Social Capital

aid: social-capital
name: Social Capital
description: >-
  Social Capital is a technology investment firm founded in 2011 by Chamath Palihapitiya (a former
  Facebook executive) and headquartered in Palo Alto, California, with co-founders Mamoon Hamid and Ted
  Maidenberg. Originally a traditional venture fund that stood out by backing healthcare, financial
  services, education, and other hard, regulated sectors the VC community had neglected, the firm pivoted
  in 2018 into a technology holding company that stopped accepting outside capital and now invests from
  its own permanent balance sheet of roughly $2.1B, aiming to "earn like Berkshire Hathaway and invest
  like the Red Cross." Its thesis targets multiple emerging $10T markets across deep tech commercialization,
  life sciences and drug discovery, the global energy transition, and creator-economy media. Chamath became
  known as the "SPAC King" for taking companies public through the Social Capital Hedosophia (IPOA-IPOF)
  vehicles, including Virgin Galactic, Opendoor, Clover Health, and SoFi. Notable investments include
  Slack, Box, SurveyMonkey, Wealthfront, Netskope, Intercom, Groq, Palmetto, Saildrone, and Relativity Space.
image: https://www.socialcapital.com/favicon.ico
x-type: venture-capital
x-category: Venture Capital
created: '2026-07-17'
modified: '2026-07-17'
specificationVersion: '0.20'
tags:
  - Venture Capital
  - Technology Holding Company
  - Seed
  - Series A
  - Growth Equity
  - Artificial Intelligence
  - Fintech
  - Healthcare
  - Climate
  - Clean Energy
  - Deep Tech
  - Space
  - Creator Economy
  - SPAC
  - Palo Alto
  - North America
apis: []
common:
  - type: Website
    url: https://www.socialcapital.com/
  - type: InvestmentThesis
    url: https://www.socialcapital.com/about
  - type: Portfolio
    url: portfolio/social-capital-portfolio.yml
  - type: Newsletter
    url: https://chamath.substack.com/
  - type: Blog
    url: https://www.socialcapital.com/annual-letters
  - type: Crunchbase
    url: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/the-social-capital-partnership
  - type: LinkedIn
    url: https://www.linkedin.com/company/social-capital/
  - type: Twitter
    url: https://twitter.com/chamath
  - type: Features
    data:
      - 'Stage: Multi-stage; early venture through growth, plus outright acquisitions (holding-company model since 2018)'
      - 'Sectors: deep tech, life sciences / drug discovery, energy transition / climate, fintech, healthcare, AI, space, creator economy'
      - 'Geography: primarily United States / global technology'
      - 'AUM: ~$2.1B permanent balance sheet (self-reported; no outside capital since 2018)'
      - 'Founded: 2011'
      - 'Founders: Chamath Palihapitiya, Mamoon Hamid, Ted Maidenberg'
      - 'HQ: Palo Alto, California, USA'
    sources:
      - https://www.socialcapital.com/about
      - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Capital_(venture_capital)
    updated: '2026-07-17'
maintainers:
  - FN: Kin Lane
    email: info@apievangelist.com
    url: https://apievangelist.com
  - FN: APIs.json
    url: http://apisjson.org
  - FN: Social Capital
    url: https://www.socialcapital.com/