Are we at an ‘Absolute’ low point in startup quality? Chamath Palihapitiya, a former Facebook executive and founder of investment firm The Social+Capital Partnership, thinks so. Which is why he is devoting a significant portion of his fund to backing startups that are tackling big problems in health care, education and financial services. We’re thrilled to announce that Palihapitiya will be joining us on stage at Disrupt Europe for a fireside chat to talk about his unconventional approach to investing and his focus on international startups.
Palihapitiya left Facebook, where he was the VP of growth, mobile and international, in 2011 to launch The Social+Capital Partnership. The firm, which has backed Yammer, Box, Brilliant, Integrated Plasmonics, Wealthfront, InstaEDU, Flatiron Health and others; just raised another $275 million plus fund that counts the Mayo Clinic as an LP.
It’s clear that Palihapitiya and his team have big ambitions of solving and backing the world’s major problems. And after two years in business, Social+Capital “participated in $2 billion in liquidity” last year, which gave it the ability to raise another fund this year.
Disrupt Europe will be in late October, and will be held in Berlin. Therefore it’s only right that we include some of the biggest names in that startup scene, and we’ll be progressively announcing our speaker line-up over the next few weeks. We have already announced an amazing number already – some of the biggest names from the Valley and Europe.
Disrupt Europe will take place from October 26-29 (Hackathon on 26-27; Main Event on 28-29) and lots more info can be found here.
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Chamath Palihapitiya
Founder and Managing Partner, The Social+Capital Partnership
Chamath Palihapitiya is the Founder and Managing Partner of The Social+Capital Partnership (Social Capital) – a venture capital fund based in Palo Alto, CA that incubates and invests in breakthrough companies in healthcare, education, financial services, mobile and enterprise software.
Preceding his focus as an investor, Chamath was the longest tenured member of Facebook’s senior executive team and helped drive its ascension to one of the most important companies in the world. Prior to Facebook, Chamath had leading roles at The Mayfield Fund, AIM and ICQ, and Winamp. In addition to his focus at the fund, Chamath is Owner and Director of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors.
Chamath was born in Sri Lanka, grew up in Canada, and graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Waterloo.