D1 Capital Partners

About

D1 Capital Partners is a global investment firm founded in July 2018 by Daniel Sundheim, who previously served as Chief Investment Officer at Viking Global Investors from 2002 to 2017 ¹². The firm’s name, “D1,” stands for “Day One,” inspired by Jeff Bezos’s philosophy of maintaining a startup mentality and avoiding organizational complacency ¹³. Sundheim seeded the firm with more than $500 million of his own capital ¹².

D1 is headquartered at 9 West 57th Street in New York City ⁴. The firm deploys capital across both public and private markets, combining a long/short equity hedge fund with significant private market investments ¹². As of October 2025, D1 managed approximately $24.5 billion in assets, with private investments comprising roughly 60% of total assets and public equities making up the remainder ¹⁵.

The firm originally managed approximately $3 billion at launch, which grew to $20 billion by the end of 2020 with annualized returns of nearly 30% ¹. In its first two full years, D1 returned 36.8% in 2019 and 60.7% in 2020 ². However, the firm suffered significant losses during the January 2021 GameStop short squeeze, losing approximately $4 billion (20% of capital) in a single month ¹². D1 then lost 34% in 2022, with most losses in the first five months ². Following strategy adjustments in June 2022, the public portfolio recovered strongly, gaining 19% in 2023 and 34% through September 2024 ². Since the June 2022 changes, D1’s public portfolio has risen approximately 85%, with a Sharpe ratio of 2.8 ².

D1’s private portfolio has returned 122% cumulatively since inception, compared to 109% for the public portfolio (net of fees) ². In 2025, D1’s private book gained 39%, driven largely by its SpaceX position ⁶. In October 2025, D1 began raising its first dedicated private equity fund targeting over $1 billion in commitments, marking its first traditional PE-style structure with a hard close and committed capital ⁷⁸.

Sundheim is also a minority owner of the Charlotte Hornets NBA franchise, having acquired a stake in September 2019 ¹. The firm has a team of approximately 39 members, including 10 partners and 13 principals located in the United States and China ⁹.

Stated Thesis

D1 Capital publicly describes itself as “a global investment firm that deploys capital in both public and private markets on behalf of institutional investors worldwide,” with “a fundamental investment strategy with a focus on medium to long-term returns” across the consumer, business and financial services, healthcare, industrials, real estate, and technology, media and telecom sectors ⁴⁹.

Sundheim has articulated his investment philosophy around several core principles:

Fundamental, long-term analysis: Sundheim has stated: “We invest in public and private companies…with a horizon of three to five years” ³. The firm takes a bottom-up approach with no quantitative models, describing its style as “really kind of the same thing people were doing in terms of stock picking 30 years ago” ³.

Private markets as less competitive: Sundheim has said that “public markets are the most competitive in the world” but “private markets are less competitive, as you have fewer people and less capital analyzing companies” ³¹⁰. He has expressed the view that successful private companies should avoid going public, stating: “If I ran a private company like Stripe, I wouldn’t go public” ³.

Art over science: Sundheim describes stock picking as “an art, not a science” and acknowledges: “I am wrong all the time, even when I’ve done a ton of work” ³.

Conviction-driven: D1 starts building positions while the investment memo is still being written, using the memo as a final diligence check rather than a prerequisite ³. Sundheim maintains 90-95% of trading authority personally ³.

Pattern recognition and qualitative moats: The firm emphasizes understanding management quality and unique industry structures as key differentiators in investment selection ³.

Inferred Thesis

The following analysis is based on 21 verified private investments. Given that D1 has made an estimated 69+ private investments according to aggregator databases, this represents approximately 30% of the known private portfolio. The analysis should be treated as directional rather than definitive.

