“Palantir Mafia”: These startups were founded by former employees
There's a new " tech mafia ." Namely, the " Palantir Mafia." From Garry Tan of Y Combinator to Joe Lonsdale to the founders of Eleven Labs, Iron Clad, and Partiful, many former employees of the big data software company have become founders and now run startups or investment funds themselves.
More than a decade ago, PayPal set the standard for an impressive group of former employees who now run their own companies. Among them were Elon Musk, David Sacks, Reid Hoffman, Max Levchin, and Peter Thiel —who later co-founded Palantir.
Today, Facebook and Oracle each have their own “mafias,” and younger tech companies like Square, OpenAI, and Instacart also have mafias .
Palantir 's original customers were federal agencies. One of its flagship products, "Gotham," helps locate targets in combat zones. While some former Palantir employees are using their experience to found defense tech startups, others are building companies in healthcare, consumer, AI, and enterprise software.
The companies of the “ Palantir Mafia ” were supported by leading VC firms such as a16z, Sequoia, Redpoint and Accel as well as by the renowned startup accelerator Y Combinator.
In total, according to Pitchbook and the founders themselves, the startups identified by BI have raised more than €5.3 billion ($6 billion) from VCs. More than half of this funding—€3.4 billion ($3.8 billion)—went to one company: Anduril, the defense tech startup founded by three former Palantir employees.
These are 28 former Palantir employees who have founded their own startups. They are sorted by the amount of VC money they raised – led by Garry Tan of Y Combinator .
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