Office address: One Letterman Dr Building D, 5th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94129
Website: foundersfund.com
Year established: 2005
Company type: financial services (venture capital firm)
Employees: 50+
Expertise: artificial intelligence, aerospace, defense technology, biotechnology, fintech, enterprise software, healthcare, consumer technology, deep tech, space technology, energy, transportation, data analytics, cryptocurrency
Parent company: N/A
Key people: Peter Thiel (co-founder), Napoleon Ta (partner), Lauren Gross (COO), Neil Ruthven (CFO), Neil Pai (general counsel), Michael Solana (chief marketing officer), Erin Gleason (chief communications officer)
Financing status: corporation
Founders Fund operates as a venture capital firm from San Francisco. The company funds startups that solve difficult problems through technology. It manages roughly $17 billion in assets and backs SpaceX, Palantir, and Airbnb.
Peter Thiel launched Founders Fund in early 2005 with former PayPal colleagues Ken Howery and Luke Nosek. The trio raised their first $50 million fund in January 2005 to back fellow entrepreneurs.
Sean Parker, co-founder of Napster and former Facebook president, joined the team in 2006. The firm raised a larger $220 million fund the following year.
The company made a major move in 2020 when it relocated offices to Miami. Founders Fund joined Goldman Sachs, Blackstone, and other firms in the growing financial hub.
It also drew attention in March 2023 for a different reason. It advised portfolio companies to withdraw funds from Silicon Valley Bank before its collapse. The bank failed within 48 hours, and First Citizens later acquired $72 billion of its assets.
The company closed a $4.6 billion late-stage growth fund in April 2025. The fund, called Founders Fund Growth III, drew capital from 270 investors. Peter Thiel, Napoleon Ta, and Trae Stephens serve as the fund's directors. It continues to back major private companies like SpaceX, Stripe, and Anduril.
Founders Fund invests in companies building transformative technologies across multiple sectors:
Founders Fund invests across all stages, sectors, and geographies. It supports companies with long-term potential and major market impact.
Founders Fund operates with a contrarian philosophy shaped by Peter Thiel's views on technology. The firm states it focuses on "hard tech" sectors like aerospace, nuclear energy, and defense.
According to Founders Fund, it seeks genuine breakthroughs rather than small improvements. It describes itself as "founder-maximalist" and says it has never removed a founder. It rejects traditional VC processes in favor of rapid, independent decisions.
The company backs founders who aim to solve difficult problems over long time horizons. The firm prioritizes building new markets over following popular industry trends. It also supports capital-intensive projects with high barriers and long timelines.
Peter Thiel is co-founder and partner at Founders Fund, chair of Palantir Technologies, and founder of the Thiel Fellowship. Thiel co-founded PayPal, served as its CEO, and made the first outside investment in Facebook. He studied philosophy at Stanford University and earned a Juris Doctor from Stanford Law School in 1992.
The following people are key executives who help Thiel guide the firm's investments and daily operations:
The team has helped build and fund major technology companies worldwide. Founders Fund's leaders continue to back startups that create new markets.
In late 2025, the company led a $23 million Series B round for Netic, an AI startup serving small businesses. The firm rarely backs three early funding rounds in a row but did so for Netic, similar to Anduril and Cognition AI. This move signals Founders Fund's growing focus on AI products that reach Main Street companies beyond Silicon Valley.
The firm also turned its attention to Europe. It led a €1.2 billion secondary round for Trade Republic, a Berlin-based digital bank with 10 million users. The deal valued the fintech at €12.5 billion, reflecting Founders Fund's growing interest in European markets.
Why hedge fund managers, advisory firms and other financial services firms are basking in the sun in Miami.
The deal transforms North Carolina-based First Citizens into one of the top 15 U.S. banks, as it buys about $72 billion of SVB's assets at a discount of $16.5 billion.
Silicon Valley Bank's parent company filed for Chapter 11 after the bank was placed in FDIC receivership last week.
The bank's customer base of tech startups had become worried and yanked deposits.
While both lenders had unusually fickle bases of depositors, all banks are facing a challenge as rising rates leave them laden with low-interest bonds.
Its tool is already available on the Charles Schwab and TD Ameritrade Institutional platforms
