Altimeter Capital

American investment firm

Altimeter Capital Management, LP

Company type| Private
Industry| Investment management
Founded| 2008; 16 years ago (2008)
Founder| Brad Gerstner
Headquarters| One International Place, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Products|

* Hedge fund
* Venture capital

AUM| US$17.9 billion (2022)

Number of employees

| 29 (2022)
Website|

* altimeter.com
* altimetergrowth.com

Footnotes / references
[1]

Altimeter Capital is an American investment firm based in Boston, Massachusetts and Menlo Park, California.[2] The firm focuses on technology investments in both public and private markets globally.

## Background[edit]

In 2008, Brad Gerstner founded Altimeter Capital in Boston, Massachusetts.[3] It was launched with less than $3 million from Gerstner's friends and family during the financial crisis of 2008.[3][4] Prior to that, Gerstner worked at PAR Capital Management as well as General Catalyst.[5]

A month after the launch of Altimeter Capital, an office was opened in Menlo Park, California.[3]

In 2013, Altimeter Capital closed its first venture capital fund at $75 million.[2]

In September 2020, Altimeter Growth Corp was listed on the Nasdaq (Ticker: AGC) raising $450 million. AGC is a SPAC which is a blank-check company. In April 2021 it was announced that AGC would merge with Singapore ridesharing company, Grab to help it list on Nasdaq under the ticker, GRAB.[6][7]

In January 2021, a second SPAC, Altimeter Growth Corporation 2 was listed on New York Stock Exchange (Ticker: AGCB) raising $450 million.[8][9] It was terminated early in December 2022 due to its inability to secure a suitable merger deal.[9]

## Business overview[edit]

For public markets, Altimeter Capital manages a long / short public equity fund that invests in technology companies.[10] The public equity fund is noted for its strong performance, averaging annual returns of 29.52% since 2011.[10]

For private markets, Altimeter Capital manages private growth equity funds that invest in both early and later stage technology companies. Its first private fund was closed in 2013.[2]

## Public market investments[edit]

### United Continental Holdings[edit]

In January 2016, Altimeter Capital pressured United Continental Holdings to change its board of directors.[11] Gerstner released a statement stating how investors were disappointed with the poor performance and decision making of the company in recent years.[11] United Continental Holdings eventually gave in and changed its board of directors.[12]

### Meta Platforms[edit]

In October 2022, Gerstner on behalf of Altimeter Capital wrote an open letter to Meta Platforms and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg.[13][14] In the letter, Gerstner criticized the company stating it had too many employees and was moving too slowly to retain investor confidence.[13][14] He recommended reducing the headcount expense by 20% and limiting Metaverse investments to $5 billion per year.[13][14] A few weeks later, Meta laid off over 11,000 employees.[15]

## Venture Capital funds[edit]

Fund[16][4] | Vintage Year  | Committed Capital ($m)

|
|

Altimeter Private Partners Fund I  | 2013  | 75
Altimeter Private Partners Fund II  | 2015  | 225
Altimeter Private Partners Fund III  | 2017  | 200
Altimeter Growth Cascade Fund  | 2020  | 100
Altimeter Growth Castle Fund  | 2020  | 32
Altimeter Growth Lincoln Fund  | 2021  | 60

## Notable venture capital investments[edit]

* 23andMe[4]
* AppDynamics
* ByteDance
* Cazoo[4]
* Epic Games[4]
* Expedia[10]
* FTX[17]
* GitLab
* Grab[6]
* HubSpot[10]
* Julep
* Modern Treasury
* MongoDB
* Namely
* OfferUp
* Okta
* Pine Labs[18]
* Plaid[4]
* Priceline[10]
* Roblox Corporation[4]
* Snowflake[10]
* SoFi[4]
* StockX
* Twilio[10]
* Uber[10]
* UiPath
* Unity Technologies
* Vroom

