Formation 8, the investment firm founded by Joe Lonsdale, Brian Koo and Jim Kim, has closed its second fund, the company is announcing today. The new fund will give Formation 8 another $500 million to make investments in startups anywhere from seed- to late-stage, as it seeks to capitalize on some early successes.
The firm was founded in 2011, and has already proven the ability to pick a few winners in its first fund. Those include RelateIQ, which was acquired by Salesforce for $390 million, and Oculus, which Facebook bought for $2 billion earlier this year.
It’s also made investments in companies like Wish, Radius, LearnSprout, Leeo, and most recently Yello Mobile.
In the lead up to raising its second fund, the firm has also grown its team pretty substantially. It had eight employees at launch, and now has a head count of about 30.
Some of its recent hires include bringing on former Matrix and Khosla Ventures partner Shirish Sathaye onto the investment team. It also added Valley veteran Pierre Lamond, previously at Sequoia and Khosla Ventures, as an adviser to the firm.
For its second fund, the firm says it will continue to operate along the same lines as it did for its first. Formation 8 is largely stage-agnostic, investing in seed deals as well as later-stage companies. Its stated goal is to seek out “industry-transforming companies” regardless of whichever stage they are at.
What Formation 8 hopes to offer those companies — other than just capital — is help in getting connected to business partners and customers in Asia, where the firm already has strong connections. It’s also further building out its business-development team in that region, with workers in Seoul, Singapore, Shanghai and Beijing.
