Skip to main content

The context you need, when you need it

When news breaks, you need to understand what actually matters — and what to do about it. At Vox, our mission to help you make sense of the world has never been more vital. But we can’t do it on our own.

We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today?

Join now

Sherpa Capital has raised $470 million and launched two new funds

The venture capital firm is one of many behind companies like Uber and Munchery.

Shervin Pishevar and Scott Stanford
Shervin Pishevar and Scott Stanford
Shervin Pishevar and Scott Stanford
| Sherpa Capital

Sherpa Capital, the venture firm behind companies like Uber, Hyperloop One, Munchery and Shyp, has closed $470 million in new capital. That brings the total funding raised by the firm, co-founded by Shervin Pishevar and Scott Stanford, to $630 million.

As part of this new capital, a small portion of which the three-year-old VC firm raised from friends and family, Pishevar and Stanford have started two new funds: Sherpa Ventures II, which will be dedicated to early-stage companies, and Sherpa Everest, for mid-stage companies.

The funding comes at a time when, as Benchmark partner Bill Gurley wrote about at length, Silicon Valley companies have become over-funded and the investors who poured that money into them are (or at least should be) panicking. As more investors come around to Gurley’s position, which is that too many companies have gotten too much money at obscene valuations, fewer may be willing to invest in tech companies as much and as often, making it harder for companies to raise new money which in turn may force them to lower their valuations.

That often leads to VC firms loading up on extra funding through special purpose vehicles before the valuation of their investments drop, Gurley argues.

But while part of Sherpa’s new capital was raised from friends and family, it wasn’t through a special purpose vehicle fund. In fact, the firm contends it raised well above its targets.

Sherpa has also brought on a new advisor to join Jim Messina, of the Messina Group: Padmasree Warrior, the U.S. CEO of Chinese electric car company NextEV and the former CTO of Cisco, will be closely advising the firm.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

More in Technology

Podcasts
Are humanoid robots all hype?Are humanoid robots all hype?
Podcast
Podcasts

AI is making them better — but they’re not going to be doing your chores anytime soon.

By Avishay Artsy and Sean Rameswaram
Future Perfect
The old tech that could help stop the next airborne pandemicThe old tech that could help stop the next airborne pandemic
Future Perfect

Glycol vapors, explained.

By Shayna Korol
Future Perfect
Elon Musk could lose his case against OpenAI — and still get what he wantsElon Musk could lose his case against OpenAI — and still get what he wants
Future Perfect

It’s not about who wins. It’s about the dirty laundry you air along the way.

By Sara Herschander
Life
Why banning kids from AI isn’t the answerWhy banning kids from AI isn’t the answer
Life

What kids really need in the age of artificial intelligence.

By Anna North
Culture
Anthropic owes authors $1.5B for pirating work — but the claims process is a Kafkaesque messAnthropic owes authors $1.5B for pirating work — but the claims process is a Kafkaesque mess
Culture

“Your AI monster ate all our work. Now you’re trying to pay us off with this piece of garbage that doesn’t work.”

By Constance Grady
Future Perfect
Some deaf children are hearing again because of a new gene therapySome deaf children are hearing again because of a new gene therapy
Future Perfect

A medical field that almost died is quietly fixing one disease at a time.

By Bryan Walsh