Chamath palihapitiya confirms that his social+capital partnership has raised a new fund of $275m+ | techcrunch

Chamath Palihapitiya, the early Facebook executive who left the company in 2011 to launch The Social+Capital Partnership, said today that he has raised a second fund. Palihapitiya, who was

speaking at the Launch conference in San Francisco, didn’t specify the fund size or the limited partners who invested. (The fund was earlier revealed in a regulatory filing that pegged its

size as $325 million, but the firm hadn’t commented.) He did say that it was “more than $275 million” (the size of his first fund), and that it came from “the same folks,” as well as some

“really amazing” additions. He also mentioned the Mayo Clinic as an LP, and he talked proudly about how his investment returns can fund improvements in the hospital. That tied into one of

the broader themes of the interview, namely Palihapitiya’s interest in making a social impact. In fact, he said, “If I burn through all the money I make through Facebook doing that, I don’t

care.” “The point is, what’s the value?” he added. “The value isn’t when you exit and you get the check. The legacy is, what’s the value and what’s the tale that’s left over?” To be clear,

The Social+Capital Partnership isn’t purely focused on doing good. True, Palihapitiya said that with a fund of around $300 million, he’s making “some pretty crazy bets” that could end up

“going to zero.” On the other hand, he tries to take $100 million of the fund and “compound the shit” out of it, by investing in more likely bets. In fact, he said that through the firm’s

investments and his own activity as an angel investor, Social+Capital “participated in $2 billion in liquidity” last year — which is why it was able to raise another fund.