When Keith Rabois introduced he was leaving Founders Fund to return to Khosla Ventures in January, it got here as a shock to many within the enterprise capital ecosystem — and never simply because Rabois is an enormous identify within the business.
It was stunning as a result of in contrast to in lots of different fields, enterprise capitalists don’t historically transfer round very a lot — particularly those that attain the companion or common companion degree as Rabois had.
VC funds have 10-year life cycles and companions have good motive to remain that course. In some cases, they could be a “key man” on a agency’s fund, which means that in the event that they go away, the fund’s LPs have the fitting to drag their capital out in the event that they select. Many companions and GPs even have a few of their very own cash invested of their companies’ funds, which provides them additional motive to stay round.
So, whereas big-name investor strikes in enterprise capital aren’t frequent, they appear to have change into so in current months. To date this 12 months, there have been notable cases of buyers returning to previous companies, hanging out on their very own or taking a pause from investing fully.
Right here’s who we all know of thus far:
Could
- Terri Burns introduced on Could 13 that she was launching a brand new enterprise agency known as Kind Capital. Burns was beforehand the primary Black lady companion at GV and left the agency again in 2022. Her new fund will deal with pre-seed and seed-stage startups.
- Final week TechCrunch scooped that Fika Ventures co-founder Eva Ho was going to transition out of the agency after Fika completed deploying its present fund. Ho is stepping again for private causes. The transfer was confirmed by the agency in a weblog submit on Could 9.
- On Could 9, Alison Lange Engel introduced she was taking up the position of CEO at Ceros, an AI-powered design firm. Lange Engel left Greycroft in December, the place she had been a companion since 2019, to take the position.
- After 15 years, Vic Singh introduced on X that he was stepping down from Eniac Ventures on Could 1. Singh helped launch the agency in 2009 and is planning to launch a brand new agency of his personal.
April
- On April 30, Ethan Kurzweil introduced he was leaving his position as companion at Bessemer Enterprise Companions after 16 years. Kurzweil shall be launching an early-stage-focused funding agency, in response to reporting from Axios. Kurzweil will launch the agency with Kristina Shen, who left Andreessen Horowitz after 4 years on March 29, and Mark Goldberg, who left Index Ventures after eight years final fall.
- On April 1, Christina Farr introduced that she’d be leaving OMERS Ventures, the place she has served as a principal investor and the lead of the agency’s well being tech follow since December 2020. Farr introduced on X that she’d be engaged on her well being tech e-newsletter, writing a guide targeted on the facility that storytelling can have on companies, and consulting well being tech founders.
March
- After six years as a companion at Accel, Ethan Choi introduced that he’d be leaving the agency to go to Khosla Ventures in March. Choi shall be targeted on growth-stage investing at his new agency and has backed such firms as Klaviyo, Pismo and 1Password.
- Whereas most of the current VC strikes have been by people seeking to begin one thing new, or tackle a special alternative, not all of them have been. On March 13, Chamath Palihapitiya’s Social Capital introduced that it fired companions Jay Zaveri and Ravi Tanuku. Bloomberg reported that this was resulting from a matter involving elevating cash for AI startup Groq.
- Rabois was not the one individual seeking to boomerang again to an previous hang-out on this current rise of investor reshuffling. On March 5, Miles Grimshaw introduced that he’d be returning to Thrive Capital as a common companion after serving the identical place at Benchmark Capital for 3 years. Grimshaw initially began at Thrive Capital in 2013 and has backed such firms as Airtable, Lattice, and Monzo, amongst others.
- Whereas transitioning from operator to VC is a standard profession development within the startup ecosystem, it isn’t for everyone. On March 4, Sam Blond introduced he had come to that conclusion and can be leaving Founders Fund, the place he had been a companion for about 18 months. Blond stated he would return to working and has held roles at firms similar to Brex, Zenefits and EchoSign.
January
- After 12 years at Andreessen Horowitz, Connie Chan introduced she was leaving the agency on January 23. Chan had served as one of many agency’s common companions the final 5 years and has backed firms similar to Cider, KoBold and Whatnot.
TechCrunch is monitoring the current enterprise strikes and can proceed to replace this text as they occur. If in case you have any suggestions or callouts to convey to our consideration, contact me right here: rebecca.szkutak@techcrunch.com.
This submit was initially printed on Could 1. It has since been up to date on Could 13 to incorporate extra strikes inside enterprise.
