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Investors
Founders
About
Facebook (now Meta Platforms, Inc.) is a social networking platform founded on February 4, 2004, by Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes, and Andrew McCollum while they were students at Harvard University 12. Zuckerberg was the lead programmer, Saverin handled business operations, Moskovitz was an additional programmer, McCollum served as the graphic artist, and Hughes acted as a spokesperson 2.
The platform launched initially as “TheFacebook” exclusively for Harvard students before expanding to other Ivy League schools, then all universities, and eventually to the general public 12. Sean Parker, co-founder of Napster, became the company’s first president in 2004 and played a key role in connecting the founders with early investors 3.
Ron Conway was an early angel investor in Facebook. The investment came through his connection with Sean Parker – Conway had backed Parker since his Napster days. Parker called Conway and said, “Hey, you gotta come look at this one, I am going to be the president of this company” 34.
Facebook went public on May 18, 2012, in what was then the largest technology IPO in U.S. history, raising $16 billion at a $104 billion valuation 56. The company rebranded to Meta Platforms, Inc. in October 2021 to reflect its broader focus on the “metaverse” 7.
Funding History
| Round | Date | Amount | Lead Investor(s) | Key Co-Investors | Valuation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seed | Jun 2004 | $500K | Peter Thiel | Ron Conway, Reid Hoffman, Mark Pincus, Maurice Werdegar | $4.9M |
| Series A | May 2005 | $12.7M | Accel Partners | Peter Thiel | $87.5M |
| Series B | Apr 2006 | $27.5M | Greylock Partners | Meritech Capital, Accel Partners, Peter Thiel | $500M |
| Series C | 2007-10-24 | $240M | Microsoft | — | $15B 1516 |
| Angel/Secondary | 2007-11-30 | $60M | Li Ka-Shing | — | ~$15B 1718 |
| Angel/Secondary | Jan 2008 | $15M | European Founders Fund | — | — |
| Series D | 2009-05-26 | $200M | DST Global | Yuri Milner | $10B 1920 |
| Secondary | 2009-11 | $90M | Elevation Partners | — | ~$9B 21 |
| Secondary | Jun 2010 | $120M | Elevation Partners | — | — |
| Series F | Jan 2011 | $500M | Goldman Sachs | DST Global | $50B |
| IPO | 2012-05-18 | $16B | Public markets | — | $104B 2223 |
What Investors Say
Ron Conway (SV Angel): Conway described Mark Zuckerberg as “a defining entrepreneur” – someone with “the mindset of the consumer burned into their brain.” He noted that “Zuckerberg really understands the mind of what is now the Facebook generation” 34.
Peter Thiel (Seed investor): Thiel made a $500,000 angel investment in August 2004 for 10.2% of the company. He was drawn to the fact that the product was already working: “They were at something like 20 college campuses with about 100,000 people on the network.” Thiel said: “I was comfortable with them pursuing their original vision. And it was a very reasonable valuation…I thought it was going to be a pretty safe investment” 1112.
Peter Thiel on the investment opportunity: “I think investors always have a bias to invest in things they themselves use and they undervalue things they don’t use so there aren’t many investors who are in college” 11.
What Founders Say
Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook’s origins: “Facebook was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission – to make the world more open and connected” 13.
Mark Zuckerberg on the original idea: “I never started this to build a company” 14.
Mark Zuckerberg on company building: Through building a team, developer community, advertising market, and investor base, Zuckerberg developed “a deep appreciation for how building a strong company with a strong economic engine and strong growth can be the best way to align many people to solve important problems” 13.
