Some of them want to see traction. Some will invest on blind faith. Still others won’t look at more than a one-page elevator pitch. Many are founders themselves, but no matter what their preferences, one thing is certain: every single person here is ready, willing and able to write you a check – provided that you have the right stuff, whatever that might be to each fund or investor in particular.
They each have their sector focuses. They’ve all had their share of hits and misses (Bessemer turned down Fedex seven times). Think you’re onto the Next Big Thing or at least something that one of these firms have been looking for? Here’s your chance to find your potential match and if one of them says ‘No,’ read on. This complete list shows, once and for all, that there are plenty of fish in the sea.
We’ve assembled the most complete guide to VC Firms in NYC ever.
Founder’s note: AlleyWatch does not have a financial relationship with any of the firms in this guide. This guide is in no particular order nor is it a ranking. In fact, the =RAND() function on excel was used to determine order. We’ll be updating this guide regularly and when producing a guide of this magnitude, there will inevitably be unintentional omissions and errors. So please shoot us a note at vc@alleywatch.com if you come across anything that needs to be changed and/or added.
Updated August 2014
Lerer Hippeau Ventures
Lerer Hippeau Ventures is a venture capital fund that focuses on early seed funding, leveraging the operational expertise of its investment team, which consists of entrepreneurs. The firm is one of the most active in NYC, having invested in close to 200 startups. In addition, to its investment arm, Lerer HippeauVentures also runs the SohoTechLabs, an incubator for early stage ventures.
Date founded: 2010
NYC Management:
Kenneth Lerer, Manager
Eric Hippeau, Managing Director
Ben Lerer, Managing Director
Jordan Cooper, Managing Director
Current Investment Team Size: 7
Portfolio/Investments: 150+ (Warby Parker, RapGenius, SailThru, Namely, GroupMe, Makerbot, Birchbox, betaworks, chartbeat, Canvas Networks, Simple, gdgt, GroupMe, Greplin, and Venmo)
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Greycroft Partners
A venture capital firm focused on investments in Internet and mobile companies, with offices in New York and Los Angeles, Greycroft manages $600 million and has made over 100 investments since opening its doors in 2006. They leverage a number of industry connections to help entrepreneurs gain visibility, build relationships, and help bring their products to market. And let’s not forget that founder and managing director Alan Patricof is considered the VC industry’s ‘founding father.
Founding Date: February 2006
NYC Management:
Alan Patricof, Founder and Managing Director
Ian Sigalow, Co-Founder and Partner
John Elton, Partner
Current Investment Team Size: 13
Sector Focus: Internet and mobile markets
Portfolio/Investments: 100+ (33 Across, App Annie, Buddy Media, Floored, Elite Daily, Makers Kit, Joyent, Plated, NewsCred)
Keep up with Greycroft:
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Alpha Prime Ventures
AlphaPrime is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on East Coast enterprise software whose seasoned team boasts more than 50 combined years of experience amongst them.
Date founded: 2012
NYC Management:
Michael Patterson, General Partner
Alessandro Piol, Partner and Co-Founder
Current Investment Team Size: 3
Sector Focus: Enterprise IT
Portfolio/Investments: 10+ (Rockerbox, Offerpop, Insparq, Canary, Javelin, Dash)
Keep up with AlphaPrime:
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High Peaks Venture Partners
High Peaks Venture Partners is an early stage venture capital firm focusing on seed and Series A investments in B2B and E-commerce. They limit their investing to companies based in New York and the Northeast, as they’re very hands on, and actively reserve capital for follow on investing.
Date Founded: 2004
NYC Management:
Brad Svrluga, Co-Founder and General Partner
Ben Sun, General Partner
Current Investment Team Size: 6
Sector Focus: E-commerce and enterprise SaaS
Portfolio/Investments: 30+ (Zipmark, Public Stuff, Pump Audio, Clothes Horse, Handshake, Flatworld Knowledge)
Keep up with High Peaks:
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Union Square Ventures
Is there anyone in tech in NYC who doesn’t know Union Square Ventures? Founded by Fred Wilson and Brad Burnham in 2003, the firm invests almost exclusively in Internet services that create large networks: USV believe that the irresistible economics of Internet networks will ultimately transform the entire global economy and continue to seek out opportunities to invest in that transformation.
Managing $1B across six funds, USV invest in companies from all over the world.
Date founded: 2003
NYC Management:
Fred Wilson, Co-Founder & Managing Partner
Brad Burnham, Co-Founder & Managing Partner
Albert Wenger, Partner
John Buttrick, Partner
Andy Weissman, Partner
Current Investment Team Size: 8
Sector focus: Internet, Media and Entertainment, Food, Software, Games, Music, Science
Portfolio/Investments: 140+ (FourSquare, MeetUp, Kickstarter, Soundcloud, Twitter, Tumblr)
Interplay Ventures
Interplay Ventures is a hybrid incubator, accelerator and investment vehicle that incubate companies the old-fashioned way: grabs an idea off the shelf, recruits a CEO, raises money, and launches a new venture. Founder Mark Peter Davis will also join the company as an active advisor, offering guidance and contacts, and leveraging the Interplay marketing and recruiting methodologies to increase the company’s velocity.
Founding Date: 2012
NYC Management:
Mark Peter Davis, Founder
Deepen Parikh, Partner
Bronson Lingamfelter, Partner
Current Investment Team Size: 4
Sector Focus: Interplay incubates, partners and invests in diverse companies
Portfolio/Investments: 10+ (Warby Parker, Coinbase, Modern Meadow)
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RedSwan Ventures
RedSwan Ventures is an early stage seed capital firm comprised of active entrepreneurs that run companies like Bonobos, Floored, and Amino.
Date founded: 2011
NYC Management:
Andy Dunn, Founder
Dave Eisenberg, Partner
William Peng, Partner
Chris Travers, Partner
Current Investment Team Size: 5
Sector Focus: Customer-centric, culture-generating disruptive technologies
Portfolio/ Investments: 45+ (Bonobos, Oscar, Birchbox, WarbyParker, Floored)
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CANAAN PARTNERS
Canaan Partners is an early stage and seed investment firm focused on technology and healthcare investments in the US, Israel, and India. The fund operates five offices out of Silicon Valley, NYC, Connecticut, India, and Israel. With over $3.5B under management, their track record includes 95 acquisitions and 55 IPOs.
Date founded: 1987
NYC Management:
Dan Ciporin, General Partner
Current Investment Team Size: 23
Sector Focus: digital media, communications & mobility, enterprise, clean tech, biopharmaceuticals, medical device, diagnostics and healthcare infrastructure
Portfolio/Investments: 230+ (Match.com, DoubleClick, Blip, Tremor Video, ShopKeep, Joor, Circleup, Compstak)
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Bloomberg Beta
Bloomberg Beta is an early-stage fund, backed by Bloomberg L.P., and focusing on companies and areas that are broadly of interest to Bloomberg. Still, they do choose investments independently and invest for financial return. Bloomberg Beta’s goal is to expand Bloomberg’s horizons by backing extraordinary entrepreneurs, or creating companies, who have something to teach the world.
NYC Management:
Karin Klein, Partner
Current Investment Team Size: 5
Sector Focus: Data, Content Discovery, Media Distribution, Technology Platforms, Networks and Communities, Human-Computer Interaction, Radically New Organizational Models
Portfolio/Investments: 15+ (Quibb, ThinkUp, Layer, Codeacademy, Newsle)
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BOLDstart Ventures
BOLDstart helps founders at the seed stage accelerate their growth from idea/ alpha phase to product market fit and successful Series A rounds. Their focus is on enterprise startups.
