--- alias: - Valar - Valar Ventures Management LLC - Valar Global Fund II LP - Valar Global Fund III LP category: Private Organization created: 2026-10-01 location: 915 Broadway, New York, New York relations: - fn: 1 reverse: true role: set up the firm and appointed its managers start: 2010 type: founded with: '[[Peter Thiel]]' - fn: 2 reverse: true role: partner; promoter of the Valar Global funds type: head_of with: '[[Andrew McCormack]]' - fn: 2 reverse: true role: managing member of the general partner of the Valar Global funds type: head_of with: '[[James Fitzgerald]]' - fn: 5 reverse: true role: limited partner; 15 million dollars committed to Valar Global Fund II and 25 million dollars to Valar Global Fund III start: 2015-01-16 type: funded with: '[[Southern Trust Company]]' - fn: 4 role: Valar Fund 1 invested 31.4 million dollars start: 2010 type: funded with: '[[Xero]]' start: 2010 summary: Valar Ventures is a New York venture capital firm set up by Peter Thiel in 2010; Jeffrey Epstein's Southern Trust Company committed 40 million dollars to two of its funds in 2015 and 2016. tags: - Organization - VentureCapital - PeterThiel - JeffreyEpstein - Fintech - ThielNetwork updated: 2026-10-01 --- [Peter Thiel](/people/peter-thiel/) set up Valar Ventures in 2010 and appointed Andrew McCormack and James Fitzgerald to run it; both had worked at his family office, Thiel Capital, and at Clarium Capital Management. By 2024 Thiel's name had not appeared among the partners on the firm's website for many years.[^1] The firm's funds, Valar Global Fund I through IV and their parallel principals funds, filed [Securities and Exchange Commission](/organizations/securities-and-exchange-commission/) Forms D from the firm's office at 915 Broadway, New York, naming Fitzgerald and McCormack as promoters; Fitzgerald signed as managing member of the general partner.[^2][^3] ### The Funds The combined Form D for Valar Global Fund II and Valar Global Principals Fund II, signed May 21, 2015, reported 102,325,000 dollars sold to 25 investors. The filing for Fund III and its principals fund, signed September 24, 2018, reported 103,925,000 dollars from 23 investors; the Fund IV filing of the same day reported 133,400,000 dollars from 35 investors.[^2][^3] The firm raised more than 863 million dollars for Fund VII in late 2021 and closed a 665 million dollar fund in July 2022; its Fund IX closed in 2024 at 300 million dollars.[^1] In a confidential "Summer 2017 Update" to its limited partners, Valar reported that Fund 1, opened in October 2010 with 100 million dollars of commitments, was valued at 411.8 million dollars, had invested 31.4 million dollars in Xero, with gross distributions from it to date of 119 million dollars, and 22.2 million dollars in TransferWise, then valued at 252.7 million dollars, and that Fund 2 had invested in Breather, N26, Granify, EyeEm, TradeIt, Homie and Even. The firm first backed the money transfer company Wise, then TransferWise, in its 2013 Series A round.[^1][^4] ### Southern Trust Company [Jeffrey Epstein](/people/jeffrey-epstein/)'s United States Virgin Islands company [Southern Trust Company](/organizations/southern-trust-company/), Inc. was a limited partner in Valar Global Fund II from its first capital call. A letter of January 16, 2015 on Valar letterhead, addressed to Southern Trust Company with [Darren Indyke](/people/darren-indyke/) named in the address block and signed by Reuben Kobulnik, chief operating and financial officer of Valar Ventures Management LLC, called 1 percent of the fund's commitments, 150,000 dollars, payable to the fund's account at Silicon Valley Bank by January 30.[^5] On March 30, 2015 McCormack wrote to Epstein directly with the firm's update deck: "(As you know) We closed Fund II in January at $102M." He reported that Fund I had invested 92.5 million dollars at gross and net multiples of 3.8 and 3.1 times.[^6] A capital call of March 27, 2015 put Southern Trust's total commitment to Fund II at 15 million dollars, about one seventh of the fund as reported on its Form D; by October 20, 2017 the company had paid in 14,250,000 dollars of it.