Sources
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Britannica Money, “Facebook | Overview, History, Controversies, & Facts,” accessed March 2026. https://www.britannica.com/money/Facebook↩↩
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Medium (Girls Into VC), “Success Story: Facebook,” accessed March 2026. https://medium.com/@girlsintovc/success-story-facebook-f60cef34c9ea↩↩↩↩
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Fortune, “Silicon Valley investing legend Ron Conway on the lessons learned from Napster,” December 2, 2020. https://fortune.com/2020/12/02/ron-conway-sv-angel-napster-google-facebook/↩↩↩
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Hustle Fund, “What Ron Conway Investments Teach Us About Network Effects,” accessed March 2026. https://www.hustlefund.vc/post/angel-squad-what-ron-conway-investments-teach-us-about-network-effects-and-why-the-godfather-of-silicon-valleys-playbook-still-works↩↩
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History.com, “Facebook raises $16 billion in largest tech IPO in U.S. history,” accessed March 2026. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/may-18/facebook-raises-16-billion-in-largest-tech-ipo-in-u-s-history↩↩
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Eqvista, “Facebook Initial Public Offering: All you need to know,” accessed March 2026. https://eqvista.com/facebook-initial-public-offering-all-you-need-to-know/↩↩
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Meta Platforms website, “About Meta,” accessed March 2026. https://about.meta.com↩
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Fortune, “Timeline: Where Facebook got its funding,” January 11, 2011. https://fortune.com/2011/01/11/timeline-where-facebook-got-its-funding/↩
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CNBC, “Facebook Investors,” May 18, 2012. https://www.cnbc.com/2012/05/18/Facebook-Investors.html↩
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Tracxn, “Facebook - 2026 Company Profile, Team, Funding,” accessed March 2026. https://tracxn.com/d/companies/facebook/__1_l2C14qkH1t9v5H9RnnrBZILt1tZk1DWHJy38tLV2M↩
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Startup Archive, “Peter Thiel explains how he became the first investor in Facebook,” accessed March 2026. https://www.startuparchive.org/p/peter-thiel-explains-how-he-became-the-first-investor-in-facebook↩↩
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LinkedIn, “Angel Investor & Visionary: Celebrating Peter Thiel’s Legendary 2000x Return on Facebook,” accessed March 2026. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/angel-investor-visionary-celebrating-peter-thiels-2000x-bobby-edelman-vremc↩
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TechCrunch, “Facebook’s S-1 Letter From Zuckerberg Urges Understanding Before Investment,” February 1, 2012. https://techcrunch.com/2012/02/01/facebook-ipo-letter/↩↩
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CNBC, “How Mark Zuckerberg came up with the idea for Facebook,” January 17, 2018. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/17/why-mark-zuckerberg-started-facebook.html↩
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Microsoft News Center, “Facebook and Microsoft Expand Strategic Alliance,” October 24, 2007. https://news.microsoft.com/source/2007/10/24/facebook-and-microsoft-expand-strategic-alliance/↩↩
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TechCrunch, “Facebook Takes the Microsoft Money And Runs,” October 24, 2007. https://techcrunch.com/2007/10/24/facebook-takes-the-microsoft-money-and-runs/↩↩
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AllThingsD (Kara Swisher), “Facebook Nabs $60 Million Investment from Li Ka-shing,” November 30, 2007. https://allthingsd.com/20071130/facebook-nabs-60-million-investment-from-li-ka-shing/↩↩
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VentureBeat, “Facebook gets $60M from Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing,” November 30, 2007. https://venturebeat.com/2007/11/30/facebook-gets-60m-from-hong-kong-billionaire-li-ka-shing↩↩
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Facebook Newsroom, “Facebook Receives Investment from Digital Sky Technologies,” May 26, 2009. https://about.fb.com/news/2009/05/facebook-receives-investment-from-digital-sky-technologies/↩↩
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Wikipedia, “Yuri Milner,” accessed April 2026 — documents the May 26, 2009 DST-Facebook agreement at a $10B valuation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_Milner↩↩
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TechCrunch, “Source: Elevation Partners Got About 1% Of Facebook For $90 Million,” April 5, 2010 — reports the November 2009 secondary purchase of 2.5M shares at $20/share, implying ~$9B valuation. https://techcrunch.com/2010/04/05/source-elevation-partners-got-about-1-of-facebook-for-90-million/↩↩
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Wikipedia, “Initial public offering of Facebook,” accessed April 2026 — documents May 18, 2012 IPO at $38/share, $16B raised, ~$104B peak market cap. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initial_public_offering_of_Facebook↩↩
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CNN Money, “Facebook’s IPO: Trading opens at $42 per share,” May 18, 2012. https://money.cnn.com/2012/05/18/technology/facebook-ipo-trading/index.htm↩↩