Tiger Global Management on Monday announced the launch of its newest venture capital fund, Private Investment Partners 17, according to a letter to investors seen by CNBC.
Tiger aims to raise $2.2 billion for the fund, said a person familiar with the company’s strategy, who requested anonymity to discuss internal matters.
The hedge fund wrote that it expects PIP 17 to be similar in “strategy, size and structure” to earlier vintages and the latest PIP 16. PIP 16 was targeted at $6 billion, but ultimately ended at $2.2 billion.
The largest positions in PIP 16 are OpenAI and Waymo, and these stocks are contributing to the turnaround. Tiger said on a conference call with investors that PIP 16 is up 33% year-to-date, while PIP 15 is up 16%.
Compared to the mega-funds of the early 2020s, the latest fundraising targets signal a shift to a more disciplined strategy for Tiger Global.
The company has been one of the biggest forces in the startup ecosystem for the past five years, but the past few years have seen significant price cuts and slow deployment.
In 2021, the heyday of the “spray-and-pray” approach, he led 212 rounds, according to Crunchbase data. The company made just nine new private investments this year.
Tiger first invested in OpenAI in 2021 at a valuation of less than $16 billion, and in the same year invested in Waymo for $39 billion.
Tiger Global’s letter and audio of calls with investors obtained by CNBC also suggest concerns about a potential artificial intelligence bubble.
“Valuations have been elevated and, in our view, may not be supported by the company’s fundamentals,” the company said in the letter. “We also recognize the importance of approaching technological change of this scale with humility.”
The strategy laid out by founder Chase Coleman is to aggressively consolidate the business and shore up the biggest winners.
Tiger says he has sold more than 85 companies since PIP 15, generating more than $1 billion in proceeds.
That money can then be recycled into further investments in companies deemed winners.
Some of the companies Tiger has announced will focus on include digital banking startup Revolut and TikTok’s parent company ByteDance.
Other companies Tiger is focusing on include police technology company Flock Safety, electric vehicle company Harbinger, e-commerce startup Locto, transportation company Cargomatic and stablecoin startup BVNK, an investor presentation showed.