[^2][^7][^8] On January 21, 2016 Ian O'Donnell of Cooley LLP informed the limited partners of Valar Global Fund III, copying Fitzgerald and Kobulnik, that their subscriptions had been "accepted in full" and that they had been admitted to the fund effective January 20, 2016.[^9] Southern Trust's commitment to Fund III was 25 million dollars, about a quarter of the 103,925,000 dollars the fund later reported raising from 23 investors.[^3][^10] Epstein's accountant [Richard Kahn](/people/richard-kahn/) cleared the calls with him. On July 24, 2017 Kahn asked Epstein whether it was "ok to fund 4,250,000 from STC," noting that "once funded STC will have 10,000,000 unfunded call remaining," and two days later recorded: "jee approved capital call."[^11] A call notice of May 31, 2018 for 1,750,000 dollars, due June 14, brought Southern Trust's contributions to Fund III to 21 million dollars, leaving 4 million dollars unfunded.[^10] Epstein died in federal custody in August 2019. In testimony given in March 2026, Indyke, co-executor of the estate, said the 40 million dollars Epstein invested in the two Valar funds in 2015 and 2016 was then worth about 172 million dollars and that the investments would expire in 2026.[^12] [^1]: Marina Temkin and Rebecca Szkutak, "Peter Thiel-founded Valar Ventures raised a $300 million fund, half the size of its last one," *TechCrunch,* May 22, 2024. https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/22/peter-thiel-valar-ventures-new-fund-size-performance/ [^2]: Valar Global Fund II LP and Valar Global Principals Fund II LP, Form D, signed by James Fitzgerald May 21, 2015, SEC accession 0001642670-15-000001. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1642670/000164267015000001/primary_doc.xml [^3]: Valar Global Fund III LP and Valar Global Principals Fund III LP, Form D, September 24, 2018, SEC accession 0001664457-18-000001; Valar Global Fund IV LP and Valar Global Principals Fund IV LP, Form D, September 24, 2018, SEC accession 0001726616-18-000001. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1664457/000166445718000001/primary_doc.xml and https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1726616/000172661618000001/primary_doc.xml [^4]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA00810510, DataSet 9, Valar Ventures, "Summer 2017 Update," confidential limited partner report. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00810510.pdf [^5]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA01203276, DataSet 9, Valar Ventures Management LLC to Southern Trust Company, Inc., "Re: Valar Global Fund II LP - Capital Call #1," January 16, 2015. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA01203276.pdf [^6]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02505986, DataSet 11, email from Andrew McCormack to jeevacation@gmail.com, cc James Fitzgerald, "Valar Ventures update," March 30, 2015. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02505986.pdf [^7]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA01158019, DataSet 9, "Valar Global Fund II LP Capital Call," March 27, 2015. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA01158019.pdf [^8]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA00810311, DataSet 9, "Valar Global Fund II LP Capital Call," October 10, 2017. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00810311.pdf [^9]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA00836182, DataSet 9, email from Ian O'Donnell (Cooley LLP) to the limited partners, "Closing of Valar Global Fund III LP," January 21, 2016. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00836182.pdf [^10]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA00810356, DataSet 9, "Valar Global Fund III LP Capital Call," May 31, 2018. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00810356.pdf [^11]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA00637297, DataSet 9, email from Richard Kahn to Jeffrey Epstein, cc Bella Klein, "Re: Valar Global Fund III LP - Capital Call 6," July 24 and 26, 2017. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00637297.pdf [^12]: Em Steck, "Epstein's closest advisers may never see the millions he left them," *CNN,* September 21, 2026, citing Indyke's testimony of March 2026. https://edition.cnn.com/2026/09/21/politics/jeffrey-epstein-estate-lawsuit-vis