Dorm Room Fund

Last updated
Dorm Room Fund, LLC
TypePrivate
Industry Venture capital
Founded2012
Area served
United States
Website dormroomfund.com

Dorm Room Fund is a $10 million American venture capital firm focused on investments in student-run startups. [1] [2] Established by First Round Capital in 2012, the firm is operated by full-time undergraduate and graduate students. [3] [4] It has backed companies that have raised a combined $300 million in venture capital from investors including Y Combinator, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Union Square Ventures. [5] With investments in over 100 companies,[ citation needed ] the firm is one of the most active seed-stage investors in the US. [6] The firm has teams in San Francisco, New York City, Philadelphia, and Boston.

In addition to providing early-stage capital, [7] Dorm Room Fund draws upon its own resources as well as First round's to support student entrepreneurs. [8] In January 2018, Dorm Room Fund's Head of Engineering Yasyf Mohamedali launched VCWiz, a tool to help founders (student or otherwise) research, discover, and reach out to seed-stage investors. [9] In February 2018, Snap Inc. announced a program to provide free advertising on Snapchat to select up-and-coming startups, targeting Dorm Room Fund portfolio companies in particular. [10]

Portfolio

Dorm Room Fund's portfolio includes A&B American Style, [11] Brooklinen, [12] Blockstack, FiscalNote, [1] Elektra Labs, [13] LearnLux, [14] LovePop[ citation needed ], Grove Labs, BevSpot, Bevi, Humon, and TetraScience. [15] Notable acquisitions within the portfolio include tbh (acquired by Facebook), [16] Firefly, [17] Zodiac (acquired by Nike), [18] [19] and Yard Club (acquired by Caterpillar). [20]

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References

  1. 1 2 "Dorm Room Fund is growing up, but the students are still in charge | Uncubed". Uncubed. 2016-04-21. Retrieved 2018-03-24.
  2. ↑ "First Round Expands $500K Student-Run Investment Arm, Dorm Room Fund, To New York City Universities – TechCrunch". techcrunch.com. Retrieved 2018-03-24.
  3. ↑ Casserly, Meghan. "The Dorm Room Fund: A Conversation With First Round Capital's Phin Barnes". Forbes. Retrieved 2018-03-25.
  4. ↑ Ramsinghani, Mahendra (2014). The Business of Venture Capital. Wiley. p. 192. ISBN   978-1-118-75219-7.
  5. ↑ "DRF 5-Year Report". 5years.dormroomfund.com. Retrieved 2018-03-26.
  6. ↑ "The 106 Most Active Seed Venture Capital Firms". CB Insights Research. 2015-01-10. Retrieved 2018-03-24.
  7. ↑ Konrad, Alex. "College-Specific Funds Are On The Rise – But Are They Built To Last?". Forbes. Retrieved 2018-03-25.
  8. ↑ Casserly, Meghan. "The Dorm Room Fund Goes Back To School With All-Star Resident Advisors". Forbes. Retrieved 2018-03-25.
  9. ↑ "Dorm Room Fund has built a CRM for founders raising a seed round". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2018-11-13.
  10. ↑ "Snap is giving some small startups – including those from Y Combinator – free ads on Snapchat". Recode. Retrieved 2018-03-25.
  11. ↑ "Funded in the Alley: A&B American Style – Dormroom Fund NY's First Very Hot Launch". AlleyWatch. 2013-09-05. Retrieved 2018-03-25.
  12. ↑ "Dorm Room Fund & NYU entrepreneurs – What You Need To Know". NYU Entrepreneurship. 2017-10-23. Retrieved 2018-03-25.
  13. ↑ "No one knows how effective digital therapies are, but a new tool from Elektra Labs aims to change that". TechCrunch. 2019-11-12. Retrieved 2020-12-05.
  14. ↑ "New Money: MassChallenge Alum Gets Dorm Room Fund Investment; Drone Co. Raises Seed Round". www.americaninno.com. Retrieved 2018-03-25.
  15. ↑ "MIT Startups in Dorm Room Fund". mitadmissions.org. Retrieved 2018-03-25.
  16. ↑ O'Brien, Sara Ashley. "Facebook acquires beloved teen app 'tbh'". CNNMoney. Retrieved 2018-03-25.
  17. ↑ "Dorm Room Fund's Firefly sold to Pegasystems". Philly.com. Retrieved 2018-03-25.
  18. ↑ "First Round Capital leads $3M round in Wharton-founded predictive analytics startup". Technical.ly Philly. 2016-03-24. Retrieved 2018-03-25.
  19. ↑ Bain, Marc. "Nike is trying to become the next great direct-to-consumer brand". Quartz. Retrieved 2018-03-25.
  20. ↑ "Caterpillar acquired Yard Club, a marketplace for construction equipment". techcrunch.com. Retrieved 2018-03-25.
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