With a focus on seed investing in the mobile, agile, and smart enterprise and business models that harness the power of network effects, the entrepreneurs funded by BOLDstart have successfully been able to raise over $250 million of financing following the initial seed investment.
Date founded: 2010
NYC Management:
Eliot Durbin, General Partner
Ed Sim, Founder and Managing Partner
Current Investment Team Size: 3
Sector Focus: Saas, smart data, Googlization of IT, network effect
Portfolio/Investments: 30+ (Plain Vanilla, Indiegogo, Handshake, Rapportive)
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Eniac Ventures
Eniac Ventures is the first seed stage fund that is exclusively focused on the mobile space. The founding team consists only of serial entrepreneurs who met during college, and have over 50 years of combined experience as entrepreneurs. In fact, the firm gets its name, Eniac, the first computer developed at the founders’ alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania. The firm’s check sizes range from $250k-$1M.
Date founded: 2009
NYC Management:
Hadley Harris, Founding General Partner
Nihal Mehta, Founding General Partner
Vic Singh, Founding General Partner
Current Investment Team Size: 4
Sector focus: 100% Mobile and Big Data, Cloud computing, Commerce, Social, Gaming, AdTech, and Enterprise
Portfolio/Investments: 50+ (Soundcloud, Airbnb, TapCommerce, LocalResponse, Localytics, Imrsv and Owlet)
Keep up with Eniac:
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Abundance Partners
Abundance Partners LLC is an alternative investment firm founded in 2003, with a focus on Seed and Series A rounds. Today, the firm operates two distinct strategies, the hedge fund (Abundance Partners LP) and the venture fund (Abundance Private Opportunity Fund LP).
Although its partners have been involved in entrepreneurial ventures for over 20 years, the firm formally began making investments in private companies in 2007.
In 2012, AP recognized a growing gap in funding between seed and late-stage venture investing, and given this environment and the high quality of deal flow accessible to the firm, Abundance launched its Private Opportunity Fund in early 2013.
Founding Date: 2003
NYC Management:
Vladimir Efros, Founder and Managing Director
David Katona, Managing Partner
Dennis Shaya, Managing Partner
Current Investment Team Size: 3
Portfolio/Investments: 10+ (Socure, CitiVox, Lua, Swarm Mobile, Kickstarter)
Brand Foundry Ventures
Launched in March of 2014, Brand Foundry Ventures may be a new entry in the NY VC lexicon, but you’ve heard of some of the companies that founder Andrew Mitchell counts among his investments: BirchBox, Warby Parker, KIWI Crate, Contently, Chloe + Isabel. This new fund will pursue equity interests in early-stage venture capital within the Consumer Retail industry, focusing on E-commerce, Mobile, Consumer Products, and Consumer Devices/Robotics, with a focus on brands and leveraging 21st Century macro trends of software.
Date Founded: 2014
NYC Management:
Andrew Mitchell, Founder, Managing Partner
Current Investment Team Size: 2
Sector Focus: Consumer Retail industry, focusing on E-commerce, Mobile, Consumer Products, and Consumer Devices/Robotics
Portfolio/Investments: 5+ (Cotopaxi, SterraClimb, ActiveReplay, Keen Home, and Naja)
Keep up with Brand Foundry:
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Quotidian Ventures
Quotidian Ventures is an early stage seed fund that is focused on modernizing traditional industries though the use of technology. The company often comes in at the earliest stages of a product’s development and looks for founding teams with proprietary knowledge that are building products that can significantly improve efficiencies in large addressable markets.
Date founded: 2010
NYC Management:
Pedro Torres Picon, Managing Director
Scott Wolfgang, Partner
Current Investment Team Size: 5
Portfolio/ Investments: 50+ (Grand St., admitted.ly, Bench, Adcade, Tapad, Loverly)
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Silas Capital
Silas Capital is an early stage venture firm focused exclusively on the creation of consumer brands. The team leverages its expertise as investors and entrepreneurs to offer industry specific operational, financial and strategic domain expertise. The firm invests between $500k and $5M in business with revenue of at least $500k, and prefers to lead.
Date founded: 2011
NYC Management:
Carter Weiss, Partner
Frank T. Lin, Partner
Jorge M. Torres, Vice President
Current Investment Team Size: 3
Sector focus: Specialty consumer, consumable goods, online/internet, and traditional retail
Portfolio/Investments: 5+ (Casper, CircleUp, Modria, Proenza Schouler)
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Initialized Capital
Initialized Capital is a an early stage seed fund founded by Reddit co-founder, Alexis Ohanian, and partners at Y Combinator, Garry Tan and Harjeet Taggar. The group typically invests $100,000-$500,000 in a company so that startup are able to build a working prototype to validate their ideas.
Date founded: 2012
NYC Management:
Alexis Ohanian
Sector focus: Digital Media, Ecommerce, Internet, IT, Mobile, Security, Software
Portfolio/Investments: 10+ (HelloSign, Flexport, Wearable Intelligence, Trusted Insight, Weave, Two Tap, Egomotion,Bellhops)
iNovia Capital
iNovia Capital uses a person-focused approach to venture capital, focusing on investing in companies with exceptional, capable founders. The group also uses early-seed funding to help young companies create value before following up with later stages of funding. The firm is composed of team members who are mostly entrepreneurs from different fields, with deep domain expertise. iNovia has offices in NYC and Canada.
Date founded: 2002
NYC Management:
Geoff Judge, Partner
Current Investment Team Size: 36
Sector focus: Digital Media, SaaS, e-commerce, and communications
Portfolio/Investments: 40+ (TripleLift, Lenddo, Collective, 33 Across, TiqIQ, Beyond the Rack, Vizu, Pressly)
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Work-Bench
Funded in 2013 and based in New York City, Work-Bench is an enterprise technology growth accelerator. The company scales enterprise technology companies by providing community and workspace, and by connecting exceptional builders to Fortune 500 buyers. They also co-investing in founders tackling enormous markets. The $10 million fund is headed up by Jonathan Lehr.
Date founded: 2013
NYC Management:
Jonathan Lehr, Venture Director
Current Investment Team Size: 4
Sector focus: Software, Mobile, Online Payment, Data management
Portfolio/Investments: 5 (Context Relevant, APX Lab, Kensho)
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BoxGroup
BoxGroup is an early stage investment fund whose typical investments ranges from $50,000 to $250,000. Based in New York City, they actively invest in New York, Silicon Valley, and Los Angeles – wherever they find the next generation of category defining businesses.
Date founded: 2009
NYC Management:
David Tisch, Managing Partner
Adam Rothenberg, Partner
Current Investment Team Size: 2
Sector Focus: Early Stage, Category-defining businesses
Portfolio/Investments: 150+ (Voyat, Trello, BarkBox, Vine, Poppin, Oscar, Zady, Fab, Moveline)
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Warbros Venture Partners
Warbros Venture Partners is a private investment firm owned, funded and managed by John and Michael Warburg. Taking minority positions in both early-stage and mature companies that are typically looking to raise between $250,000 and $2 million, the firm’s objective is to achieve long-term capital appreciation through investments in private equity and equity-related securities.
