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FirstMark Capital

FirstMark
Company typePrivate
IndustryVenture Capital
FoundedJune 30, 2008; 16 years ago (2008-06-30)[1]
FoundersRick Heitzmann
Amish Jani
Headquarters
New York City, New York
,
United States
Key people
Rick Heitzmann
Amish Jani
Matt Turck
Adam Nelson
ProductsVenture capital
Total assets$3.5 billion
Number of employees
30
WebsiteOfficial website

FirstMark is a venture capital firm based in New York City. FirstMark invests in early-stage technology companies, frequently as the first institutional investor and leading the rounds it participates in. Notable investments include Pinterest, Shopify, DraftKings, Stubhub, Airbnb, Upwork, Riot Games, and Frame.io.[2][3][4][5]

History

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FirstMark was founded in 2008 by Amish Jani and Rick Heitzmann as a spinoff from Pequot Capital Management.[6]The co-founders started the firm based on their core belief that New York was set to become the dominant global hub for technology startups.

Since inception, FirstMark has raised 10 funds with dedicated funds for both early- and growth-stage investments. As of 2024, the firm has $3.5B in committed capital.

Team

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As of 2024, the firm has four investing partners: Rick Heitzmann, Amish Jani, Matt Turck, and Adam Nelson.[7] Rick Heitzmann has been named to the Forbes Midas List for five consecutive years,[8][9][10][11] and Amish Jani has been twice recognized as one of the top 100 seed investors by Business Insider,[12] with similar honors from the New York Times and CB Insights.

Notable Investments

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The firm's most notable investments include Pinterest,[3] which debuted on New York Stock Exchange on April 18, 2019, as well as Shopify, which debuted on the New York Stock Exchange on May 21, 2015.[13] Other prominent investments include Draftkings, Riot Games, creator of League of Legends (Acquired by Tencent Holdings),[14] Frame.io (Acquired by Adobe)[15], Airbnb,[16] Stubhub, Upwork,[5] Postmates (Acquired by Uber), and EvolutionIQ (Acquired by CCC).[17]

Model

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FirstMark has a heavy presence in New York City, and invests primarily in Seed and Series A companies based on the East Coast and in Europe. The firm invests in areas where they have strong domain expertise, including: enterprise software, consumer marketplaces, infrastructure, AI/ML, healthcare, gaming, fintech, and e-commerce.[18]

Platform

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FirstMark invested in building a network-driven firm from the very beginning. The firm is built around unique communities with networks that give it access to the top companies, entrepreneurs and advisors in the technology ecosystem. FirstMark's Platformcomes to life through peer networks, full lifecycle recruiting, and customer and partner development.[19]

Notably, Guilds by FirstMark is a collection of invite-only communities FirstMark runs for C-level executives that currently counts over 2,700 members representing over 60% of global tech unicorns. These communities provide FirstMark portfolio companies "unfair access" to a network of exceptional peers, 100+ annual company-building events, and more.[20]

FirstMark is also known for its flagship events, including their annual CEO Summit & Founder Dinner (which takes place at the New York Stock Exchange and welcomes 250 Founders & Venture Capitalists), CloudNY (which welcomes 150 cloud CEOs to hear from legendary tech founders and CEOs[21]), and Data Driven NYC (a 20,000-person AI/ML community that has been running for more than a decade and has featured leading AI researches, founders, and investors).

References

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  1. ^ "Pequot to Separate Its V.C. and Hedge Fund Units". New York Times. No. DealBook. United States. The New York Times Company. 4 March 2008. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  2. ^ 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. ^ "Pequot to Separate Its V.C. and Hedge Fund Units". New York Times. No. DealBook. United States. The New York Times Company. 4 March 2008. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  7. ^ "Announcing our Newest Funds". FirstMark Capital. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  8. ^ "Venture capital was severely over-funded in 2020 and 2021: FirstMark Capital's Heitzmann". www.cnbc.com. 2023.
  9. ^ "There's going to be a lot of anxiety over SVB the next couple days, says FirstMark Capital's Rich Heitzmann". www.cnbc.com. CNBC. 2023.
  10. ^ "Rick Heitzmann". Forbes. Retrieved 2023-06-28.
  11. ^ "Rick Heitzmann Named to Forbes Midas List for 5th Consecutive Year". FirstMark. 2024-06-16. Retrieved 2025-01-07.
  12. ^ Awal, Melia Russell, Ben Bergman, April Joyner, Emily Quiles, Madeline Renbarger, Kazi. "The Seed 100: The best early-stage investors". Business Insider. Retrieved 2025-01-09.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  13. ^ Ghose, Carrie (24 February 2020). "Columbus e-commerce startup plans to add 40 jobs". Columbus Business First. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
  14. ^ China's Tencent Buys Riot Games for $400 Million
  15. ^ Jr, Tom Huddleston (2024-08-23). "42-year-old sold his startup for $1.3 billion—he started by buying a $17,500 camera he couldn't afford". CNBC. Retrieved 2025-01-07.
  16. ^ "Airbnb". FirstMark. Retrieved 2019-08-14.
  17. ^ Chowdhry, Amit (2024-12-27). "CCC Intelligent Solutions Acquiring EvolutionIQ In $730 Million Deal". Pulse 2.0. Retrieved 2025-01-09.
  18. ^ "FirstMark Capital LLC". www.bloomberg.com. 2023.
  19. ^ "Platform". FirstMark. Retrieved 2025-01-08.
  20. ^ "Platform". FirstMark. Retrieved 2025-01-08.
  21. ^ "Past Speakers". CloudNY. Retrieved 2025-01-08.