capital Management as well as General Catalyst. [5]
A month after the launch of Altimeter Capital, an office was opened in Menlo Park, California. [3]
In 2013, Altimeter Capital closed its first venture capital fund at $75 million. [2]
In September 2020, Altimeter Growth Corp was listed on the Nasdaq (Ticker: AGC) raising $450 million. AGC is a SPAC which is a blank-check company. In April 2021 it was announced that AGC would merge with Singapore ridesharing company, Grab to help it list on Nasdaq under the ticker, GRAB. [6] [7]
In January 2021, a second SPAC, Altimeter Growth Corporation 2 was listed on New York Stock Exchange (Ticker: AGCB) raising $450 million. [8] [9] It was terminated early in December 2022 due to its inability to secure a suitable merger deal. [9]
For public markets, Altimeter Capital manages a long / short public equity fund that invests in technology companies. [10] The public equity fund is noted for its strong performance, averaging annual returns of 29.52% since 2011. [10]
For private markets, Altimeter Capital manages private growth equity funds that invest in both early and later stage technology companies. Its first private fund was closed in 2013. [2]
In January 2016, Altimeter Capital pressured United Continental Holdings to change its board of directors. [11] Gerstner released a statement stating how investors were disappointed with the poor performance and decision making of the company in recent years. [11] United Continental Holdings eventually gave in and changed its board of directors. [12]
In October 2022, Gerstner on behalf of Altimeter Capital wrote an open letter to Meta Platforms and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. [13] [14] In the letter, Gerstner criticized the company stating it had too many employees and was moving too slowly to retain investor confidence. [13] [14] He recommended reducing the headcount expense by 20% and limiting Metaverse investments to $5 billion per year. [13] [14] A few weeks later, Meta laid off over 11,000 employees. [15]
Fund [16] [4] | Vintage Year | Committed Capital ($m) |
---|---|---|
Altimeter Private Partners Fund I | 2013 | 75 |
Altimeter Private Partners Fund II | 2015 | 225 |
Altimeter Private Partners Fund III | 2017 | 200 |
Altimeter Growth Cascade Fund | 2020 | 100 |
Altimeter Growth Castle Fund | 2020 | 32 |
Altimeter Growth Lincoln Fund | 2021 | 60 |
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