Formation 8

Formation 8 was an American venture capital firm founded in 2011 by Joe Lonsdale, Jim Kim and Brian Koo.[1] The company was headquartered in San Francisco, California.

Formation 8
Private
IndustryPrivate equity
Fatedisbanded (2015)
Founded2011
FounderJoe Lonsdale
Brian Koo, Jim Kim
Headquarters501 2nd Street
San Francisco, California
ProductsVenture capital
Total assets$948,000,000
Websitewww.formation8.com

The firm was one of the most successful venture capital firms in the industry before abruptly disbanding in November 2015.[1]

History

The company was founded in 2011 by three partners: Jim Kim, Brian Koo and Joe Lonsdale. The team was later joined by James Zhang of Softbank China Venture Capital and BioDiscovery and Tom Baruch, founder of CMEA Capital and Director of Intermolecular. The firm added Gideon Yu, the former Facebook Chief Financial Officer who is now president of the San Francisco 49ers, as a special adviser to the firm.[2]

In 2012, Formation 8 intended to close its first round fund with $200 million, but delayed until 2013 to accommodate more limited partners.[3] In April 2013, it closed its first round fund with $448 million.[4] It recorded a net internal rate of return (IRR) of 95%, easily making it one of the best performing funds in the industry. Its notable hits included Oculus, acquired by Facebook for $2 billion, and RelateIQ, the startup bought by Salesforce.com for $390 million.

In 2013, Fortune Magazine described the firm as "the hottest venture capital since Andreessen."[5]

In December 2014, it closed a second fund of $500 million, and added some of the billion dollar unicorn startups to it portfolio including Illumio and South Korean mobile company Yello Mobile.[6]

In November 2015, the company disbanded and the founders went their separate ways, reportedly because the founding partners had different investment strategies and interests.[7]

Founders
  • Jim Kim - Kim was a partner at Khosla Ventures, and before that was a senior partner at CMEA.[8]
  • Brian Bonwoong Koo - Koo founded InnovationHub, which helped his family business LS Group, source investment opportunities. Koo also co-founded Harbor Pacific Capital, a venture capital fund which was focused on helping young technology companies navigate business development in Asia.[9]
  • Joe Lonsdale - Lonsdale founded Anduin Ventures, a seed fund focused on Silicon Valley.[10] Lonsdale co-founded Palantir Technologies in 2004 with Peter Thiel, Alex Karp, Stephen Cohen, and Nathan Gettings.[11]

Portfolio companies
  • Aka Study
  • Augury[12]
  • Blend Labs
  • Context Relevant
  • Foro Energy
  • Hyperdyadic
  • LearnSprout
  • Oculus
  • OpenGov
  • RelateIQ
  • Wish (ContextLogic)
  • Yello Mobile

References
  1. "A partner at top Silicon Valley firm Formation 8 explains why the VC dream team just broke up". businessinsider.com. 2015-11-14. Retrieved 2017-08-04.
  2. "New VC fund Formation 8 has $450M, star partners". Silicon Valley Business Journal. April 12, 2013. Retrieved November 14, 2018.
  3. "Formation 8 Raises Its First Fund Of $448M To Plug Silicon Valley Startups Into Asian Conglomerates". TechCrunch. April 18, 2013. Retrieved November 14, 2018.
  4. "SEC Form D". SEC. Retrieved November 14, 2018.
  5. "The hottest VCs since Andreessen". CNN. April 11, 2013. Retrieved November 14, 2018.
  6. Ryan Lawler (December 3, 2014). "Formation 8 Closes Its $500 Million Second Fund". TechCrunch.
  7. "What Caused Formation 8 To Split, and What Comes Next?". fortune.com. 2015-10-11. Retrieved 2017-08-04.
  8. "James Kim". Crunchbase. Retrieved November 14, 2018.
  9. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-05-29. Retrieved 2013-08-13.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  10. http://anduinventures.com/
  11. Drew Olanoff (May 1, 2013). "Joe Lonsdale Of Formation 8 Sees Government, Finance, Healthcare, Energy And Logistics As Ripe Areas For Disruption". Tech Crunch. Retrieved February 28, 2017.
  12. https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-israeli-internet-of-things-co-augury-raises-7m-1001064732
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