FirstMark Capital

Last updated
FirstMark Capital
Company type Private
Industry Private Equity
FoundedJune 30, 2008;16 years ago (2008-06-30) [1]
Headquarters New York City, U.S.
Key people
Rick Heitzmann
Amish Jani
Products Venture capital
Website Official website

FirstMark is a Venture capital firm based in New York City. FirstMark invests in early-stage technology companies, frequently as the first institutional investor and leading the rounds it participates in. Notable investments include Airbnb, Pinterest, Shopify, DraftKings, Stubhub, Upwork, and Ro. [2] [3] [4] [5]

Contents

History

FirstMark was founded in 2008 by Amish Jani and Rick Heitzmann as a spinoff from Pequot Capital Management. [1]

In 2013, FirstMark raised $225m. Then in 2014, it raised a $150 million fund. By 2016, it had raised $1.3bn in eight years, with dedicated funds for both early- and growth stage investments. [6] In June of 2020, FirstMark announced FirstMark V (a $380M early-stage fund) and Opportunity Fund III (a $270M growth stage fund). [7]

In June 2022, the firm announced the closing of its most recent funds, FirstMark VI and FirstMark Opportunity Fund IV, totaling approximately $1.1 billion in commitments, [8] representing more than $3.5B of total committed capital since inception.

Team

As of 2022, the firm has five investing partners: Rick Heitzmann, Amish Jani, Matt Turck, Beth Ferreira, and Adam Nelson. [9] In early 2023 Rick Heitzmann was named to the Forbes Midas List for the third consecutive year. [10] [11] [12]

Investments and Model

FirstMark has a heavy presence in New York City, and invests primarily in companies based on the East Coast and in Europe. The firm's main areas of investment include AI, healthcare, finance, consumer, property technology, marketplaces, infrastructure, e-commerce, education, and enterprise software. [13]

The firm's most notable investments include Pinterest, [3] which debuted on New York Stock Exchange on April 18, 2019, as well as Shopify. [14] Other prominent investments include Riot Games, creator of League of Legends (Acquired by Tencent Holdings), [15] Discord, [16] Airbnb, [17] Upwork, [5] TraceLink, [18] Dataiku, [19] Dashlane, [20] Synthesia, [21] and Ro. [22]

Related Research Articles

Sequoia Capital is an American venture capital firm headquartered in Menlo Park, California which specializes in seed stage, early stage, and growth stage investments in private companies across technology sectors. As of 2022, the firm had approximately US$85 billion in assets under management.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ron Conway</span> American businessman

Ronald Crawford Conway is an American venture capitalist and philanthropist. He has been described as one of Silicon Valley's "super angels".

Founders Fund is a San Francisco based venture capital firm formed in 2005 and has roughly $12 billion in total assets under management as of 2023. Founders Fund was the first institutional investor in Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and Palantir Technologies, and an early investor in Facebook. The firm's partners have been founders, early employees and investors at companies including PayPal, Palantir Technologies, Anduril Industries and SpaceX.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Index Ventures</span> European worldwide venture capital firm

Index Ventures is a European venture capital firm with dual headquarters in San Francisco and London, investing in technology-enabled companies with a focus on e-commerce, fintech, mobility, gaming, infrastructure/AI, and security. Since its founding in 1996, the firm has invested in a number of companies and raised approximately $5.6 billion. Index Venture partners appear frequently on Forbes’ Midas List of the top tech investors in Europe and Israel.

Lightspeed Venture Partners is a global venture capital firm focusing on seed stage, early stage investments and growth stage investments in the enterprise, fintech, consumer and healthcare sectors. Lightspeed has eleven offices globally and as of 2023 had approximately US$25 billion in assets under management.

Redpoint Ventures is an American venture capital firm focused on investments in seed, early and growth-stage companies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First Round Capital</span> Venture capital firm

First Round Capital is a US-based venture capital firm that specializes in providing seed-stage funding to technology companies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Institutional Venture Partners</span> American investment firm

Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) is a US-based venture capital investment firm focusing on later-stage companies and growth equity investments. IVP is one of the oldest venture capital firms, founded in 1980.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bain Capital Ventures</span> American venture capital division within Bain Capital

Bain Capital Ventures LLC is the venture capital division within Bain Capital, which has approximately $160 billion of assets under management worldwide. The firm's early-stage investments have included Attentive, Bloomreach, Billtrust, Docusign, Flywire, LinkedIn, Justworks, Turbonomic, Rent the Runway, Twilio, Rapid7, and Redis. Bain Capital Ventures manages $10 billion of committed capital, has over 400 active portfolio companies, and has offices in New York City, Palo Alto, and San Francisco.

Greycroft LP is an American venture capital firm. It manages over $2 billion in capital with investments in companies such as Bird, Bumble, HuffPost, Goop, Scopely, The RealReal, and Venmo. Greycroft was founded in 2006 by Alan Patricof, Dana Settle, and Ian Sigalow. The firm is headquartered in New York City and Los Angeles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lux Capital</span> American venture capital firm

Lux Capital is a venture capital firm based in New York City. It was founded in 2000, and focuses on investments in emerging technologies.

