The Princeton University Investment Company and Chair of the University's Board of Trustees Kathryn Hall ’80 have both invested in Thrive Capital, aventure capital investment firm focused on media and Internet investments.
Princo is the University department that manages $17.8 billion of the University's $18.2 billion endowment.
In addition to her chairmanship, Hall is CEO of Hall Capital Partners, a hedge fund based in San Francisco that has over $29 billion in assets under management. She does not directly manage any part of the University's endowment.
Thrive Capital was founded by Josh Kushner, a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School, and was an early backer of the photo-sharing app Instagram. It is currently in the process of raising $150 million for a fund.
Hall and Kushner did not respond to requests for comment.
Though Princo rarely discusses investment decisions with the media, its president, Andrew Golden, discussed his involvement with Thrive in a recent Wall Street Journal article. Golden said he thought it was a risk to invest in a young company, but he thinks it has been very successful.
“We have a very significant relationship with Thrive; we are probably the largest investor in [it], and many would consider us to be the anchor investor,” he explained. “We are very impressed with the Thrive team, and we admire how quickly the firm has developed.”
The investment provides a glimpse into the mostly secretive business decisions of the University's investment arm.According to Golden, in response to the possibility of people questioning the stability of the young company, Princo decided to promote and endorse Kushner.
“We wanted to publicize Josh as a real entity that should be taken seriously by the entrepreneur community,” Golden said. “We thought that by publicizing that we were a key source of that capital … We would actually create a competitive advantage with us and with Thrive.”
Another backer of the fund is Duke University, according to The Wall Street Journal article. Golden went to Duke for his undergraduate degree.
Hall invested through Hall Capital, and according to Golden, these were “independent decisions.”
Golden added that he didn’t think it was unusual for both Princo and Hall to invest in the company.
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