There are no “committees” or bureaucracy at Warbros, so they are able to make decisions quickly and independently. Their main focus is on companies based in the Northeast.
Date founded: 1996
NYC Management:
John P. Warburg, Co-Founder
Michael F. Warburg, Co-Founder
Current Investment Team Size: 2
Sector focus: Beverages, Fitness Technology, Automotive Electronics, Equine Products, Fire Suppression, Consumer Finance, Security, Computer Peripherals, Printing Technology
Portfolio/Investments: N/A ( “We do not publish details about our portfolio companies, but would be glad to share more information with qualified parties.”)
BMW i Ventures
The field of location-based mobility services is emerging and continuously changing. In order to engage in the most flexible way, the BMW Group founded BMW i Ventures – a the venture capital arm of the automaker with offices in New York City, providing early- and mid-stage investments with high potential in the area of Mobility Services.
BMW i Ventures also houses an incubator that offers an open workspace for innovative start-ups, in particular, those with a special focus on future mobility and clean tech.
Date founded: 2011
NYC Management:
Alexander Diehl, Managing Director
Ulrich Quay, Managing Director
Current Investment Team Size: 6
Sector Focus: Mobile connectivity, device convergence, social media, and location-based service
Portfolio/Investments: 5+ (MyCityWay, JustPark, Life360, ChargePoint)
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ff Venture Capital
Founded in 1999, ff Venture Capital is an institutional venture capital that invests in seed and early stage companies. They not only invest in early stage companies but also offer accelerator services – hands-on support through their in-house operating team, plus a proprietary network of outside executives who work with portfolio companies on an as-needed basis. This is common in growth equity investing, but much less common in early-stage investing. The fund also reserves capital to make follow-on investments in their portfolio companies as they grow.
Headquartered in New York, they invest across the US, Canada, Europe and Asia.
Founding Date: 1999
NYC Management:
John Frankel, Founder & Partner
David Teten, Partner
Alex Katz, JD CPA, Partner & CEO
Michael Faber, Partner
Adam Plotkin, Partner
Current Investment Team Size: 6 (not counting the accelerator team)
Sector Focus: Web-based services
Portfolio/Investments: 60+ (AppyCouple, Bottlenose, CardFlight, How About We, Indiegogo, Movable Ink, Plated, Phone.com, YieldMo)
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Gotham Ventures
Opening its doors in 1999, Gotham Ventures was among the first early-stage venture firms focused on New York City. It was also the first NYC venture firm with a seed investment program and the first to partner with a global venture capital network: Draper Fisher Jurvetson. In addition, it was among the first NYC venture firms to invest in Israeli start-ups, the first venture firm to sponsor the New York Tech Meetup, and was an early supporter of DreamIt and Techstars.
Founding Date: 1999
NYC Management:
Danny Schultz, Co-Founder and Managing Director
Ross Goldstein, Co-Founder and Managing Director
Thatcher Bell, Managing Director
Current Investment Team Size: 5
Sector Focus: Digital and social media, e-commerce, advertising, financial technology, enterprise software and security, health, wellness and education
Portfolio/Investments: 30+ (LendKey, LocalResponse, Medialets, Mimeo, PulsePoint, SailThru)
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Scout Ventures
When you’re looking for your “Series Seed,” this is where you go. With its roots in angel and seed investing, Scout Ventures acts a bridge between entrepreneurs and Series A by offering leadership, access, and a proven track record of corporate success. Or, as Managing Partner Brad Harrison puts it: “Know-how simply isn’t enough. You’ve got to have the know-who.” Scout works closely with the startups in order to provide them with strategic support.
Date founded: 2008
NYC Management:
Bradley C. Harrison, Founder and Managing Partner
Current Investment Team Size: 4
Sector focus: Mobile & Digital Payments, Big Data Analytics, Commerce & Services, Cloud Infrastructure, Social Content, Advertising & Monetization
Portfolio/Investments: 40+ (Sverve, Kanvas, Flow, Scoot, HealthyOut, Vengo)
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Red Sea Ventures
Red Sea Ventures is an early stage venture investment firm founder by ex attorney and CBS digital media executive Scott Birnbaum, with a focus on media, technology and retail.
Date founded: 2011
NYC Management:
Scott Birnbaum, Founder
Current Investment Team Size: 3
Portfolio/Investments: 20+ (Nest, EliteDaily, Joor, SweetGreen)
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Milestone Venture Partners
Milestone Venture Partners is an early stage venture capital fund with $100 million under management. Milestone concentrates on companies that solve business problems and address consumer needs through the innovative application of information technology, and invests approximately 50% of its capital in Digital Health businesses which provide information services to hospitals, physicians, pharmaceutical firms, health plans and consumers.
Date Founded: 1999
NYC Management:
Edwin Goodman, Co-Founder
Todd T. Pietri, Co-Founder and Partner
Richard J. Dumler, Partner
F. Morgan Rodd, Jr., General Partner
Current Investment Team Size: 4
Sector Focus: Software, Internet and Mobile services, digital health
Portfolio/Investments: 30+ (MapMyFitness, StrayBoots, Grovo, Vital, BizBash)
Bowery Capital
Bowery Capital is a thesis-driven early-stage investor backing exceptional founders modernizing business through technology, supporting startups that disrupt and upgrade legacy marketing and IT products and services across all organizations.
Date founded:2013
NYC Management:
Mike Brown Jr., General Partner
Current Investment Team Size: 8
Sector Focus: Enterprise, B2B
Portfolio/Investments: 5+ (Track Maven, SailThru, Codeacademy)
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High Line Venture Partners
A New York based venture fund, High Line Venture Partners focuses on early stage investments and was founded by IAC alum, Shana Fisher.
Founding Date: 2010
NYC Management:
Shana Fisher, Co-Founder and Managing Partner
Alex Binkley, Principal
Current Investment Team Size: 2
Sector Focus: B2B, Big Data, Cloud Management, Cloud-Based Music, Consumer Electronics, Consumer Internet, Crowdfunding, E-Commerce, Education, Email, Enterprise Software, Fashion, Mobile, Photo Editing, Photography, SaaS, Social Commerce, Social Media.
Portfolio/Investments: 20+ (Foodspotting, Aereo, 500px)
Rho Ventures
Since 1981, Rho Ventures has been investing in innovators who redefine the status quo. They invest across most high growth sectors of today’s economy and have developed deep expertise and relationships in Information Technology, Communications, New Media, Healthcare and New Energy. Seasoned investors who have backed more than 200 companies through multiple cycles, they seek out entrepreneurs whom they can help make very big waves. With offices in New York, Palo Alto and Montreal.
Date founded: 1981
NYC Management:
Habib Kairouz, Managing Partner
Mark Leschly, Managing Partner
Doug McCormick, Venture Partner
Current Investment Team Size: 16
Sector Focus: Communications, information technology, new media, healthcare, energy technology
Portfolio/ Investments: 27 (Dashlane, Vidyo, JustFab)
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Corigin
Corigin provides capital and support for early-stage entrepreneurs and startups that leverage technology to transform the status quo of the vertical on which they focus. Corigin is a versatile group that moves fast and with conviction, and with a strong focus on team, technology, and execution. The company has two core divisions: Corigin Real Estate Group and Corigin Private Equity Group,
Founding Date: 2010
NYC Management:
Ryan Freedman, Chairman and CEO
Current Investment Team Size: 2
Sector Focus: Real Estate, Disruptive Technology
Portfolio/Investments: 7 (Singularity University, WheelsUp, Lending Club, Urban Compass, Zeel)
Citi Ventures
Citi Ventures is Citi’s global corporate venture arm, chartered to collaborate with internal and external partners to conceive, partner, launch, and scale new ventures that have the potential to disrupt and transform the financial services industry, drive client success, and generate new value for Citi, with offices in New York and Palo Alto.
