S32, a venture firm founded by Bill Maris, founder and former CEO of GV, has held a first close on $413.5 million for its sixth flagship fund, according to a regulatory filing.
S32 Fund 6 is targeting $600 million and accepted its first commitment on April 11, the filing shows. A total of 91 investors participated in the first close. PJT Partners of New York is assisting with the fundraising.
Based in Palo Alto, California, S32 closed on $525 million for its fifth fund in September 2023, according to fundraising data from affiliate Buyouts. LPs in Section 32 Fund 5-US included the Arch Family Foundation, Bimah Foundation, Hillman Family Foundations, Sidley Austin Master Pension Trust, The Delaski Family Foundation, The Zellerbach Family Foundation and Vibrant Village Foundation, Buyouts reports.
Maris is listed in the SEC filing as the managing member of the general partner for Fund 6. Besides Maris, S32’s general partners include Andy Harrison, who is also CEO, Andrew Conrad, Mike Pellini and Steve Kafka, according to the firm’s website.
Maris founded S32, formerly known as Section 32, in 2017. He previously founded Google Ventures (now known as GV) in 2009 and was its leader until he departed in August 2016.
“Bill worked closely with the Google founders, helped incubate and launch Google X, Waymo, and Verily, and led global investment activities for Google and Alphabet,” S32 states on its website. “During his tenure at Google, Bill was involved with the panoply of cutting-edge technologies and projects, ranging from cybersecurity to cloud infrastructure, aviation, renewable energy and robotics.”
S32 has said that its “goal is to accelerate the discovery, development, and distribution of revolutionary technologies that improve the human condition.”
It has invested in 100 companies and has exited 16 of its investments, including Coinbase (Nasdaq: COIN) and CrowdStrike (Nasdaq: CRWD), its website states. The firm’s current portfolio includes unicorns DataBricks, Lime and ScaleAI.
