One of the more interesting venture firms in Silicon Valley — one with a (gasp!) social conscious — has raised a $600 million fund to back startups working on healthcare, personal finance and education.
As Fortune reported, Social + Capital Partnership recently closed its third and largest investment fund. Founded in 2011, Social + Capital Partnership, also dubbed S23P (for the 23 letters and symbol between the first and last letters of the firm s name), is led by Chamath Palihapitiya, an early Facebook executive and, at the spry age of 38, is already a seasoned venture capitalist.
The $600 million fund exceeded earlier reports .
Venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, one of the valley s most powerful investing outfits and whose reputation was recently tarnished in a high-profile sex discrimination trial brought by a former partner, made a bid to buy S23P at the end of last year, Fortune reported. The deal died, but the KPCB proposal was a vindication of just how far S23P and Palihapitiya had come, the Fortune article said.
A Sri Lanka refugee who grew up poor in Toronto, Palihapitiya is an unlikely venture capitalist — but one who defied the odds and is known for his huge ambition. His firm isn t exactly investing in orphanages and schools for under-served kids, but it does make a point of seeking out tech companies that aim to improve quality of life for consumers and tackle some larger societal issue, such as diabetes management platform Glooko and GetSet, an ed-tech firm aiming to reduce college drop-out rates.
Photo: Social + Capital Partnership Chamath Palihapitiya. Courtesy Alex Shorter.
