Benchmark is a venture capital firm based in San Francisco that provides seed money to startups.
John William Gurley, CFA is a general partner at Benchmark, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm in Menlo Park, California. He is listed consistently on the Forbes Midas List and is considered one of technology’s top dealmakers.
Wix.com Ltd. is an Israeli software company, publicly listed in the US, that provides cloud-based web development services. It allows users to create HTML5 websites and mobile sites through the use of online drag and drop tools. Along with its headquarters and other offices in Israel, Wix also has offices in Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Ireland, Japan, Lithuania, Poland, the Netherlands, the United States, Ukraine, and Singapore.
Peter Fenton is an American venture capitalist based in Silicon Valley. He is a general partner at Benchmark, a venture capital firm. Fenton has steadily worked his way up the Forbes Midas List of the 100 top technology investors, starting at no. 94 in 2007, then rising to no. 62 in 2008 and no. 50 in 2009. Fenton was ranked no. 4 when Forbes resumed publishing its Midas List in 2011 and was described as the "most productive venture capitalist on our list". In 2012, Fenton was ranked no. 5 on the Forbes Midas List and was no. 2 in 2015. He has been a perennial member on the Midas List since 2007.
Udemy, Inc. is a global destination for teaching and learning online. It was founded in May 2010 by Eren Bali, Gagan Biyani, and Oktay Caglar.
Open Garden, Inc. is an American mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) based in Miami, Florida, that sells eSIM-based prepaid mobile data subscriptions.
CustomMade is an online custom jeweler. Until 2015, the business operated as an online marketplace connecting customers with independent artisans who produce custom-designed furniture, jewelry, home décor, and other personalized items. CustomMade is the world's first and largest online seller of custom products. They have 3,500 custom makers registered on the site and have raised a total of $7.65 million in venture funding. On May 21, 2015, the business was acquired by Wayfair for an undisclosed sum after having raised $25.65MM in venture funding. In May 2017, it was announced that founder Seth Rosen had re-purchased the business out of foreclosure in partnership with Western Technology Investment (WTI) to focus on building the custom jewelry business.
Seedrs is an online equity crowdfunding company, headquartered in East London's Tech City, founded in 2009 and launched by Jeff Lynn and Carlos Silva in 2012. Since 2022 it has been a subsidiary of American crowdfunding company Republic.
Zendesk is an American company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It provides software-as-a-service products related to customer support, sales, and other customer communications. The company was founded in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2007. Zendesk raised about $86 million in venture capital investments before going public in 2014.
Mariam Naficy is an American entrepreneur who is the founder and CEO of Minted, an online design marketplace that has products in 70 million homes. In 1998, Naficy co-founded Eve.com, the first major online retailer of cosmetics.
MicroVentures is an equity crowdfunding website offering investments in early stage companies. MicroVentures connects accredited investors with startups, businesses and services looking to raise funds or participate in select secondary market opportunities. It is the only major equity crowdfunding site that is a broker-dealer registered by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the first to take a portfolio company to a successful exit. As of October 2013, MicroVentures had raised $20 million, spread among 45 companies including Twitter, Facebook, and Yelp.
Balderton Capital is a venture capital firm based in London, UK, that invests in early-stage, technology and internet startup companies in Europe. It is considered to be among the four-biggest venture capital firms in the English capital.
Chairish is a curated online marketplace for high-end vintage home furnishings. Chairish accepts furniture and decor with a minimum listing price of $25. Listing items is free, and the seller keeps up to 80 percent of the final sale.
Casper Sleep is an e-commerce company that sells sleep products online and in retail locations. Headquartered in New York City, the company has showrooms in New York City, Chicago, and elsewhere. Its mattresses are manufactured in Georgia and Pennsylvania.
Josh Abramson is an American entrepreneur, and co-founder of the comedy website CollegeHumor. He was one of the principal owners and founders of Connected Ventures, whose properties also included Vimeo and BustedTees, and the co-founder, owner, and CEO of the crowdsourced T-shirt design company TeePublic.
Artspace is an online marketplace for contemporary art. The company is based in New York City, New York and was launched in 2011.
Alejandro Carlos "Alec" Oxenford is an Argentine entrepreneur. He co-founded OLX, and co-founded letgo, a mobile classified ad app in the United States.
Pinkoi is a Taiwanese e-commerce platform focused on the sale of original design goods in East Asia and Southeast Asia, based in Taipei. It was founded by Peter Yen, Mike Lee and Maibelle Lin in 2011.
99designs is a Melbourne, Australia, based company that operates a freelancer platform for connecting graphic designers and clients. The company was founded in 2008, and has a United States office in Oakland, California.
Niniane Wang is an American software engineer and technology executive. In her early career at Google, Wang co-founded Google Desktop and founded Google Lively. She was previously vice president of engineering of Niantic after her company Evertoon was acquired by Niantic in 2017.
