FirstMark Capital
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Formerly | Pequot Ventures |
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Company type | Private |
Industry | Private Equity |
Founded | June 30, 2008[1] |
Headquarters | New York City, U.S. |
Key people | Amish Jani Rick Heitzmann |
Products | Venture capital |
Website | www.firstmarkcap.com |
FirstMark Capital is a venture capital firm based in New York City. FirstMark invests in early-stage technology companies, frequently as the first institutional investor. Notable investments include Airbnb, Pinterest, Shopify, DraftKings, Upwork, and InVision.[2][3][4][5]
Among the firm's areas of focus are Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, healthcare, enterprise applications, education, financial technology, e-commerce, direct-to-consumer, and marketing technology.[2]
History
FirstMark was founded on June 30, 2008 by Mr. Lenihan, Jerry Poch, Amish Jani and Rick Heitzmann.[1] The firm has raised 4 early-stage funds and 2 growth funds.
- The first fund, for $197M, was raised in 2008.[6]
- The second fund, for $225M, was raised in 2011.[6]
- The third fund, for $225M, was raised in 2013.[6]
- The fourth fund, for $275M, was raised in 2016.[6]
FirstMark has also raised two growth-stage funds.
- The first growth fund, for $150M, was raised in 2013.[6]
- The second growth fund, for $205M, was raised in 2016.[6]
Team
FirstMark Capital was founded by Rick Heitzmann and Amish Jani in 2008. The firm now has five managing directors: Rick Heitzmann, Amish Jani, Matt Turck, Beth Ferreira and Adam Nelson.
In addition to its investment team, the firm employs a Platform team focused on areas like corporate development, talent, content, and community who are responsible for supporting FirstMark companies after an investment. FirstMark also organizes four NYC-based communities revolving around Artificial Intelligence & Big Data, design and product management, emerging and frontier technology, and software development.
Investments
The firm's most notable investments include Pinterest,[3] which debuted on New York Stock Exchange on April 18, 2019, as well as Shopify.[7] Other current and historical investments include Riot Games, creator of League of Legends (acquired by Tencent Holdings),[8] InVision,[9] Discord,[10] Airbnb,[11] Upwork,[5] TraceLink,[12] Dashlane,[13] Starry,[14] and Ro[15] among others.
FirstMark focuses on Series A and Seed-stage investments, with capital reserved for follow-investments.
References
- ^ a b "Pequot to Separate Its V.C. and Hedge Fund Units". No. DealBook. United States: New York Times. The New York Times Company. 4 March 2008. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
- ^ a b Geron, Tomio (15 June 2016). "FirstMark Capital Raises $480M for Two New Funds". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
- ^ a b Vilarino, Dalbert (24 March 2019). "Hey, Look at Me! I'm a Venture Capitalist". New York Times. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
- ^ Primack, Dan (1 September 2016). "Exclusive: DraftKings Raises Giant New Funding Round". Fortune. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
- ^ a b Crichton, Danny (3 October 2018). "Upwork pops more than 50 percent in Nasdaq debut". TechCrunch. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
- ^ a b c d e f "FirstMark | Crunchbase".
- ^ Shopify Raises $7 Million Series A Funding
- ^ China's Tencent Buys Riot Games for $400 Million
- ^ Ha, Anthony. "InVision Raises $1.5M For Beautiful, Interactive Prototypes". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-11-26.
- ^ Matney, Lucas (21 December 2018). "Gaming chat startup Discord raises $150M, surpassing $2B valuation". TechCrunch. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
- ^ "Airbnb". FirstMark. Retrieved 2019-08-14.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Dashlane Passes 2M Users, Collects $22M For Its Client-Based Password Manager. TechCrunch, May 19, 2014
- ^ "Aereo's Founder Is Back With Starry. This Time He's Going After Broadband, Not TV". Recode. Retrieved 2017-11-26.
- ^ Clark, Kate (15 April 2019). "Ro, a direct-to-consumer online pharmacy, reaches $500M valuation". TechCrunch. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
External links
- FirstMark Capital (company website)
- FirstMark Capital Profile. The Funded.com