NYC Management:
Chitra Narasimhan, Managing Director, NYC
Justina Cho, SVP, NYC
Maja Lapcevic, SVP, NYC
Jeffrey Smith, SVP, NYC
Current Investment Team Size: 23
Sector Focus: FinTech, CyberSecurity
Portfolio/Investments: 15+ (Betterment, Square, Jumio)
Raptor Ventures
Raptor Ventures is the venture capital arm of the Raptor Group, a Boston-based financial services firm that focuses on investment management and advisory services.
Date founded: 2011
NYC Management:
Harry DeMott, General Partner
Current Investment Team Size: 4
Sector Focus: Big data, location based services, enterprise
Portfolio/ Investments: 10+ (Bread, OpenSky, Fliptop, Ticket Evolution)
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Zelkova Ventures
Zelkova Ventures is an early stage venture firm that seeks to partner up with their portfolio companies by providing operational support in addition to capital leverage the team’s experience as entrepreneurs. They will invest in companies that are pre-revenue. In many instances the fund provides a company’s first outside/institutional capital.
Date founded: 2007
NYC Management:
Larry Scheinfeld, Partner
Jay Levy, Partner
Current Investment Team Size: 4
Sector Focus: Software services, internet technologies, environmental technologies, and consumer products
Portfolio/Investments: 40+ (FlyCleaners, Foodspotting, Livefyre, Klout, Rapportive)
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PAL Capital
Pacific Alliance Limited, LLC (d.b.a PALcapital) is a merchant bank providing advisory services to companies in the USA, China and Latin America seeking to create strategic opportunities, raise funds or create joint ventures. Their services include broad financial advisory, mergers & acquisitions advice, restructuring advice and private placements of debt and equity securities.
Date founded: 1995
NYC Management:
James Haft
Current Investment Team Size:
Sector focus: moble apps, real estate, online/digital business, social networking, internet, transportation, telecommunications, energy, finance Portfolio/Investments: App.io, Categorical, GoChime, Klooff, Markerly., Ordr.in, Romotive
Keep up with PAL:
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Digital Entertainment Ventures
Founded in 2012, Digital Entertainment Ventures primarily invests in seed and early stage startups that represent either a transformative trend in media and entertainment or that fill a gap or need in the marketplace. They focus exclusively on New York City-based companies.
Founding Date: 2012
NYC Management:
Alan McGlade, Managing Director
Michael Yang, Managing Director
Swatick Majumdar, Managing Director
Current Investment Team Size: 4
Sector Focus: Music, TV/Film, games, publishing, social media
Portfolio/Investments: 5+(Boxed, PeekAnalytics, Human Demand, Filmbot)
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Bain Capital Ventures
Bain Capital Ventures, a Boston-based venture capital affiliate of Bain Capital, was founded with the mission of leveraging a customer focused and operational approach to helping young and growing entrepreneurial companies become market leaders.
Bain Capital Ventures’ history dates back to 1984, with investments in over 110 early and growth stage companies such as Staples, DoubleClick (acquired by Google), Aspect Development, LinkedIn, Rent the Runway, Shopping.com, Taleo, SolarWinds, Brontes Technologies, m-Qube, ProfitLogic, Network Intelligence and MinuteClinic. Bain Capital Ventures currently has ~$2 billion under management and invests in business services, consumer, healthcare, internet & mobile, and software companies.
And of course they have a New York office.
Date founded: 2001
NYC Management:
Matt Harris, Managing Director
Current Investment Team Size: 38
Sector Focus: Early stage investment in Enterprise SaaS, Commerce Technology, Financial Services, Data & Info Services, Marketing Technology, Infrastructure & Cloud, Healthcare IT & Services and Consumer Technology
Portfolio/Investments: 100+ (Linkedin, Rent the Runway, Vonage, Buy With Me, blip, blippy, BillTrust)
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SoftBank Capital
With over $600M under management, SoftBank Capital focuses on mobile applications and devices, ecommerce, online advertising, social media, gaming, and cloud-based enterprise services, investing in early stage and growth stage companies. For early stage investment, their preference is for beta through early revenue, with exceptions for opportunities strategic to the SOFTBANK Group. With two offices in New York and Newtown, MA, SoftBank is associated with SOFTBANK Group, a global telecommunications, Internet and media conglomerate, headquartered in Tokyo.
Date founded: 1995
NYC Management:
Jordan Levy, NY Partner
Joe Medved, Partner
Marissa Campise, Partner
Ron Schreiber, NY Partner,
Josh Guttman, NY Partner
Matt Krna, Partner
Scarlett O’Sullivan, Partner
Current Investment Team Size: 12
Sector focus: Mobile applications and devices, ecommerce, online advertising, social media, gaming, and cloud-based enterprise services.
Portfolio/Investments: 140+ (Yahoo!, Buzzfeed, Huffington Post, Sprint, Buddy Media)
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RRE Ventures
Founded by James Robinson III and Stuart Ellman in 1994, RRE Ventures is a premiere venture capital firm based in New York City. The firm invests in startups that will change and lead industries. Managing $850 million in assets, the company has invested in more than 230 companies, including Business Insider, Buzzfeed, Bitly, Bitpay, Quirky and Kik,
A long-term lead investor, RRE’s focus is on the creation of category-defining businesses.
Date founded: 1994
NYC Management:
Stuart Ellman, Co-Founder and Managing Partner
James D Robinson, Co-Founder and Managing Partner
James D Robinson III, Founding General Partner
Will Porteous, General Partner and Chief Operating Officer
Current Investment Team Size: 12
Sector focus: private information technology, software, communications, financial services, Nano Technology,
Portfolio/Investments: 230+ (Buzzfeed, Business Insider, OLO, Spire, Bitpay, Airware)
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Time Warner Investments
Time Warner Investments is an investment firm that invests in early to mid-stage companies and projects that generate a strategic value for the Time Warner Inc., the multinational media corporation. The firm also looks to acquire minority equity stakes in private companies, and targets an investment size of up to $25MM.
Date founded: 1998
NYC Management:
Rachel Lam, Senior Vice President and Group Managing Director
Allison Goldberg, Managing Director and Vice President
Scott Levine, Managing Director and Vice President
Current Investment Team Size: 12
Sector focus: Media and Internet investments
Portfolio/Investments: 40+, including GetGlue (acquired by i.TV), Krux, iSocket, Maker (acquired by Disney), Meebo (acquired by Google), Simulmedia and Everyday Health (IPO March 2014)
Laconia Ventures
Laconia Ventures supplies early-stage funding and investments to entrepreneurs specializing in the information technology sector. They work closely with the entrepreneurs from the beginning to develop their business plan, strategy, and execution and invest alongside lead investors.
