Fund News

110799

Thrive Capital raises $150 million fund

Third fund for investor in Instagram, Fab and GroupMe

Innovation series by Steven Loeb
September 7, 2012 | Comments
Short URL: http://vator.tv/n/2a01

Thrive Capital closed a $150 million fund, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

This is the third fund for the firm, which previously closed a $40 million fund in August 2011, and a $10 million fund.

While no investors were listed in the SEC form, it was previous investors who made up the majority. Investors in Thrive's previous funds include Princeton University, Hall Capital Partners and Wellcome Trust.

It only took 10 weeks for Thrive raise the fund, which was oversubscribed. 

Though it has only been around since 2009, Thrive Capital has already made a name for itself through smart investments that have paid off handsomely.

Thrive, which is based out of New York City and headed by a 27 year old Harvard graduate Joshua Kushner, focuses on media and Internet companies. It does not focus on geography or stages, but on asset class.

The firm has invested in a social media sign-in service Hot Potato, which was bought by Facebook for $10 million, and the group messaging service GroupMe, which was acquired by Skype in August 2011 for a reported $80 million.

It has also invested in design-focused flash-sales site Fab.com, which recently closed a $105 million funding round, and participated in a $5 million round for fee-free payment network Dwolla in February of this year.

But perhaps Thrive’s smartest, and luckiest, investment was in Instagram. The firm invested in a $50 million series of funding for the photo sharing app just days before it was acquired by Facebook for $1 billion.

Kushner is the son of real estate magnate Charles Kushner and the brother of Jared Kushner, owner of The New York Observer.

Thrive’s $150 million fund is just the latest to be raised in 2012, a year that is on pace to see the most VC money raised since 2008.

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers closed a $525 million fund In May. In April, early-stage venture capital firm First Round Capital announced that it was going to raise its fourth fund, with a target of $135 million, while Berlin-based Earlybird raised a $100 million fund. In March, Groupon investor NEA filed with the SEC to raise $2.3 billion, while DST, one of Facebook's biggest investors, was looking to raise $1 billion.

Andreessen Horowitz secured a $1.5 billion fund in January, announcing it had raised $2.7 billion in three years. While it has only been around since 2009, Andreessen Horowitz is already a top VC firm, raking in siginificant management fees.

In June, Khosla Ventures announced a new fund for an undisclosed amount, while Madrona Venture Group closed a $300 million fund.

In August, Sequoia Capital has its goal of raising $975 million for three early-stage funds, and just yesterday Nexus Venture Partners, a venture firm whose major focus is on India-based technology startups, announced Thursday that it's raised $270 million for its third fund.

In the second quarter of 2012, 38 VC firms raised a total of $5.9 billion, according to the National Venture Capital Association.

If the next two quarters continue the same pace, 2012 will see the most money raised since 2008.

(Image source: businessinsider.com)


Related news


blog comments powered by Disqus
Find your friends' startup new!
Vator is more valuable if you know who's here.
Discover who has a startup and help their success by following their progress!

Featured Stories

Other episodes of this series

M&A of VC-backed startups hits four-year low

Fund News

by Bambi Francisco Roizen
Venture investing sees lowest quarter since third quarter of 2010

SoftBank Capital announces new $250M fund

11628

Fund News

by Steven Loeb
PrinceVille Fund will help western companies compete in Asian markets

Report: Google and Twitter execs team up...

11625

Fund News

by Steven Loeb
Hunter Walk and Satya Patel are forming a new $25 million VC fund called Homebrew

Samsung to put $1.1 billion into fueling...

11607

Fund News

by Steven Loeb
Two new funds, along with new Strategy and Innovation Center, to boost Samsung's American presence

Norwest promotes three new partners

Fund News

by Kristin Karaoglu
Matthew Howard, Jeff Crowe and Sonya Brown move up the ranks

Latest company news bites on Vator

UpOut was featured in a article: "Funding roundup - week ending 05/24/13" about 2 hours ago
Lyft, UpOut, Swivl, Change.org, Weemo, Mission Markets, Cubic Telecom, Adly, Imonomy, LoyalBlocks See more
Vator, Inc. - Bambi Francisco Roizen (CEO and Founder)
Are you coming to #vatorsplash LA on 5/30; come join us! http://bit.ly/Ys9mBq thnks! @kpmg @rackspace @wilsonsonsini
See more
Xeinge Group - Kevin Rivers (Founder/CEO)
Extremely excited about the feedback of Bluurp already over 2K invites in just a few days! ...
See more
© 2012 Vator, Inc.