John Curtius departs Tiger World after a 5 yr 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 firms.
The Midas Checklist investor is leaving Tiger World in a transition now underway, the agency informed traders in a quarterly letter on Monday obtained by Forbes. Curtius will “work intently with different funding group members over the approaching months as we transition his duties,” 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 last departure in June 2023, a supply with data of his considering 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 stated, partially resulting from long-term positions in China-based firms. The agency stated 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 by means of a spokesperson. Curtius declined to remark.
In a letter spent principally 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’ transient point out towards the top, 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 firms.
Throughout that interval, Tiger turned often known as considered one of tech’s most lively traders. Underneath Midas Checklist fixture Scott Shleifer, the enterprise facet 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 yr in the past. In April, a Crunchbase Information evaluation 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 following 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 lots of these startup offers, particularly after Lee Fixel, one other Midas Checklist 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 bought a $22 million Coral Gables mansion beforehand owned by singer Marc Anthony final yr. In April, his portfolio helped him debut No. 64 on the Midas Checklist of the world’s high personal tech traders.
Extra lately, 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 yr, positions value billions of {dollars}; in August, Reuters reported the agency was lowering positions in tech firms together with Coinbase, Crowdstrike and Snowflake, amongst others, whereas exiting positions in others together with DocuSign, Robinhood and Zoom. Just lately-public firms backed by Curtius, similar to knowledge infrastructure firms Snowflake and Confluent, are buying and selling down about 50% or extra for the yr.
And as Tiger’s investor word revealed, the agency has additionally been quietly marking down its personal firm valuations since earlier than Curtius’ Midas Checklist look — markdowns which are probably not executed, given the lag in repricing of personal firms in comparison with publicly-traded shares. Curtius’ portfolio consists of pre-IPO companies similar to knowledge infrastructure firm Databricks and cybersecurity enterprise Snyk which 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 newer July 2021 funding spherical Curtius and Tiger participated at a valuation of $4 billion. Final month, Olive AI introduced that its chief monetary officer and chief product officer have been leaving the startup, two months after it let go of 450 workers. Curtius additionally invested in London-based digital occasions startup Hopin at a $2 billion valuation in December 2020 and saved investing by means of its $7.8 billion valuation in August 2021. The digital occasions platform laid off 29% of employees this previous July.
Amid such losses, Tiger World informed traders this summer time that it was slowing down its startup investing as a part of a push to jot down earlier, smaller checks, in accordance with a TechCrunch report. Curtius’ rumored departure, in the meantime, turned a typical topic at different VC companies, 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 lately 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 Collection B raised by knowledge onboarding service Flatfile, Curtius was quoted on behalf of Tiger, the spherical’s lead investor. Startups generally wait months to announce their funding information, that means such an announcement may have been delayed.
In its letter to traders, Tiger World’s partnership stated they “look ahead to staying shut and discovering methods to collaborate” with Curtius.
Curtius plans to proceed backing software program and business-to-business firms at his deliberate new agency, Cedar, on the Collection A to C levels, in accordance with the supply. Curtius has already spoken with founders about probably becoming a member of the brand new agency after launch subsequent yr, the supply added.
Curtius could have to take action, nonetheless, pointing to funding returns at Tiger that seem diminished, a minimum of for now. “We head into the ultimate quarter of 2022 having accepted that this isn’t a yr wherein the scoreboard will make us proud and with our minds set squarely on the longer term,” the agency wrote.
This story has been up to date.
