Can Hedge Funds Make VC-type Investments?

Hi guys,

This is probably a stupid question but I have a quick question about hedge fund capabilities. I was reading about Facebook randomly and learned that Peter Thiel made an investment in Facebook when it was still in it's early stages. To me, this sounded more like a venture capital type of transaction than a hedge fund, so I was wondering if hedge funds also engage in giving capital to startups regularly or if there are slight nuances that make this a hedge fund action as opposed to a venture capital transaction. For example, did the timing (in terms of facebook's maturity at the time the capital was given) or the size of the stake change it's status as a venture capital investment or was it literally a hedge fund making a VC investment?

Thanks and sorry for using a bunch of repetitive language throughout this post as I'm typing this with my phone lol.

5 Comments
 
Best Response

^^ They still do.

Jay Coleman of Tiger has 4Bn in a portfolio of privates. They were up 55% in 2011.

De Shaw has a private portfolio as well doing private CBs, loans, warrants, blah blah. A number of event funds will do this as well.

Short of it is most of the large guys are multi-strat unless they're 100% long/short which is quite rare these days

At end of day, HF in the business of making CHEDDA, and that can be in private equity, public equity, whatever it is

 

Laboriosam veritatis ducimus quidem praesentium laboriosam suscipit porro. Voluptas quia et commodi. Ut ut doloribus adipisci laudantium.

Qui ea quo dolore accusamus. Eum quia veritatis et pariatur ad modi. Voluptatum cupiditate et beatae. Rerum eos ea laborum qui mollitia.

Array

Career Advancement Opportunities

November 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 99.0%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.4%
  • Guggenheim Partners 02 97.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 06 97.4%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

November 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.5%
  • Morgan Stanley 02 99.0%
  • Evercore 01 98.4%
  • Banco Santander 02 97.9%
  • BMO Capital Markets 13 97.4%

Professional Growth Opportunities

November 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 99.0%
  • Morgan Stanley 05 98.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.9%
  • JPMorgan No 97.4%

Total Avg Compensation

November 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (16) $429
  • Associates (57) $264
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (29) $183
  • Intern/Summer Associate (16) $161
  • 1st Year Analyst (84) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (76) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
3
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
4
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
5
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
6
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
7
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
8
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
9
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
10
bolo up's picture
bolo up
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”