Date founded: 2011
NYC Management:
Jeffrey Silverman, Founder
Sector focus: Information technology, Digital Media, Data Analytics, mobile, social, advertising technology
Portfolio/Investments: 20+ (Sociocast, Localytics, TripleLift, PublicStuff, Wymsee, Media Armor, SetJam, Crowdly, Internet Media Labs, The Runthrough, Sokanu, Movio Network, Nerve, Clever Goats, CitizenGlobal)
Keep up with Laconia:
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Metamorphic Ventures
Metamorphic Ventures is an early-seed venture capital firm that has focused on the crossroads of digital media, commerce and infrastructure. One of the firm’s investment themes is to invest in early stage technologies that can leverage the domain expertise and human capital found in New York’s many industries.
Date founded: 2008
NYC Management:
Marc Michel, Managing Partner
David Hirsch, Managing Partner
Current Investment Team Size: 3
Sector focus: Marketplaces, e-commerce, payments, web services
Portfolio/Investments: 40+ (Stamped, IndieGogo, TapCommerce, Songza, OfferIQ, Lenddo, LocalResponse, Movable Ink, Sailthru, Tapad)
Current Investment Team Size: 4
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Rubicon Venture Capital
Rubicon Venture Capital is a mid-stage venture capital firm with offices on both coast. Their primary focus is on Series A and B rounds but will also participate in seed rounds where the startup has raised a minimum amount of capital ($500K). The have deployed a unique sidecar model where LPs have the ability to participate in deals at an individual level in addition to the fund.
NYC Management:
Joshua B. Siegel, General Partner
Current Investment Team Size: 3
Sector Focus: Internet, software and hardware/software technology
Portfolio/Investments: 10+ (Partender, Backplane, Dealflicks, Tackk)
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Venrock
Founded in 1969 by Laurance Rockefeller, the name, Venrock, is a combination of the ‘Venture’ and ‘Rockefeller,’ which is arguably redundant. With decades of experience in investments, Venrock is a very successful venture capital firm. Venrock invests in long-term projects that will be successful and change the industry. Their goal is to give “entrepreneurs the unfair advantage needed to win, and win big.” One of their first investments was in Intel; they led Apple’s Series A round in 1978. They invested in DoubleClick, New York’s first startup success story, and a pioneer in advertising technology. The firm gravitates to entrepreneurs who have grand ambitions and who want to tackle big, hard problems that most think not possible. But it’s Venrock’s collaborative process – engagement, network, passion and experience – that gives entrepreneurs the unfair advantage needed to win, and win big. Their focus is on early-stage and start-up companies in information technology and emerging technologies and have office in New York, Palo Alto and Boston.
Date founded: January 1969
NYC Management:
Nick Beim, Partner
David Pakman, Partner
Mike Brooks, Partner
Tony Evnin, Partner
Anders Hove, Partner
Bong Koh, Partner
Current Investment Team Size: 15
Sector focus: Online Services, eCommerce, IT, Health, Cloud Tech, Software
Portfolio/Investments: 260+ (Apple, Illumina, Intel, SlideShare, Juno Therapeutics, Media6Degrees)
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kbs+ Ventures
kbs+ Ventures is the venture arm of the brand agency, kbs+, founded by Jon Bond and Richard Kirshenbaum. The group’s venture capital fund backs early-stage entrepreneurs with ideas related to advertising and marketing. The fund looks for companies with ideas focusing on big data, mobile marketing, and brand development.
Date founded: 2010
NYC Management:
Josh Engroff, Managing partner
Current Investment Team Size: 3
Portfolio/Investments: 5+ (Adapt.ly, AdsNative, Cross Pixel, Crowd Twist, Place IQ, Social Flow, YieldBot)
Sector focus: Advertising and marketing
Current Investment Team Size: 2
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StarVest Partners
Founded by Jeanne Sullivan, Laura Sachar and Deborah Farrington, StarVest Partners differentiate themselves from other firms by investing in businesses located in areas that are less served by their competition. StarVest also distinguishes itself from its competition by making significant customer and partnership introductions — what growing companies need most.
Date founded: 1999
NYC Management:
Laura Sachar, Founder and General Partner
Deborah Farrington, Founder and General Partner
Jeanne M. Sullivan, Special Advisor and Co-Founder
Current Investment Team Size: 5
Sector focus: Software-as-a-Service, Internet Marketing Services, eCommerce Services, Data and Content Services, Identity and Security Management
Portfolio/Investments: 30+ (NetSuite, RetailNext, Insurance.com, Accept Software, TakeTheInterview, CrowdTwist)
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Insight Venture Partners
Insight Venture Partners is one of the leading full-service venture capital firms in New York. The multi billion-dollar fund meets with thousands of companies each year and invest in all different types of companies, at different growth stages, making investments in full and in part. This includes working like a private equity firm at times, including buyouts and growth equity, and facilitating potential acquisitions for its portfolio companies.
Date founded: 1995
NYC Management:
Peter Sobiloff, Managing Director
Alex Crisses, Managing Director
Deven Parekh, Managing Director
Jeff Horing, Founder and Managing Director
Jeff Lieberman, Managing Director
Larry Handen, Managing Director
Jerry Murdock, Founder
Current Investment Team Size: 12
Sector focus: software, eCommerce, internet, and data-services companies.
Portfolio/Investments: 100+ (Twitter, Chegg, Indieogo, Shopify, Hootsuite, Tumblr, Flipboard, Yext, Shutterstock and Wix.com)
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Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments
BDMI concentrates on early stage investments into growing companies in the digital media landscape.
Drawing upon the vast resources of Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA, BDMI is a strategic investor that brings a wealth of experience and opportunities to emerging companies, providing not only capital, but also a worldwide network of diverse businesses. Headquartered in New York and Berlin.
Date Founded: 2006
NYC Management:
Urs Cete, Managing Director
Sim Blaustein, Principal
Keith Titan, Principal
Current Investment Team Size: 6
Sector Focus: Digital media technologies, products, and distribution channels
Portfolio/Investments: 30+ (Food52, Crowdtwist, Flatworld Knowledge, SeedCamp, Mojivo)
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MESA+ Ventures
Mesa+ is a venture fund launched by investment bank and strategic advisory firm, MESA. The firm uses its wealth of connections in the digital media and entertainment world to provide the entrepreneurs in their portfolio with investor introductions, executive team hiring, business development, client & advertiser introductions, and marketing support. The fund focuses on co-investing in Seed and Series A rounds alongside other established firms and never leads a round.
Date founded: 2008
NYC Management:
Mark Patricof, Partner,
Andrew Montgomery, Partner
Current Investment Team Size: 2
Sector focus: E-commerce, advertising technology, digital content
Portfolio/Investments: 30+ (TripleLift, Grand St., Skift, Hopscotch)
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Spark Capital
With offices in Boston, New York and San Francisco, Spark Capital is a venture firm whose sweet spot is early stage startups, generally the first venture round, with a focus on Internet and mobile investments. With its small team, Spark has invested, and invests, in projects that reach millions of people, including Twitter, Tumblr, Foursquare, and Oculus VR. The firm is deeply invested in the projects they fund, and they are not afraid of taking risks. They manage approximately $1,825,000,000 across five funds.
