Announcing 8VC Fund VI

We are proud to announce 8VC Fund VI, with $998 million in new LP capital.

We've never been more excited by the innovation we're seeing as we continue to co-found industry-defining companies with 8VC Build, and partner with entrepreneurs at the frontiers of dozens of industries.

The frontier, for our purposes, is a place of both danger and possibility, defined by experimentation, exploration, and risk-taking. The frontier stands in contrast with society’s core, defined by institutions, hierarchy, and stability – safe, but at risk of fossilization. On the frontier, merit is constantly put to the test, while at the core, it’s frequently under attack.

The face of the frontier has changed. When we started our firm almost 15 years ago, cloud software was itself revolutionary, and today, many of our multi-billion dollar cloud companies are still scaling and improving major industries. Of course, many of these companies now leverage recent breakthroughs in AI. The AI wave is opening up extraordinary possibilities and is poised to unlock economic growth rates never seen in our lifetimes. What hasn’t changed is that, for a certain type of individual, the frontier is irresistible. As technological advances make what was once sci-fi standard, great technologists are pushing the limits of what’s achievable and challenging the status quo.

The frontier and the core are in constant dialectic with one another: as ideas and technologies are created and tested on the frontier, new advances slowly replace old ideas and structures that previously dominated in the core. We are on the cusp of an epic frontier-core cycle, where many of the principles developed at the frontiers of Silicon Valley are reshaping the old institutions of government and highly regulated industries like finance, education and healthcare. While the frontier never disappeared, today it is firmly back in fashion in Western civilization, and is positioned to solve a great deal of our core's most dire problems of debt and dysfunction.

We announced Fund V at a comparatively tentative time for America, and for venture capital – and were often lambasted for refusing to virtue signal or proceed cautiously in deference to that mindset. Fund VI launches at a time of revolution – peaceful, but nonetheless transformative, and more aligned with how 8VC does things. The pendulum has swung back furiously towards meritocracy, and countless forms of inefficiency, patronage, grift, and rent-seeking are being rooted out. It is profoundly satisfying to exist firmly inside this bold Overton window, helping to lead society forward with the support of millions of our peers.

The frontier mindset unites the vast and varied domains where we’ve staked our claim:

• In life sciences, where we are harnessing new mechanisms to treat central nervous system disorders, autoimmune conditions, and cancer, and re-aligning incentives to profitably cure rare childhood diseases.
• In healthcare, where innovative AI solutions will save trillions, and new models will make healthcare affordable by rewarding outcomes, not box checking and cronyism. 
• In defense, where frontiers range from the electromagnetic spectrum, to next-gen materials, to advanced maritime and ground autonomy.
• In logistics, where the old world order is yielding to intelligent new supply chains, capacity, and strongholds of independence.
• In enterprise, where AI is blurring the lines between tech and services, multiplying human expertise to unlock the first meaningful productivity gains our economy has seen in a generation or more.
• In education, where the pursuit of truth and the shaping of the individual are challenging ingrained groupthink, the administrative-industrial complex, and credential worship.

In each case, success hinges on the ability to strike out, survive, and conquer, not the desire to cling to a predetermined lot. Survival on the frontier requires finding the way, and those more comfortable following established rulebooks are soon exposed. As Charles Goodnight, the father of ranching in the Texas Panhandle, put it, “Above all things, the scout and plainsman had to have a sense – an instinct – for direction. I never had a compass in my life, but I was never lost.”

The frontier demands commitment in many senses of the word, and at 8VC, we’ve always spoken in terms of committed capital to build and win, not assets under management. This encompasses the commitment of resources and time, commitment to our founders, and commitment to see the journey through. To merely "manage assets" would be a timid approach. At the same time, to properly commit capital is a rigorous undertaking, and the allure of the frontier is never a justification in itself. The boldest actions require the toughest questions; a proper venture capital firm balances realistic optimism with a healthy dose of principled incredulity.

But innovation, resourcefulness, and commitment combined are still insufficient for the frontier. The frontier demands that these qualities are tempered by wisdom, and this is the balance we’ve sought in our founders, advisors, co-investors, and partners. Wisdom may be old, but is certainly not nostalgic – and often reveals itself most clearly in seemingly unprecedented times. 

8VC’s mission is an ancient one, but no less urgent. The Pirkei Avot, or “Ethics of the Fathers”, compiled in the third century, instructs “you are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.” We inherit a broken world. To help fix it is our most cherished task.