Valor Equity Partners
Status
ACTIVE
Global HQ
Chicago, United States
Countries of investment
- United States
Investment stages
- Seed
- Series A
- Series B
- Series C
- Series D
- Growth
Industries
- Aerospace
- Space Tech
- Defense Tech
- AI
- Electric Vehicles
- Energy
- Fintech
- Robotics
- FoodTech
- Retail Tech
About
Valor Equity Partners is a Chicago-based growth equity firm founded and run by Antonio Gracias, best known as a long-time backer of Tesla, SpaceX, xAI and Anduril. New SEC filings dated 3 November 2026 show Valor Equity Partners VII and its parallel funds have raised about $3.3B from 1,476 investors, making it the largest flagship fund in the firm's history, up from the $2.35B Fund VI closed in 2024 and above the at least $2.5B target reported in June 2026. No final close has been announced and the offering remains open, with part of the fund earmarked for further SpaceX investment. Alongside the flagship, Valor manages venture, opportunity, AI and national security strategies and reports about $59.3B in regulatory assets under management.
Valor Equity Partners is a Chicago-based growth equity firm founded and run by Antonio Gracias, best known as a long-time backer of Tesla, SpaceX, xAI and Anduril. New SEC filings dated 3 November 2026 show Valor Equity Partners VII and its parallel funds have raised about $3.3B from 1,476 investors, making it the largest flagship fund in the firm's history, up from the $2.35B Fund VI closed in 2024 and above the at least $2.5B target reported in June 2026. No final close has been announced and the offering remains open, with part of the fund earmarked for further SpaceX investment. Alongside the flagship, Valor manages venture, opportunity, AI and national security strategies and reports about $59.3B in regulatory assets under management.
Investment Thesis
Valor Equity Partners is an operational growth investor that backs high-growth technology and technology-enabled companies at an inflection point in scaling, across aerospace, defense, AI, energy, mobility, fintech and food and retail. It writes growth checks historically in the $25M to $75M range and also makes small early-stage relationship investments that feed its growth pipeline. Its differentiator is the in-house Scale Group, which gives hands-on operational support and was refined over two decades alongside Tesla and SpaceX, plus a focus on what it calls pro-entropic businesses that can grow through economic cycles.
Manager's Experience
Antonio Gracias founded MG Capital in 1995, whose core team became Valor, and served on Tesla's board from 2007 to 2021, including as lead independent director, while still sitting on the SpaceX board. Under his leadership Valor grew its flagship funds from $490M for Fund III in 2015, raised above a $350M target, to $1.05B for Fund IV, $1.7B for Fund V and $2.35B for Fund VI. The firm led Anduril's $1.48B Series E in 2022 and co-led Hadrian's $1.37B Series D in August 2026.
Team
Antonio Gracias - Founder and CEO
Juan Sabater - Partner and Co-President
Jonathan Shulkin - Partner and Co-President
Christopher Cavoli - Partner
Christopher Murphy - Partner
Vivek K. Pattipati - Partner
Bradley Sheftel - Partner
Anne Dean - Chief Financial Officer
Portfolio
SpaceX
xAI
Anduril
Hadrian
Neuralink
Tesla
Zipline
Redwood Materials
Crusoe