John Curtius departs Tiger World after a 5 12 months stint that noticed him again greater than 250 startups.
Courtesy of Tiger World
John Curtius is departing Tiger World because the prolific funding agency continues to mark down its holdings in personal tech corporations.
The Midas Record investor is leaving Tiger World in a transition now underway, the agency informed buyers in a quarterly letter on Monday obtained by Forbes. Curtius will “work carefully with different funding staff members over the approaching months as we transition his tasks,” the agency wrote. “We’re grateful for all his contributions to Tiger World and have appreciated his work ethic and mind.”
The letter made no point out of Curtius’ plans after Tiger. However Curtius expects to launch his personal agency known as Cedar Funding Administration upon his closing departure in June 2023, a supply with data of his pondering informed Forbes.
The transfer comes as Tiger World’s multi-billion public funds continued to generate losses within the third quarter, the agency’s letter mentioned, partially on account of long-term positions in China-based corporations. The agency mentioned its expansive personal portfolio of venture-backed startups was additionally down, with Tiger having decreased the valuations of its holdings each single month of 2022.
Tiger World declined to remark via a spokesperson. Curtius declined to remark.
In a letter spent largely mourning the passing of Julian Robertson, the billionaire founding father of hedge fund Tiger Administration, and the mentor and first backer of Tiger World founder Chase Coleman III, Curtius’ temporary point out towards the tip, following a string of extra junior rent bulletins, appears a terse finish to a 5 year-plus stint that noticed the investor again greater than 250 personal tech corporations.
Throughout that interval, Tiger grew to become often called certainly one of tech’s most energetic buyers. Beneath Midas Record fixture Scott Shleifer, the enterprise aspect of Tiger’s enterprise grew into its largest, accounting for as a lot as two-thirds of its belongings, reported to have reached $95 billion a 12 months in the past. In April, a Crunchbase News analysis discovered that Tiger had led 87 funding rounds in startups within the first quarter of 2022 alone, for a mixed $7.6 billion in capital deployed — greater than $2 billion greater than the subsequent greatest test author, the SoftBank Imaginative and prescient Fund.
Curtius, who joined the agency from Elliott Administration in 2017, was the most recent outstanding face behind a lot of these startup offers, particularly after Lee Fixel, one other Midas Record fixture and longtime Coleman lieutenant, left in 2019 to launch his personal new agency. Finally named Tiger’s software program and business-to-business startup investing chief, Curtius made a splash within the Miami space when he purchased a $22 million Coral Gables mansion beforehand owned by singer Marc Anthony final 12 months. In April, his portfolio helped him debut No. 64 on the Midas Record of the world’s prime personal tech buyers.
Extra not too long ago, Tiger’s made headlines for the billions it’s misplaced in its public market positions. The agency’s flagship fund misplaced half its worth over the primary six months of the 12 months, positions price billions of {dollars}; in August, Reuters reported the agency was lowering positions in tech corporations together with Coinbase, Crowdstrike and Snowflake, amongst others, whereas exiting positions in others together with DocuSign, Robinhood and Zoom. Just lately-public corporations backed by Curtius, equivalent to information infrastructure corporations Snowflake and Confluent, are buying and selling down about 50% or extra for the 12 months.
And as Tiger’s investor be aware revealed, the agency has additionally been quietly marking down its personal firm valuations since earlier than Curtius’ Midas Record look — markdowns which can be likely not done, given the lag in repricing of personal corporations in comparison with publicly-traded shares. Curtius’ portfolio consists of pre-IPO companies equivalent to information infrastructure firm Databricks and cybersecurity enterprise Snyk that will wrestle to defend their current valuations of $38 billion and $8.5 billion.
Then there’s healthcare automation startup Olive AI, backed in December 2020 at a $1.5 billion valuation, and in whose more moderen July 2021 funding spherical Curtius and Tiger participated at a valuation of $4 billion. Final month, Olive AI announced that its chief monetary officer and chief product officer had been leaving the startup, two months after it let go of 450 staff. Curtius additionally invested in London-based digital occasions startup Hopin at a $2 billion valuation in December 2020 and stored investing via its $7.8 billion valuation in August 2021. The digital occasions platform laid off 29% of workers this previous July.
Amid such losses, Tiger World informed buyers this summer season that it was slowing down its startup investing as a part of a push to put in writing earlier, smaller checks, based on a TechCrunch report. Curtius’ rumored departure, in the meantime, grew to become a typical topic at different VC corporations, with companions at a number of telling Forbes they’d heard concerning the transfer (they requested to stay nameless to keep away from risking future enterprise). As not too long ago as August, sources near Tiger World denied Curtius was leaving, with one supply telling Forbes that Curtius was nonetheless making investments for the agency.
In a funding spherical introduced final week, a $50 million Sequence B raised by information onboarding service Flatfile, Curtius was quoted on behalf of Tiger, the spherical’s lead investor. Startups typically wait months to announce their funding information, which means such an announcement might have been delayed.
In its letter to buyers, Tiger World’s partnership mentioned they “look ahead to staying shut and discovering methods to collaborate” with Curtius.
Curtius plans to proceed backing software program and business-to-business corporations at his deliberate new agency, Cedar, on the Sequence A to C phases, based on the supply. Curtius has already spoken with founders about probably becoming a member of the brand new agency after launch subsequent 12 months, the supply added.
Curtius may have to take action, nonetheless, pointing to funding returns at Tiger that seem diminished, at the least for now. “We head into the ultimate quarter of 2022 having accepted that this isn’t a 12 months by which the scoreboard will make us proud and with our minds set squarely on the long run,” the agency wrote.
This story has been up to date with info on Curtius’ future plans.