PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel has invested in P2P international money transfer company, TransferWise, through his venture capital company Valar Ventures. Valar led the $6 million round of funding and this is the company’s first investment in a European company. Continue reading →
On Deck has announced that they have raised a $17 million expansion for their Series D round led by Google Ventures. PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel and Industry Ventures also participated in this round. On Deck previously closed $42 million in Series D funding led by Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), RRE Ventures, SAP Ventures, and First Round Capital. This brings the total Series D funding to $59 million total. On Deck plans on using the funding for growth, hiring new talent, and developing new products.
Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal and one of Facebook’s early investors, has invested $49 million into accounting software company Xero. This is Thiel’s third investment in Xero. Thiel and existing investors put $16.6 million into the company earlier this year. Thiel invested $3 million into Xero back in 2010.
CapLinked is a startup company that helps manage business deals. CapLinked has raised $1.6 million in Series A funding. The company raised funding from companies like FF Angel, Siemer Ventures, 500 Startups, Peter Thiel, Andrej Henkler, and Alexsis de Raadt-St. James.
LightSail Energy is a clean-tech startup company that works on storing energy that is generated from wind and the sun. LightSail Energy has raised $37 million from investors that include Bill Gates and Peter Thiel. LightSail was founded by 25-year-old Princeton University drop-out Danielle Fong. Ms. Fong said that it took around one year to raise the Series D round of funding since many investors are skeptical of clean technology ever since Solyndra’s IPO failed in 2011. Essentially Solyndra burned through almost $1 billion from private investors and over $500 million from the Department of Energy before they declared bankruptcy.
PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel may invest around $150 million in Airbnb in a deal that would value the company at $2.5 billion. The Wall Street Journal reported the potential deal on Friday. Mr. Thiel sold his stock in Facebook for around $400 million, which is a hefty return from his initial $500,000 investment.
Jim Cramer of CNBC has a large audience that watches his show about stock tips known as “Mad Money With Jim Cramer.” Last night, Cramer went off on early Facebook investor Peter Thiel about the way he sold a majority of his stake in Facebook. Cramer pointed out that what Thiel did was not illegal and he said that the guy is inventive.” But Cramer went on to say “The fact that something’s legal, doesn’t mean it’s fine.” Check out the video below to see Cramer’s full rant on Thiel:
Continue reading →
Early Facebook investor and billionaire founder of Clarium Capital Peter Thiel has sold the majority of the remaining Facebook shares under his name last week according to a financial document filed with the SEC today. Thiel and his venture capital company Founders Fund sold almost 20.1 million shares last Thursday, which represents 72% of the shares voted by him. Thiel sold his shares after Facebook’s expiration of a lock-up agreement last Thursday. Thiel owns a personal stake in Facebook and has voting control of the shares owned by Founders Fund. [Forbes]