Sector distribution (based on 21 verified private investments): - Enterprise software / SaaS: 5 of 21 (24%) — OneStream, Alkami, Airtable, Beacon Software, Fivetran - AI / AI infrastructure: 4 of 21 (19%) — Anthropic, Groq, OpenAI, Beacon Software (counted once above) - Fintech / financial services: 3 of 21 (14%) — Ramp, Ualá, Robinhood - Consumer / food-tech: 2 of 21 (10%) — Instacart, Sweetgreen - Logistics / infrastructure: 2 of 21 (10%) — Lineage Logistics, SpaceX - Networking / telecom: 1 of 21 (5%) — DriveNets - Defense / aerospace: 1 of 21 (5%) — Hadrian - Consumer products: 1 of 21 (5%) — JUUL Labs - E-commerce / marketplace: 1 of 21 (5%) — Provi - Collectibles: 1 of 21 (5%) — Collectors Holdings

Stage distribution: D1’s private investments are overwhelmingly later-stage, non-control minority stakes in growth companies. Of the 21 verified investments, the vast majority (18+) were growth-stage or late-stage rounds (Series B and beyond). This aligns with D1’s crossover hedge fund model, where private investments function more like pre-IPO public equity positions than traditional venture capital.

Check size: D1’s private investment checks are very large, typically $100M-$600M per investment. Notable examples include leading Instacart’s $600M round (2018), Robinhood’s $200M round (2020), OneStream’s $200M round (2021), Alkami’s $140M round (2020), Ramp’s $115M round (2021), and DriveNets’ $208M round (2021).

Geographic concentration: The portfolio is heavily concentrated in the United States, with investments spanning New York (Ramp), San Francisco/Bay Area (Instacart, Robinhood, Anthropic, Groq, SpaceX), and other U.S. cities (Alkami in Oklahoma, OneStream in Michigan). International investments include DriveNets (Israel) and Ualá (Argentina).

Co-investor patterns: D1 frequently co-invests with other Tiger Cub and crossover hedge funds. Tiger Global appears in at least 3 verified deals (Groq, OneStream). Other frequent co-investors include Coatue Management, Founders Fund, and Bessemer Venture Partners.

Notable gaps: Despite claiming broad sector coverage including healthcare, real estate, and TMT broadly, the verified private portfolio is heavily weighted toward enterprise software and AI. Healthcare and real estate are notably absent from confirmed private investments. The stated thesis also does not emphasize the firm’s very large bets on AI infrastructure companies (Anthropic, Groq, OpenAI), which have become a defining feature of the portfolio since 2021.

Board involvement: D1 takes board seats selectively. Dan Sundheim has served on Instacart’s Board of Directors since June 2020 ¹¹.

Portfolio

The following table represents verified private market investments by D1 Capital Partners. This is a partial view; aggregator databases indicate D1 has made 69+ private investments total.

In Their Own Words

Dan Sundheim on conviction investing: “The biggest mistakes are selling the Costcos too early because the IRR is totally dependent upon what you assume the exit multiple is.” — Invest Like the Best podcast, February 2026 ³

Sundheim on long-term holding: “Only so many amazing companies and trying to sell them and move into something else is almost always a bad decision.” — Invest Like the Best podcast, February 2026 ³

Sundheim on the GameStop short squeeze: “That was the toughest period I’ve ever had…it was almost like I felt like it was an emotional shock.” — Cheeky Pint podcast, 2024 ³

Sundheim on humility: “I am wrong all the time, even when I’ve done a ton of work.” — Cheeky Pint podcast, 2024 ³

Sundheim on short selling: “Shorting is leverage…Risk management has to happen before the fact, meaning you size these positions so that when it goes up, you don’t have to cover.” — Cheeky Pint podcast, 2024 ³

Sundheim on public markets: “I think the public markets are kind of problematic at this point.” — Cheeky Pint podcast, 2024 ³

Sundheim on Alkami: “We believe that Alkami is a clear industry leader in the digital banking space that has earned the trust of hundreds of financial institutions.” — Alkami press release, September 2020 ¹⁸

Sundheim on Instacart: “We have strong conviction in Instacart and its team” and highlighted that the grocery sector is “the largest category within U.S. retail” with significant room for online growth. — Instacart press release, October 2018 ¹¹

What Founders Say

No independently sourced founder testimonials found. D1 Capital Partners operates primarily as a crossover hedge fund taking large, later-stage positions, and portfolio founder testimonials are not commonly surfaced in public media for this type of investor. Press releases from portfolio companies acknowledge D1’s investment but do not typically include founder commentary about the investor relationship.

Sources