Andreessen Horowitz is a private American venture capital firm, founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. The company is headquartered in Menlo Park, California. As of April 2023, Andreessen Horowitz ranks first on the list of venture capital firms by assets under management, with $42 billion as of May 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Payoneer</span> Financial services company

Payoneer Global Inc. is an American financial services company that provides online money transfer, digital payment services and provides customers with working capital.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Enterprise Associates</span> American Venture Capital firm

New Enterprise Associates (NEA) is an American-based venture capital firm. NEA focuses investment stages ranging from seed stage through growth stage across an array of industry sectors. With over $25 billion in committed capital, NEA is one of the world's largest venture capital firms.

Drive Capital is a venture capital firm headquartered in Columbus, Ohio.

Flexport Inc. is an American multinational corporation that focuses on supply chain management and logistics, including order management, delivery, trade financing, insurance, freight forwarding, and customs brokerage. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, California, has thousands of employees and annual revenues of more than $3.3 billion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theresia Gouw</span>

Theresia Gouw is an entrepreneur and venture capital investor in the technology sector. She worked at Bain & Company, Release Software and Accel Partners before co-founding Aspect Ventures, a female-led venture capital firm, in 2014. Gouw was named one of the 40 most influential minds in tech by Time Magazine. and has been recognized seven times on the Forbes Midas List as one of the "world's smartest tech investors". According to Forbes, Gouw is the richest female venture capitalist, with a net worth of approximately $500 million, primarily due to her involvement with Accel (company)'s early investment in Facebook.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tiger Global Management</span> American investment firm

Tiger Global Management, LLC is an American investment firm founded by Chase Coleman III, a former Tiger Management employee under Julian Robertson, in March 2001. It mainly focuses on internet, software, consumer, and financial technology companies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dragoneer Investment Group</span> American investment firm

The Dragoneer Investment Group (Dragoneer) is an American investment firm based in San Francisco, California. The firm focuses on technology investments in both public and private markets globally.

References

  1. 1 2 "Pequot to Separate Its V.C. and Hedge Fund Units". New York Times. No. DealBook. United States. The New York Times Company. 4 March 2008. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  2. Geron, Tomio (15 June 2016). "FirstMark Capital Raises $480M for Two New Funds". Wall Street Journal . Retrieved 10 October 2019.
  3. 1 2 Vilarino, Dalbert (24 March 2019). "Hey, Look at Me! I'm a Venture Capitalist". New York Times . Retrieved 10 October 2019.
  4. Primack, Dan (1 September 2016). "Exclusive: DraftKings Raises Giant New Funding Round". Fortune . Retrieved 10 October 2019.
  5. 1 2 Crichton, Danny (3 October 2018). "Upwork pops more than 50 percent in Nasdaq debut". TechCrunch . Retrieved 10 October 2019.
  6. "Why FirstMark plans to invest $480M in 'non-obvious' companies". New York Business Journal. 2016.
  7. Crook, Jordan. "FirstMark Capital announces new funds with a fresh $650 million in investment capital". TechCrunch. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  8. "FirstMark Capital racks up $1.1bn across two funds". www.venturecapitaljournal.com. 2022.
  9. "Announcing our Newest Funds". FirstMark Capital. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  10. "Venture capital was severely over-funded in 2020 and 2021: FirstMark Capital's Heitzmann". www.cnbc.com. 2023.
  11. "There's going to be a lot of anxiety over SVB the next couple days, says FirstMark Capital's Rich Heitzmann". www.cnbc.com. CNBC. 2023.
  12. "Rick Heitzmann". Forbes. Retrieved 2023-06-28.
  13. "FirstMark Capital LLC". www.bloomberg.com. 2023.
  14. Ghose, Carrie (24 February 2020). "Columbus e-commerce startup plans to add 40 jobs". Columbus Business First. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
  15. China's Tencent Buys Riot Games for $400 Million
  16. Matney, Lucas (21 December 2018). "Gaming chat startup Discord raises $150M, surpassing $2B valuation". TechCrunch . Retrieved 10 October 2019.
  17. "Airbnb". FirstMark. Retrieved 2019-08-14.
  18. Crook, Jordan (30 November 2016). "TraceLink, helping the pharma industry trace and track drugs, lands $51.5M from Goldman Sachs". TechCrunch . Retrieved 10 October 2019.
  19. . TechCrunch, May 19, 2014
  20. Dashlane Passes 2M Users, Collects $22M For Its Client-Based Password Manager. TechCrunch, May 19, 2014
  21. "2023 06 16 Synthesia Announces 90 Million Series C // Cooley // Global Law Firm". www.cooley.com. Retrieved 2023-06-28.
  22. Mascarenhas, Natasha (2022-02-15). "Existing investors double down on Ro at boosted $7 billion valuation". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2023-06-28.