## References[edit]

1. ^ "FORM ADV" (PDF). U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. May 27, 2022. pp. 8–9.
2. ^ a b c Kolodny, Lora (August 1, 2013). "Altimeter Capital CEO on Travel, Enterprise and the Sharing Economy". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved July 7, 2021.
3. ^ a b c Levy, Ari (November 8, 2013). "Online-Travel King Brad Gerstner Wants Venture Capital Empire". www.bloomberg.com. Archived from the original on July 9, 2021. Retrieved July 7, 2021.
4. ^ a b c d e f g h "After Snowflake windfall, Altimeter Capital captures dealmaking spotlight | PitchBook". pitchbook.com. Retrieved July 7, 2021.
5. ^ "Bradley Gerstner Investor Profile: Portfolio & Exits | PitchBook". pitchbook.com. Retrieved July 7, 2021.
6. ^ a b Lee, Yoolim (June 9, 2021). "Singapore's Grab Delays Merger Completion to Fourth Quarter". www.bloomberg.com. Archived from the original on June 9, 2021. Retrieved July 7, 2021.
7. ^ "Grab IPO: what to know and how to buy Grab shares". IG. Retrieved July 7, 2021.
8. ^ Schubarth, Cromwell (January 7, 2021). "Bay Area's first IPO of 2021 raises $400M for an Altimeter Capital SPAC". www.bizjournals.com. Archived from the original on January 7, 2021. Retrieved July 7, 2021.
9. ^ a b "SPACS Altimeter Growth II, One Equity Open Water I to liquidate early | Seeking Alpha". seekingalpha.com. Retrieved December 3, 2022.
10. ^ a b c d e f g h Gaffney, Mark (October 6, 2020). "Brad Gerstner's Altimeter Capital has an $8B profit on Snowflake. A new $450M tech SPAC. And annual 13F returns of 30% since 2011". WhaleWisdom Alpha. Retrieved July 7, 2021.
11. ^ a b "Investors push for board shake-up at United Continental Holdings". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
12. ^ Wang, Christine. "United was 'clumsy' at first in scandal, but eventually 'got it right,' investor says". CNBC. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
13. ^ a b c Leswing, Kif. "Meta shareholder writes critical open letter saying company needs to slash headcount and stop spending so much money on 'metaverse'". CNBC. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
14. ^ a b c "Meta Needs to Slash Metaverse Spending to 'Get Mojo Back,' Shareholder Says". Bloomberg.com. October 24, 2022. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
15. ^ Vanian, Jonathan. "Meta laying off more than 11,000 employees: Read Zuckerberg's letter announcing the cuts". CNBC. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
16. ^ "Altimeter Capital - Venture | Palico". www.palico.com. Retrieved July 7, 2021.
17. ^ "FTX Fiasco Hits Investors From Tiger Global to Tom Brady". finance.yahoo.com.
18. ^ Bhakta, Pratik. "Pine Labs: Actis, Altimeter put $82 million in Pine Labs to grow roots". The Economic Times. Retrieved July 7, 2021.

## External links[edit]

* www.altimeter.com (Company Website)
* www.altimetergrowth.com (Capital Markets Platform)

* v
* t
* e

Hedge funds

Investment
strategy|

| Arbitrage /
relative value|

* Capital structure arbitrage
* Convertible arbitrage
* Equity market neutral
* Fixed income arbitrage / fixed-income relative-value investing
* Statistical arbitrage
* Volatility arbitrage

|

Event-driven|

* Shareholder activism
* Distressed securities
* Risk arbitrage
* Special situation

Directional|

* Convergence trade
* Commodity trading advisors / managed futures account
* Dedicated short
* Global macro
* Long/short equity
* Trend following

Other|

* Fund of hedge funds / Multi-manager

Trading|

* Algorithmic trading
* Day trading
* High-frequency trading
* Prime brokerage
* Program trading
* Proprietary trading

Related
terms|

| Markets|

* Commodities
* Derivatives
* Equity
* Fixed income
* Foreign exchange
* Money markets
* Structured securities

|

Misc|

* Absolute return
* Arbitrage pricing theory
* Assets under management
* Black–Scholes model (Greeks: delta neutral)
* Capital asset pricing model (alpha / beta / security characteristic line)
* Fundamental analysis
* Hedge
* Securitization
* Short
* Taxation of private equity and hedge funds
* Technical analysis

Investors|

* Vulture funds
* Family offices
* Financial endowments
* Fund of hedge funds
* High-net-worth individual
* Institutional investors
* Insurance companies
* Investment banks
* Merchant banks
* Pension funds
* Sovereign wealth funds

Regulatory|

* Fund governance
* Hedge Fund Standards Board

* Alternative investment management companies
* Hedge funds
* Hedge fund managers
* List of hedge funds

* v
* t
* e

Private equity and venture capital

Investment types|

* Buyout
* Leveraged
* Venture
* Mezzanine
* Growth
* Secondaries
* Equity co-investment

History|

* Early history
* 1980s
* 1990s
* 2000s
* 2010s
* 2020s

Terms and
concepts|

| Buyout|

* Financial sponsor
* Management buyout
* Divisional buyout
* Buy–sell agreement
* Leveraged recapitalization
* Dividend recapitalization

|

Venture|

* Angel investor
* Business incubator
* Post-money valuation
* Pre-money valuation
* SAFE
* Seed money
* Startup company
* Venture capital financing
* Venture debt
* Venture round

Structure|

* Private equity firms and funds
* Limited partnership
* Limited liability company
* Carried interest
* Management fee
* Pledge fund
* Publicly traded private equity
* Business Development Company
* Venture capital trust
* Private investment in public equity (PIPE)
* SPAC

Investors|

* Corporations
* Institutional investors
* Pension funds
* Insurance companies
* Fund of funds
* Endowments
* Foundations
* Investment banks
* Merchant banks
* Commercial banks
* High-net-worth individuals
* Family offices
* Sovereign wealth funds
* Crowdfunding

Related
financial terms|

* AUM
* Cap table
* Capital call
* Capital commitment
* Capital structure
* Distribution waterfall
* EBITDA
* Envy ratio
* High-yield debt
* IPO
* IRR
* Leverage
* Liquidation preference
* M&A
* PME
* Taxation of private equity and hedge funds
* Undercapitalization
* Vintage year

* Private equity and venture capital investors
* Private equity firms
* List of private equity firms
* Venture capital firms
* List of venture capital firms
* Angel investors
* Portfolio companies

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template