Mithril Capital

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Mithril Capital Management is an American private venture capital firm started in 2012 in San Francisco by Peter Thiel and Ajay Royan. Named after the mythical metal mithril, it began with Thiel investing about $100 million and a total first fund of $402 million, with Royan running the company and Thiel serving as chair of the investment committee. The firm has worked with large investors such as Temasek, the MacArthur Foundation, and the Sawiris family. In 2019, Mithril moved its headquarters to Austin, Texas, and it has continued making investments, including in Glance, an Indian software company owned by InMobi.

Mithril was meant to complement Founders Fund’s early-stage investments, but the two firms have also competed for deals, notably over Airbnb. Thiel helped Mithril invest in Palantir as compensation after a deal went to Founders Fund. Around 2019 the firm faced internal conflicts and investor frustration, with Thiel increasingly tied up in politics and not deeply involved in day-to-day operations. A dispute between Mithril’s former lawyer Crystal McKellar and Ajay Royan led to lawsuits, and there were FBI and SEC inquiries that were later withdrawn.

By late 2019, some investors complained that the fund deployment was slow and that payroll practices raised concerns. Royan continued to lead Mithril, relocated to Austin, and hired new staff. Several well-known former employees moved on to other ventures, including Brian Behlendorf and Matt Grimm; Crystal McKellar started Aloft VC; JD Vance worked there briefly before co-founding Narya Capital with Colin Greenspon in 2019, and Greenspon later joined Revolution LLC. Jim O’Neill left Mithril in 2019 after clashes with Royan. Thiel supported Narya alongside Marc Andreessen and Eric Schmidt but remained not operationally involved. At one point Mithril exceeded $1.3 billion in assets under management, even as leadership and personnel changed and tensions persisted.