FirstMark Capital

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FirstMark Capital
FormerlyPequot Ventures
TypePrivate
IndustryPrivate Equity
FoundedJune 30, 2008; 13 years ago (2008-06-30)[1]
HeadquartersNew York City, U.S.
Key people
Amish Jani
Rick Heitzmann
ProductsVenture capital
WebsiteOfficial website

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]

In March 2021, FirstMark Acquisition Corp III–a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) backed by FirstMark Capital–filed an IPO for up to $400M to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The SPAC will be led by FirstMark founders Richard Heitzmann and Amish Jani.[6]

Team[]

FirstMark Capital was founded by Rick Heitzmann and Amish Jani in 2008.[7] As of 2021, the firm has six partners: Rick Heitzmann, Amish Jani, Matt Turck, Beth Ferreira, Adam Nelson and Dan Kozikowski.[8]

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.[9] Other current and historical investments include Riot Games, creator of League of Legends (acquired by Tencent Holdings),[10] InVision,[11] Discord,[12] Airbnb,[13] Upwork,[5] TraceLink,[14] Dataiku,[15] Dashlane,[16] Starry,[17] and Ro[18] among others.

FirstMark focuses on Series A and Seed-stage investments, with capital reserved for follow-investments.

References[]

  1. ^ a b "Pequot to Separate Its V.C. and Hedge Fund Units". New York Times (DealBook). United States. The New York Times Company. 4 March 2008. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  2. ^ a b Geron, Tomio (15 June 2016). "FirstMark Capital Raises $480M for Two New Funds". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
  3. ^ a b 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. ^ a b Crichton, Danny (3 October 2018). "Upwork pops more than 50 percent in Nasdaq debut". TechCrunch. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
  6. ^ "Blank-check firm backed by FirstMark Capital execs files for up to $400 million IPO". Reuters. 15 March 2021. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
  7. ^ Konrad, Alex (December 5, 2017), "New York VC Beth Ferreira Joins FirstMark, The Firm's Second Female Partner Hire In Two Months", Forbes, retrieved March 15, 2021CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  8. ^ FirstMark Team, FirstMark Company Website, retrieved March 15, 2021
  9. ^ Ghose, Carrie (24 February 2020). "Columbus e-commerce startup plans to add 40 jobs". Columbus Business First. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
  10. ^ China's Tencent Buys Riot Games for $400 Million
  11. ^ Ha, Anthony. "InVision Raises $1.5M For Beautiful, Interactive Prototypes". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-11-26.
  12. ^ Matney, Lucas (21 December 2018). "Gaming chat startup Discord raises $150M, surpassing $2B valuation". TechCrunch. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
  13. ^ "Airbnb". FirstMark. Retrieved 2019-08-14.
  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.
  15. ^ [1]. TechCrunch, May 19, 2014
  16. ^ Dashlane Passes 2M Users, Collects $22M For Its Client-Based Password Manager. TechCrunch, May 19, 2014
  17. ^ "Aereo's Founder Is Back With Starry. This Time He's Going After Broadband, Not TV". Recode. Retrieved 2017-11-26.
  18. ^ Clark, Kate (15 April 2019). "Ro, a direct-to-consumer online pharmacy, reaches $500M valuation". TechCrunch. Retrieved 10 October 2019.

External links[]

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