Armed with some publicly available data from our friends at CrunchBase, I broke down the 10 largest seed rounds of all time in NYC. I have included some additional information as well, such as year of funding, industry, investors in the round, and current status of the company, to further the analysis. In order to maintain a focus on conventional tech startups, pharmaceutical and biotech companies were removed from the data.
Quick Findings:
- 50% of the 10 largest seed rounds in NYC history place in 2013 and 2014 Tweet this
- First Round was involved in 3 of top 10 seed fundings in NYC history Tweet this
- The largest seed round in NYC history is in the enterprise space Tweet this
- The company that was funded first (2003) went public 4 years after funding.
- 1 of these companies was acquired. Two IPO’ed and one of these two was later acquired once public.
- All of the companies are still operational in some capacity, although one is on deathwatch. This company happened to raise the most amount of capital of any in the group.
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE 10 LARGEST SEED ROUNDS IN NYC HISTORY
10. LinkStorm $4.25M (2007)
Industry:
Advertising
Investors in the Round:
New York Angels
Rose Tech Ventures
Total Capital raised:
$8.5M
Current status:
Operational
9. ALOHA $4.5M (2014)
Industry:
Health and Wellness
Investors in the Round:
David Gilboa
Constantin Bisanz
Forerunner Ventures
Khosla Ventures
FF Angel LLC
Highland Capital Partners
First Round
Total Capital raised:
$4.5M
Current status:
Operational
9. Cortica $4.5M (2007)
Industry:
Advertising
Investors in the Round:
None Disclosed
Total Capital raised:
$37.9M
Current status:
Company raised a $20M Series C in March and is operational
9. Aereo $4.5M (2011)
Industry:
Curated Web
Investors in the Round:
SV Angel
High Line Venture Partners
First Round
FirstMark Capital
Highland Capital Partners
Total Capital raised:
$97M
Current status:
Up in the air
8. Flow Stream Solutions $5M (2012)
Industry:
Enterprise Software
Investors in the Round:
Scout Ventures
Trident Capital
Total Capital raised:
$6.4M
Current status:
Operational
8. MemSQL $5M (2011)
Industry:
Analytics
Investors in the Round:
Tom McInerney
Mark LaRosa
Ron Garret
Guy Oseary
Marco Bergmann
Karl Jacob
Paul Buchheit
Y Combinator
Ashton Kutcher
Sam Altman
New Enterprise Associates
First Round
SV Angel
Start Fund
Total Capital raised:
$45M
Current status:
Company closed a $35M Series B in January and is operational
7. Zola Books $5.5M (2013)
Industry:
E-Commerce
Investors in the Round:
Martin Clark
Radcliff Group
Paul Saltzman
David Placek
Jeff Pulver
Bob Kohn
Josh Bazell
Chandler Burr
Audrey Niffenegger
Gregory David Roberts
Total Capital raised:
$5.5M
Current status:
Operational
-
Executive Employers $6.5M (2014)
Industry:
Advertising
Investors in the Round:
Agile Capital Partners
Total Capital raised:
$6.5M
Current status:
Operational
-
Transmedia Corporation $6.5M (2007)
Industry:
Enterprise Software
Investors in the Round:
Harold L. Vogel
Total Capital raised:
$6.5M
Current status:
Operational
-
WeWork $6.85M (2012)
Industry:
Real Estate
Investors in the Round:
Not disclosed
Total Capital raised:
Not disclosed
Current status:
Operational
-
Levo League $7M (2014)
Industry:
Web
Investors in the Round:
Veronique Morali
Lubna Olayan
Total Capital raised:
$8M
Current status:
Operational
-
DGIT $8M (2003)
Industry:
Advertising
Investors in the Round:
Insight Venture Partners
Total Capital raised:
$38M
Current status:
Company went public on the Nasdaq in 2007
-
Urban Compass $8M (2012)
Industry:
Real Estate
Investors in the Round:
Founders Fund
Goldman Sachs
Thrive Capital
.406 Ventures
Total Capital raised:
$73M
Current status:
Operational
-
Hipcricket $9.55M (2013)
Industry:
Mobile Software
Investors in the Round:
Not disclosed
Total Capital raised:
$9.55M
Current status:
Company went public in 2007 and was then later acquired in 2011
-
tradecard $14M (2006)
Industry:
Enterprise Software
Investors in the Round:
Warburg Pincus
Total Capital raised:
$44.9M
Current status:
Company acquired in 2013 by GT Nexus
