
Chamath Palihapitiya, former VP of user growth at Facebook, founded venture capital firm Social Capital in 2011. The firm, an early backer of companies including Slack and Yammer, uses sophisticated data techniques to evaluate investments and coach portfolio companies on growth. Its current portfolio is diverse, spanning consumer, education, enterprise, healthcare, and frontier technologies. Starting in 2017, Palihapitiya began laying the groundwork for Social Capital to be able to invest in companies at any stage--pre-launch, early venture, growth, or public. He also began building an automated investment tool, named Capital-as-a-Service, designed to remove bias from the investment decision process.