Founders Circle Capital has raised a new $355 million fund to buy secondary startup shares
Founders Circle Capital, a nine-year-old, San Francisco-based investment firm that strikes agreements with private, venture-backed companies to buy some of the vested stock options of their founders and employees so they can buy a house or just breathe a bit more easily has closed its newest fund with $355 million in capital commitments, bringing the firm’s total assets under management to nearly $1 billion.
Not surprisingly, the outfit, which has more competition than ever both by other secondary investment firms, aggressive outfits like Tiger Global that routinely acquire secondary stakes in companies, as well as special purpose acquisition companies that are taking companies public a lot faster and alleviating the need of early shareholders to cash out via private sales is also introducing a new twist to its business.