Date founded: 2005
NYC Management:
Jeremy Philips, Founder and General Partner of Spark Capital Growth
Mo Koyfman, General Partner
Current Investment Team Size: 11
Sector focus: Social media, SaaS business, mobile platform, advertising solution, hardware
Portfolio/Investments: 150+ (Twitter, FourSquare, EXFM, KicksApps, Oculus VR, Tumblr, adap.tv)
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Brooklyn Bridge Ventures
Brooklyn Bridge Ventures isn’t just an $8.3 million seed fund – it’s the first venture capital fund based in Brooklyn. Managed by Charlie O’Donnell. BBV leads or co-leads investments of around $250,000 in New York City area startups, aiming to be part of the first $750,000 the founders ever raise. Conversations often start pre-product and pre-deck.
Date founded: 2012
NYC Management:
Charlie O’Donnell, Founder
Current Investment Team Size: 1
Sector Focus: Seed Stage technologies from NYC-based entrepreneurs
Portfolio/Investments: 10+ (Canary, Orchard Platform, Ringly, Floored, Social Sign.in)
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Warburg Pincus
Warburg Pincus is one of the most successful private equity firms on the planet, with offices that span the globe. With more than 40 years of experience, the firm has invested more than $50 billion in over 720 companies in more than 35 countries. Recently, Warburg Pincus has led the funding of Venari Resources LLC, a deep-water oil exploration and production company. They have deep domain expertise in the consumer, industrial and services (CIS), energy, financial services, healthcare, real estate and technology, media and telecommunications sectors.
Date founded: 1966
NYC Management:
Charles R. Kaye, Co-Chief Executive Officer and Member of the Executive Management Group
Joseph P. Landy, Co-Chief Executive Officer and Member of Executive Management Group
Timothy F. Geithner, President
John Ludwig Vogelstein, Managing Director
Current Investment Team Size: 16 (focused on Technology, Media, and Telecommunications)
Sector focus: Financial Services, Healthcare, Technology, Media, Telecommunications, Energy,
Portfolio/Investments: 70+ (Venari Resources, Quikr India, China Auto Rental Holdings, Xiu.com, Hana Biosciences)
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Betaworks
Founded in 2008, Betaworks is a company of builders, structured as a company– a single company that owns larger pieces of the things it has built and smaller pieces of the things it has invested in. It operates as a network: a tightly linked network of ideas, people, capital, and data united to build out a more inspired and useful connected world. Betaworks makes seed-stage investments; typical investment size is $150,000-200,000, and they always invest as part of a syndicate of angels and early stage VCs. Investments must be early stage, heavily tech focused, and have a working (public or private) prototype. Warning: Betaworks is a PowerPoint-free zone.
Date founded: 2008
NYC Management:
Ken Lerer, Chairman
John Borthwick, CEO & Founder
Current Investment Team Size: 9
Sector Focus:
Portfolio/Investments: 40+ (Yo, Airbnb, instapaper, Giphy, SocialFlow, Chartbeat, Rebelmouse, Stocktwits)
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Founder Collective
A seed stage investor group run by a collection of successful entrepreneurs, everyone at Founder Collective has started his or her own technology company at some point. According to them, “we’re trying hard to create the fund that we wish existed when we each built our first startup.” Headquartered in New York City and Cambridge, the group makes investments all over the world.
Founding Date: 2009
NYC Management:
Scott Belsky, Founding Partner
Caterina Fake, Founding Partner
Current Investment Team Size: 8
Sector Focus: Adtech, B2B, Consumer, e-Commerce, Embedded Devices, Health, Mobile, Marketplaces
Portfolio/Investments: 30+ (Etsy, Baublebar, Betaworks, Buzzfeed, Contently, GroupMe, Plated, Seat Geek)
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Contour Ventures
Formed in 2001, Contour Ventures is a small firm primarily focused on investing in seed and early stage companies on the East Coast, with a strong business strategy – companies that provide and adopt innovative technology solutions into existing East Coast-based industry hubs, where the partners have a deep understanding of the targeted markets, including financial services, internet, digital media, business services and software. Contour Ventures prefers to take an active role in the leadership of their portfolio companies and typically invests between $250,000 and $1.5 million per round.
Founding Date: 2001
NYC Management:
Matt Gorin, Co-Founder & Managing Partner
Bob Greene, Co-Founder & Managing Partner
Current Investment Team Size: 2
Sector Focus: Financial services, the internet, digital media, business services and software
Portfolio/Investments: 30+ (Contently, ClothesHorse, EachScape, Movable Ink, Quirky, Dstillery, Zipmark)
Thrive Capital
Thrive Capital is a venture capital investment firm that invest in projects related to media and the Internet. The firm made a name for itself when founder Joshua Kushner and his partners, invested in Instagram and “doubled its money in 72 hours” (Forbes). Since its inception in 2010, Thrive has raised $200 million, investing in firms such as Warby Parker, Codecademy, Spotify, Nasty Gal, MakerBot, ResearchGate and of course, Instagram.
Date founded: 2010
NYC Management:
Joshua Kushner, founder and Managing Partner
Jared Weinstein, Partner
Will Gaybrick, Partner
Chris Paik, Partner
Current Investment Team Size: 4
Sector focus: Media and Internet investments
Portfolio/Investments: 50+ (Instagram, Twitch, Oscar, Dispatch, Kickstarter)
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Genacast Ventures
Formed as a partnership between pioneering and serially successful entrepreneur Gil Beyda and Comcast Ventures, Genacast Ventures is a seed stage venture fund focused on investing in technology companies in the Northeastern United States. Genacast will either invest up to $1 million alone, or up to $1.5 million as part of a larger round.
Founding Date: 2008
NYC Management:
Gil Beyda, Founder and Managing Partner
Roger Chen, Principal
Current Investment Team Size: 2 (not counting Comcast Ventures)
Sector Focus: Technology-centric Internet companies in digital media, online advertising, big data, Web 2.0, SaaS and e-commerce
Portfolio/Investments: 10+ (Rocketrip, DoubleVerify, YieldMo)
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FirstMark Capital
FirstMark Capital is a New York-based early stage technology-focused venture capital firm. The firm is currently investing out of a $225MM fund, its third since launch. Their focus is on software and Internet investments across categories spanning emerging media and advertising, gaming, education, fintech, cloud computing, analytics, and infrastructure startups. 90%+ of their investments are in seed and Series A, where they invest from $250k to $10 million.
Date founded: 2008
NYC Management:
Lawrence Lenihan, Managing Director
Amish Jani, Managing Director
Rick Heitzman, Managing Director
Matt Turck, Managing Director
Current Investment Team Size: 19
Sector Focus: Emerging media, advertising, gaming, education, fintech, cloud computing, analytics, infrastructure
Portfolio/ Investments: 50+ (Knewton, Dashlane, Conductor, Lumosity, NewsCred, Pinterest, LollyWollyDoodle, SecondMarket, Shoppify, Tapad)
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American Express Ventures
As the strategic investment group within American Express, the firm invests in innovative startups that enhance the parent company’s core capabilities and accelerate its efforts in digital commerce and financial inclusion. Based in New York City, they make investments across the globe.
Date founded: 2011
NYC Management:
Harshul Sanghi, Managing Partner
Current Investment Team Size: 3
Sector Focus: Digital Commerce, Financial Inclusion, Core Capabilities
Portfolio/Investments: 5+ (Enigma, LearnVest, Billcom)
Alpha Venture Partners
Alpha Venture Capital is a next generation growth and expansion stage venture capital firm that focuses on accelerating venture backed companies. Their self-described mission: “to serve our seed and early stage investor partners and the heroic teams they back.”
