First Round Capital
 | |
| Industry | Venture Capital |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2004 |
| Headquarters | San Francisco |
| Website | www.firstround.com |
First Round is a venture capital firm that specializes in providing seed-stage funding to technology companies.
Founded by Josh Kopelman,[1] the firm's investment team now includes Chris Fralic, Rob Hayes, Howard L. Morgan, Bill Trenchard, Phineas Barnes, Nico Gonzalez and Wiley Cerilli. First Round typically provides seed-stage funding and focuses on portfolio companies' growth during their first 18 months. It has offices in San Francisco, Philadelphia and New York.
The company seeks to take an active role in supporting the operations of its portfolio companies.[2] To make this possible, it built a platform team to encourage community between its portfolio companies, hold industry events, promote mindshare and offer consulting services.[3] In 2012, the firm launched Dorm Room Fund for college students to fund startups founded by their peers.[4]
Since its inception in 2004, First Round has backed more than 150 companies,[5] including Uber,[6] Square,[7] Warby Parker,[8] Knewton,[9] Wikia,[10] Odeo,[11] The Climate Corporation,[12] Clover Health [13] and more. First Round has already generated significant returns for its investors from acquisitions such as StumbleUpon by eBay for $75 million[14] and Mint.com by Intuit for $170 million.[15]
Every December, the firm produces a video holiday card[16] based on the biggest video memes of the year, and featuring executives from First Round and its portfolio companies. In the past, holiday videos have gone viral, spoofing Miley Cyrus' song "Wrecking Ball," "Call me Maybe" and "Gangnam Style."
In 2010, the company was ranked the third busiest venture capital investor in the United States, as measured by its number of deals.[17]
References
- ^ Well-Known Tech Investor Aims Higher, cnnmoney.com, September 7, 2007
- ^ "First Round Capital, Ideal Startup Investment", Angelsoft.net
- ^ "In the Studio," Kent Goldman Discusses First Round's Platform Approach, techcrunch.com, September 20, 2012
- ^ For Students, By Students: First Round Capital Announces Dorm Room Fund in Philly, PandoDaily, September 24, 2012
- ^ "First Round Capital", CrunchBase, December 2013
- ^ UberCab Closes Uber Angel Round, techcrunch.com, October 15, 2010
- ^ Square Closes $200M Round from Starbucks, Others, PE Hub, September 17, 2012,
- ^ Warby Parker Raises Money to Sell Prescription Glasses Online, The New York Times, September 22, 2011,
- ^ Newly Profitable Knewton Raises $51M for Personalized Learning, VentureBeat, December 20, 2013
- ^ Bent on user-generated content, Wikia raises $11M to grow its network of wiki sites, The Next Web, November 30, 2012
- ^ "Odeo," Crunchbase, December 2013
- ^ Climate Corp. Raises Another $50M Led By Founders Fund, GigaOm, June 14, 2012,
- ^ Rao, Leena. "How this startup is trying to upend health insurance". www.fortune.com. Retrieved 30 September 2015.
- ^ eBay press release
- ^ Mint.com press release
- ^ "What Does the VC Sing? Harlem-Shaking, Twerking First Round's 2013 Holiday Video Is a Wrecking Ball," AllThingsD, December 19, 2013
- ^ First Round: #3 US venture capitalist moves HQ to W. Philly. Philly.com (2012-08-15). Retrieved on 2014-04-19.
External links
- First Round (company website)