One person raised 21 billion yuan in funds.
Two years ago, I wrote an article titled "One Person Raised $8 Billion", discussing the Solo VC model that has gradually emerged in recent years.
The so - called Solo VC can be simply understood as a "venture capital individual" in a literal sense. Physically, they are "solo", without a team or a complex organizational structure. They handle project evaluation, due diligence, and post - investment management all by themselves. Legally, they follow the model of "VC". They register companies, get themselves registered as GPs from natural persons with regulatory authorities, set investment rhythms according to the standards of financial products, raise funds from LPs, and are evaluated based on IRR and DPI.
These characteristics are highly suitable for the current investment environment. The initiator of a Solo VC is the only member of the team, responsible for both thinking and decision - making, which simplifies the process like never before. The initiator of a Solo VC usually has a background as an expert in a vertical field, being a treasure trove of experience in a specific area, and is more capable of formulating personalized investment portfolio management methods based on the characteristics of the specific field. Once a Solo VC is established, it operates "single - handedly", which means the initiator has a stronger entrepreneurial mindset than investors in large platforms, is full of fighting spirit and agile in action, and is more likely to resonate with entrepreneurs.
In recent years, not only has the number of Solo VCs increased significantly, but the amount of funds they can raise has also become more and more astonishing. The most remarkable Solo VC initiator is Elad Gil. So far, he has completed the fundraising for three Solo VC funds. In 2023, he raised $1.095 billion (nearly 8 billion RMB) for his third - phase fund. It should be noted that in the previous year, only 36 funds in the entire US market raised more than $1 billion.
That is to say, Elad Gil not only broke the industry record of Solo VCs but also outperformed many so - called top - tier venture capital firms with large teams and extensive ecosystems. It is truly "astonishing".
What's even more astonishing is that just two years after making history, this guy is planning to set a new record. According to reports from multiple media outlets, Elad Gil has launched the fundraising for his fourth - phase fund, with an unprecedented target of $3 billion (approximately 21.3 billion RMB).
(Elad Gil, Image source: his video podcast)
The Strongest Solo VC in History
Let's first talk about what level $3 billion represents.
As mentioned earlier, one of the important reasons why Elad Gil and Solo VCs have received more and more attention is that the overall fundraising situation in venture capital was very bleak at that time. In 2022, a total of 36 funds raised more than $1 billion. In the first quarter of 2023, even though 99 funds in the United States announced their closures, only 2 funds raised more than $1 billion. Based on the simple sociological experience of "comparing people makes one angry", a fund achieving the best results in the entire industry without any team support or division of labor is quite a shock to the already anxious industry practitioners.
So when Elad Gil is about to make history again, the overall fundraising situation in the industry in 2025 naturally becomes the most concerning topic:
First of all, although the recovery of the IPO market in 2025 has solved the long - standing liquidity problem in the venture capital industry, for LPs, they mainly feel "unlocked" rather than "regaining confidence". According to the mid - year report released by Pitch and NVCA (National Venture Capital Association of the United States) in July, in the first half of 2025, a total of 238 funds in the United States completed fundraising, with a total scale of $26.6 billion. Both statistics have dropped to the lowest level in a decade. In addition, the median fundraising time for these funds completed in the first half of 2025 reached 15.3 months, a significant increase compared to 12.6 months in 2024. Looking at the fundraising situation of individual funds, in the first half of 2025, only 11 funds raised $50 million or more.
Secondly, due to the delicate state of the IPO thaw - on one hand, there are high - return cases like Figma and Circle with hundreds of times returns; on the other hand, it is frequently affected by events such as tariff wars and government shutdowns in the United States, and the window period often closes suddenly - LPs interested in the primary market have unanimously changed their thinking and are more focused on growth - stage funds to hedge risks. The US commercial law firm Ropes & Gray found that although the overall fundraising situation in the primary market continued to decline in the first half of 2025, the fundraising situation of growth - stage funds improved significantly, accounting for 24% of the total fundraising amount, a year - on - year increase of 14%.
Under such circumstances, raising $3 billion in 2025 is undoubtedly a great feat, especially when it is achieved in the non - mainstream form of a Solo VC.
However, this is not the most surprising part. In fact, the news that Elad Gil plans to raise a record - breaking new fund is not new. Many media outlets reported this as early as July this year. The key is that in the relevant reports in July, Elad Gil's fundraising target was between $1.5 billion and $2 billion.
That is to say, Elad Gil raised his fundraising target by $1 billion just three months after launching the fundraising - in an environment where many funds return money to LPs due to the inability to guarantee performance, this is quite an unconventional move.
Of course, judging from his investment achievements, Elad Gil does have the capital to be unconventional. Elad Gil is from Google. In 2005, he participated in Google's acquisition of Android. In 2007, he left Google to start his own business. Two years later, he successfully sold his company's shares worth $5 million to Twitter and became the VP in charge of corporate strategic business at Twitter. In the same year, he started his angel investment career, participated in the seed rounds of Pinterest and Airbnb, and began to build his profound "network of contacts".