With their working relationships with established, well known venture capital firms and syndication specialists, the firm is able to opens the door to investments that were previously inaccessible, even to high net worth investors.
Date founded: 2014
NYC Management:
Steve Brotman, Founder and Managing Partner
Brian Smiga, Venture Partner
Current Investment Team Size: 2
Sector Focus: Late stage investment
Portfolio/Investments: 1 (LiveIntent)
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Bessemer Venture Partners
Bessemer Venture Partners has over 100 years of investing experience, with a portfolio ranging from brick and mortar retailer Staples to web brands like Skype and LinkedIn. The company operates on a global scale with offices in Israel, India, and both coasts in the US.
Of course, having a long and storied history does give investors any number of opportunities to completely screw it up, and BVP doesn’t hide the fact that no one gets it right all the time. Make sure to look at the ones that got away.
Date founded: 1911
NYC Management:
Bob Goodman, Founding Partner
Alex Ferrara, Partner
Brian Feinstein, Partner
Jeremy Levine, Partner
Rob Stavis, Partner
Current Investment Team Size: 55
Sector Focus: Clean tech, Cloud Computing, Cybersecurity, Financial Services, Healthcare, Infrastructure, Mobile, Online Retail
Portfolio/Investments: 250+ (Startups Introduced to BVP annually – 4,380; Number of times BVP passed on Fedex: 7) (Linkedin, Skype, Pinterest, Yelp, Box, Wix, Twilio, VeriSign, Fivrr, LifeLock)
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Silicon Badia
Silicon Badia invests in technology companies in Jordan, the Middle East, and the U.S., and works to connect entrepreneurs, investors, and companies from these regions. Their Badia Outreach Fund is a seed and early-stage fund that invests in U.S. ventures that are utilizing technology to solve inefficiencies in traditional and niche markets such as life sciences, health care, finance, real-estate, and education.
Founding Date: 2012
NYC Management:
Namek T. Zu’bi, Managing Director
Current Investment Team Size: 1
Sector Focus: Life sciences, health care, finance, real estate, Internet, clean tech, mobile and education
Portfolio/Investments: 20+ (Lynxsy, LearnSprout, Quartzy, CompStack, Hashdoc)
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City Light Capital
City Light Capital is an early stage investment firms focused on making investments in companies that sit at the intersection of social impact and financial returns – businesses that can simultaneously benefit the entrepreneurs, their investors and society at large.
Date founded: 2004
NYC Management:
Josh Cohen, Managing Partner
Matt Cohen, Partner
Stewart Satter, Partner
Current Investment Team Size: 7
Sector Focus: Safety and Security, Education and Media, and Energy and the Environment.
Portfolio/Investments: 5+ (LiveSafe, LicenseStream, EnerTrac)
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Liberty City Ventures
Liberty City Ventures is a seed-stage startup that was founded by the investment management firm, Cedar Hill Capital Partners. Liberty’s investments focused around technology, media, and commerce. The firm also has a specialized Digital Currency Fund, focused on the cryptocurrency industry, including BitCoin.
Date founded: 2012
NYC Management:
Andrew Chang, Founding Partner
Charles Cascarilla, Founding Partner
Dorothy Jean Chang, Founding Partner
Emil Woods, Founding Partner
Current Investment Team Size: 4
Sector: Technology, Media, Commerce, Digital Currency
Portfolio/Investments: 5+ (Hullabalu, Pickie, TripleLift, FaithStreet, Versa, itBit, BitGo)
IA Ventures
IA Ventures invest in early-stage companies developing breakthrough tools, technologies and analytics for managing and extracting value from Big Data, both structured and unstructured. They are interested in a wide variety of verticals, including government, healthcare, financial services. Their investments are often directly or indirectly relevant to quantitative trading.
Date founded: 2010
NYC Management:
Roger Ehrenberg, Founder and Managing Partner
Brad Gillespie, Partner
Current Investment Team Size: 5
Sector Focus: government, healthcare, financial services.
Portfolio/ Investments: 30+ (BillGuard, Digital Ocean, Kinsa, Yipit, NewsCred, PlaceIQ)
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Tribeca Venture Partners
Tribeca Venture Partners is an early-stage venture capital firm that “backs radical innovation” that will drastically change the industry. . They’ve even been known to back ideas on napkins, and ideas that haven’t yet made it to the napkin stage. Their focus is on technology, especially in the New York metro area, as they like to be involved in all of their projects. But most of the time, their check comes during the Series A: product in the market, maybe some users and customers as well. But they want to be the first institutional backer because they like having bragging rights
Date founded: 2011
NYC Management:
Brian Hirsch, Co-founder & Managing Partner
Chip Meakem, Co-founder & Managing Partner
Current Investment Team Size: 3
Sector focus: Internet, Media and Entertainment, Networking and Equipment, Software
Portfolio/Investments: 40+ (ShopKeep POS, CommonBond, Truveris)
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Flybridge Capital Partners
Flybridge invests in seed and early-stage companies and prefers to be the first institutional investor in a company, serving as either lead or co-lead. Across three funds, they have $560 million in which to invest. In addition to money, Flybridge will help with strategic guidance, business development, marketing, and recruitment support.
Founding Date: 2002
NYC Management:
David Aronoff, General Partner
Matthew Witheiler, General Partner
Current Investment Team Size: 7
Sector Focus: Information technology, consumer tech, enterprise technology
Portfolio/Investments: 60+ (Tremor Video, Predictive, BzzAgent, Crispy Gamer, Goby)
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Vayner RSE Ventures
VaynerRSE is a new entrant to the venture space in New York, with the coming together of RSE Ventures, a sports and entertainment holding company, and Gary Vaynerchuk of VaynerMedia. The firm typically invests in the first round of institutional capital for startups, either as leads or as a part of a syndicate.
Date founded: 2014
NYC Management:
Gary Vaynerchuk, Partner
AJ Vaynerchuk, Partner
Matt Higgins, Partner
Arne Rees, Partner
Current Investment Team Size: 5
Portfolio/Investments: 15+ (Birchbox, Namely, MakersKit, Hullabulu, Medium)
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Resolute Venture Capital
Resolute is a lead investor for seed-stage companies . Their typical investment is in the neighborhood of $500,000, although they are very comfortable writing smaller checks for very early “pre-seed” opportunities with founders whom they find to be especially compelling. They are entrepreneur-focused and prefer to be the lead investor.
Date founded: 2012
NYC Management:
Mike Hirschland, Founder
Current Investment Team Size: 2
Sector Focus: Consumer/mobile Internet, e-commerce, SaaS
Portfolio/ Investments: 29 (OKPanda, BarkBox, Hopscotch, Bitium, Greenhouse Software)
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Collaborative Fund
Collaborative Fund is the leading source of seed capital for creative entrepreneurs changing the world. The fund focuses on two themes: the increasing importance of values as they relate to the decisions we make about who we work for, what we buy, and how we spend our time; and the shift from an economy based on hyper-consumption to one based on collaborative consumption. These two forces present a significant opportunity for new technologies, products, and services to reinvent how we do business and transform our daily lives.
Date founded: 2010
NYC Management:
Craig Shapiro, Founder and CEO
Kanyi Maqubela, Partner
Current Investment Team Size: 9
Sector Focus: Technology based on collaborative consumption and the shared future
Portfolio/Investments: 30+ (Hopscotch, Sparklabs, MakeSpace, Hampton Creek)
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AOL Ventures
AOL Ventures is the venture capital arm of AOL, focused on early stage investing in technology-centric consumer Internet companies, investing in Seed and Series A opportunities. Of course, they are broadly interested in themes around AOL’s core – content, advertising, local/mapping, paid services, mobile, SaaS, and communications.
