Social Capital tried to sell stakes worth $312 mn in start-ups

SAN FRANCISCO: Leading venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya’s investment firm Social Capital tried to sell its stake worth $312 million in hundreds of start-ups, the media reported.

According to a report, citing sources, Sri Lankan-born Palihapitiya tried to sell stakes in hundreds of young companies in June this year.

“It’s not clear what prompted Social Capital to want to sell its stakes in the 258 companies,” the report mentioned.

The stakes for sale were worth $312 million in total based on the valuations at which the companies last raised money. It is, however, also not clear if the VC firm completed the sales.

“Investment firms more broadly have been looking to sell stakes in startups to return money to their own investors, known as limited partners, a growing trend that’s typically kept under wraps,” the report noted.

Palihapitiya was an early senior executive at Facebook, working at the company from 2007 to 2011. Following his departure from Facebook, Palihapitiya started his fund, The Social+Capital Partnership, through which he invested in several companies, including Yammer and Slack.

The Social+Capital Partnership changed its name to Social Capital in 2015. Palihapitiya was touted as the king of SPACs, or special-purpose acquisition companies, for the voluminous deals he brought to market.

Palihapitiya was also an investor in Twitter. Amid its legal battle with Elon Musk last year, Twitter also sent legal requests to billionaire investors Palihapitiya and Marc Andreessen.

The micro-blogging platform had requested information from Musk’s social circle related to any communication between the Tesla CEO and his social circle related to bots or spam.