For example, Apoorva Mehta, the co - founder of Instacart, is actually someone Elad Gil met as a dining companion when exploring a taco restaurant in San Francisco. For example, Dylan Field, the founder of Figma, is actually an "unexpected gain" when Elad Gil was wandering around Stanford University and happened to watch a startup training camp organized by his good friend Peter Thiel.
Elad Gil revealed in his personal podcast that since he officially started venture capital in 2008, he has invested in more than 200 projects. In addition to the companies mentioned above, there are also Coinbase, Deel, Figma, Flexport, GitLab, Notion, and Perplexity. From the perspective of project sub - sectors and time, his investment portfolio far more meets the definition of "crossing the cycle" than many institutional VCs. It is no exaggeration to call him "the strongest Solo VC in history".
It is worth mentioning that this "strongest in history" halo was further strengthened this year: In July this year, Elad Gil participated in the incubation and investment of an artificial intelligence company, Brain Co. The other co - incubator and co - investor in the Series A round is Affinity Partners, a private equity firm owned by Jared Kushner, the son - in - law of the current US President Trump.
According to reports, the intersection between Elad Gil and Jared Kushner can be traced back to 2023. At that time, Elad Gil was preparing his personal circular speech in Silicon Valley to expound his views on the artificial intelligence industry, while Jared Kushner was preparing to increase his investment in the artificial intelligence industry. So they quickly met through the introduction of a mutual friend and established a "deep" friendship. The establishment of Brain Co. originated from a gathering in February 2024 when they finalized the cooperation in a coffee shop in San Francisco.
In the official press release of Brain Co.'s financing, Jared Kushner publicly stated: "After communicating with Elad, we realized that we could build a bridge to connect the best artificial intelligence talents in Silicon Valley with the most important institutions in the world, thus having a global impact."
Looking at this statement, considering the person who said it, and then looking back at Elad Gil's feat of independently raising $3 billion, doesn't everything seem more reasonable?
Continue with VC, but No Longer Solo?
If we infer from the timeline, Elad Gil's current fundraising is likely to be going very smoothly. He probably received more positive feedback than expected during the three - month visits to LPs, which is why he decided to over - raise.
However, when the $3 billion fund is successfully raised and a new historical record is set, whether Elad Gil can still be called a Solo VC may be a question. According to the current reports, Elad Gil seems to be adjusting his strategy.
As mentioned above, since 2008, Elad Gil has invested in more than 200 projects. His VC - style investments are about 10 to 15 companies per year, and he also participates in incubations. It is not difficult to infer that the valuation and actual amount of each investment are not very large. However, with the completion of the record - breaking third - phase fund in 2023, Elad Gil has also made large - scale investments. For example, in June and October this year, Harvey, a startup in the "AI + law" application field, completed two rounds of financing with valuations of $5 billion and $8 billion respectively, raising a total of $500 million. Elad Gil revealed in his personal podcast that he led both rounds of financing, which means he alone bet at least $250 million on Harvey.
This figure almost completely deviates from the known operating practices of Solo VCs. For example, Hypernova, an angel mother fund established in June 2022 specifically for the Solo VC trend, set the investment amount for Solo VCs between $500,000 and $750,000. Its founder, Tugce Ergul, once described their vision: "... Now the startup cost in the venture capital industry is getting lower and lower. You can set up a fund with $10,000, and we can easily attract a large number of new entrants."
Another example is Vasiksiri, the most active Solo VC in Southeast Asia. In February 2023, he established his second - phase fund, WV Fund II, with a total scale of $14 million, and the single - investment amount is controlled between $100,000 and $500,000. He also publicly stated that it is necessary to strictly "limit" himself to the current scale: "Your competitors and partners will change as your stage progresses... I'm not competing for more profit distribution now, nor will I make ownership claims, which is very helpful for our cooperation."
On the other hand, according to The Information, Elad Gil is very used to using SPVs (Special Purpose Vehicles) in his investments. As I mentioned in the article "They Use AI to Make Crazy Money with a 160 - million - dollar Commission from 10 - million - dollar Investments", although SPVs can make the decision - making of venture capitalists more flexible, such as allowing "securitization of invested companies" in advance - VCs/PEs that receive financing shares will establish an SPV and "resell" the financing shares by selling the shares of this SPV to the outside world - in essence, an SPV is a company. Frequent use of SPV investments will make the equity structure management of invested companies quite complicated.
Therefore, in order to deal with the increasingly large and complex invested companies, Elad Gil has started to hire employees. In a recent podcast, Elad Gil revealed that currently, in addition to himself, there are 4 partners in the team responsible for investment, and 6 colleagues responsible for operations and finance. The reason it can still be classified as a Solo VC is that those 4 partners do not have partner status, and Elad Gil is still the only GP.
It is imaginable that when the $3 billion fund is officially established and Elad Gil has the opportunity to participate in more and larger transactions, this legendary story about Solo VCs may come to an end.
However, this may not be bad news. As mentioned at the beginning, if the venture capital industry had not fallen into a serious liquidity crisis due to the global economic recovery being blocked, Solo VCs would hardly have had the opportunity to come to the "center of the stage". From this perspective, the end of the Solo VC era may also be a sign that the global market may be recovering in an "undervalued" state.
This article is from the WeChat official account "China Venture Capital", author: Pu Fan. Republished by 36Kr with authorization.