Date founded: 2010
NYC Management:
Tim Armstrong, Chairman, AOL
Jon Brod, Founding Partner
Current Investment Team Size: 8
Sector Focus: Early stage investment in content, advertising, local/mapping, paid services, mobile, SaaS and communications.
Portfolio/Investments: 35+ (SailThru, Solve Media, Vungle)
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Vaizra Investments
Based in New York City but with offices in Russia and Israel as well, Vaizra Investments is a venture capital fund that invests in founders with creative solutions to existing or emerging consumer needs. The firm invests in creative projects from all over the world and actively seek out exciting early and late stage investment opportunities.
Date founded: 2011
NYC Management:
Ron Rofe, Managing Partner (US)
Current Investment Team Size: 4
Sector focus: Software, Online Services, health IT, Videogames
Portfolio/Investments: 20+ (Casper, Ostrovok, Maxwell Health)
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Verizon Ventures
Verizon Ventures focuses on seed capital investments and developing new technologies that complement and leverage Verizon Communications’ global networks, platforms, and distribution channels. The fund is particularly excited by solutions that empower Verizon’ Communications’ retail and enterprise customers and always on the lookout for disruptive technologies and business models with the potential to capture a significant share of a large market.
Date founded: 1990
NYC Management:
Daniel Keoppel, Executive Director
John Doherty, Senior Vice President
Current Investment Team Size: 17
Sector focus: Smart Devices, Digital Marketing and commerce, Big Data, enterprise IT, Cloud, networking, and content—video, web, and mobile applications
Portfolio/Investments: 25+ (Zenverge, Glympse, Payfone, VideoSurf, CloudBees)
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Comcast Ventures
Founded in 1999, Comcast Ventures, originally known as Comcast Interactive Capital, was formed during the acquisition of NBCUniversal by Comcast. A combination of Comcast Interactive Capital and the NBC Universal Peacock Equity Fund, Comcast Ventures typically invests between $2 million and $15 million in promising businesses at any point in their development, from seed through late stage.
The firm prefers to invest in the US and Canada, with a particular focus on New York.
Comcast Ventures has also formed the Catalyst Fund (headed by William Crowder), which is an early stage investor in minority-led tech companies.
Date Founded: 1999
NYC Management:
Andrew Cleland, Managing Director
Current Investment Team Size: 11
Sector Focus: Entertainment, communications, digital technology, advertising, consumer enterprise and infrastructure
Portfolio/Investments: 90+ (Vox, Birchbox, DocuSign, BlogHer, Tivo)
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First Round Capital
A seed-stage venture firm, First Round Capital is focused on technology-based entrepreneurs and start-ups, such as Uber, Square and Warby Parker. They look not only to invest but to connect start-ups to any technology, resources or community they may need to grow and advance their business. They also host events for their community of startups, from small dinners to sizeable summits that bring together some of the top names in tech.
Founding Date: 2004
NYC Management:
Josh Kopelman, Co-Founder & Partner
Howard Morgan, Co-Founder & Partner
Chris Fralic, Partner
Current Investment Team Size: 8
Sector Focus: E-commerce/consumer web, enterprise, financial tech, ad tech, hardware
Portfolio/Investments: 150+ (Mint, GroupMe, Fab, BirchBox, AppNexus, Blue Apron, Solve, StumbleUpon)
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Great Oaks Venture Capital
This is a seed and early-stage investment firm that will invest in companies ranging from seed to Series A stage. Great Oaks manages approximately $100,000,000 between two funds. Based in New York, they also have team members in Chicago and San Francisco, and invest in a range of industries across the country.
Founding Date: 2003
NYC Management:
Andy Boszhardt, Co-Founder and Managing Partner
Ben Lin, Co-Founder and Managing Partner
Current Investment Team Size: 6
Sector Focus: Technology through consumer web, Saas and cloud platforms with an emphasis in Health, Education and e-Commerce, Mobile, Social, Gaming, Content/Distribution
Portfolio/Investments: 40+ (OKCupid Warby Parker, Bonobos, Hinge, Invite Media)
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RTP Ventures
RTP Ventures is looking for innovative startups that will lead industries and prefers being the first institutional investor in companies targeting markets that will see tomorrow’s growth. A $120M fund that works closely with several entrepreneurs, RTP is also associated with Ru-Net, one of the leading global Internet investors. And no, we don’t know what the fund’s initials stand for, either.
Date founded: 2011
NYC Management:
Kirill Sheynkman, Co-Founder & Senior MD
Current Investment Team Size: 4
Sector focus: IT, Cloud, E-Commerce, Big Data, SaaS
Portfolio/Investments: 15+ (Liftopia, RiingCentral, Fab, Richrelevance, Lidyana)
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Hearst Ventures
The venture arm of the Hearst Corporation, Hearst Ventures primarily invests in development-stage companies operating at the intersection of media and technology. One of the most active and successful corporate venture funds, Hearst began investing in 1995 with Netscape and has been going strong ever since.
Founding Date: 1995
NYC Management:
Ken Bronfin, Senior Managing Director
Scott English, Managing Director
George Kliavkoff, President
Darcy Frisch, Vice President
Current Investment Team Size: 4
Sector Focus: Media and technology
Portfolio/Investments: 50+ (Buzzfeed, BrightCove, Pandora, Yieldex, HootSuite, Roku)
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Lux Capital
Lux Capital is a New York and Palo Alto venture capital firm focusing in biotech startups. While the venture capital world has shied away from biotech in recent years, Lux Capital has been able to stay ahead of the game by avoiding high profile failures, making contrarian investments, and focusing on research. Lux Capital focuses on energy, life sciences, biopharmaceutical, healthcare, and technology and looks to be the first institutional investor in its portfolio companies.
Date founded: 2010
NYC Management:
Peter Hébert, Co-Founder & Managing Partner
Josh Wolfe, Co-Founder & Managing Partner
Adam Kalish, General Partner
Current Investment Team Size: 8
Sector focus: biotech, physical, life sciences
Portfolio/Investments: 30+ (Accelergy, Cambrios, Cerulean Pharma, Crystal IS, Everspin, Genocea Biosciences, GridCo)
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Stripes Group
Based in New York City, Stripes Group is a growth equity firm that invests in Internet, Digital Media, Software / SaaS, Healthcare, and Branded Consumer Products businesses around the world. The firm has $1.5B of assets under management. The firm’s typical check size is between $10M-$100M
Date founded: 2003
NYC Management:
Ken Fox, Managing Partner
Dan Marriott, Managing Partner
Ron Shah, Partner
Karen Kenworthy, Partner
Current Investment Team Size: 31
Sector focus: Software, consumer, healthcare, ecommerce, media, financial services
Portfolio/Investments: 25+ (Blue Apron, Flatiron Health, GoFundMe, Remitly, BookMyShow, Refinery29, Udemy, Upwork, Califia Farms, The Black Tux, Kareo, Craftsy, Stella & Chewy’s, Reformation, Pond5, Ketra, Turtle Beach, Art.com, Audio Network, eMarketer, Seamless/GrubHub, MyWebGrocer)
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