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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 Airbnb, Pinterest, Shopify, DraftKings, Stubhub, Upwork, Ro, Discord, and Dataiku.[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.[1]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.

In 2013, FirstMark raised $225m. Then, in 2014, it raised a $150 million fund. By 2016, the firm had raised $1.3bn in eight years, with dedicated funds for both early- and growth-stage investments.[6] In June 2020, FirstMark announced FirstMark V (a $380M early-stage fund) and Opportunity Fund III (a $270M growth stage fund).[7]

In June 2022, the firm announced the closing of its most recent funds, FirstMark VI and FirstMark Opportunity Fund IV, totaling approximately $1.1 billion in commitments,[8] representing more than $3.5B of total committed capital since inception.

Team

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As of 2024, the firm has four investing partners: Rick Heitzmann, Amish Jani, Matt Turck, and Adam Nelson.[9] In 2024 Rick Heitzmann was named to the Forbes Midas List for the fifth consecutive year.[10][11][12][13]

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.[14] Other prominent investments include Riot Games, creator of League of Legends (Acquired by Tencent Holdings),[15] Frame.io (Acquired by Adobe)[16], Discord,[17] Airbnb,[18] Upwork,[5] TraceLink,[19] Dataiku,[20] Dashlane,[21] Synthesia,[22] EvolutionIQ (Acquired by CCC) and Ro.[23]

Notable exits include:

Notable Exits
Company Outcome
Pinterest IPO (NYSE:PINS)
Shopify IPO (NYSE:SHOP)
Upwork IPO (NASDAQ:UPWK)
Airbnb IPO (NASDAQ:ABNB)
DraftKings IPO (NASDAQ:DKNG)
Postmates Acquired by Uber ($2.65B)[24]
Stubhub Acquired by viagogo ($4.05B)[25]
Riot Games Acquired by Tencent ($400M)[26]
Frame.io Acquired by Adobe ($1.3B)[27]
EvolutionIQ Acquired by CCC ($730M)[28]

Model

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FirstMark has a heavy presence in New York City, and invests primarily at the Seed and Series A in companies based on the East Coast and in Europe. The firm's main areas of investment include AI, consumer marketplaces, healthcare, gaming, financial technology, property technology, infrastructure, e-commerce, and enterprise software.[29]

Platform

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FirstMark invested in Platform from the very start to better enable, connect, and inspire the founders they back. FirstMark's platform comes to life through peer networks, full lifecycle recruiting, and customer and partner development.[30]

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.[31]

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[32]), 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. ^ a b "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. ^ "Why FirstMark plans to invest $480M in 'non-obvious' companies". New York Business Journal. 2016.
  7. ^ Crook, Jordan. "FirstMark Capital announces new funds with a fresh $650 million in investment capital". TechCrunch. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  8. ^ "FirstMark Capital racks up $1.1bn across two funds". www.venturecapitaljournal.com. 2022.
  9. ^ "Announcing our Newest Funds". FirstMark Capital. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  10. ^ "Venture capital was severely over-funded in 2020 and 2021: FirstMark Capital's Heitzmann". www.cnbc.com. 2023.
  11. ^ "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.
  12. ^ "Rick Heitzmann". Forbes. Retrieved 2023-06-28.
  13. ^ "Rick Heitzmann Named to Forbes Midas List for 5th Consecutive Year". FirstMark. 2024-06-16. Retrieved 2025-01-07.
  14. ^ Ghose, Carrie (24 February 2020). "Columbus e-commerce startup plans to add 40 jobs". Columbus Business First. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
  15. ^ China's Tencent Buys Riot Games for $400 Million
  16. ^ 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.
  17. ^ Matney, Lucas (21 December 2018). "Gaming chat startup Discord raises $150M, surpassing $2B valuation". TechCrunch. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
  18. ^ "Airbnb". FirstMark. Retrieved 2019-08-14.
  19. ^ 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.
  20. ^ [1]. TechCrunch, May 19, 2014
  21. ^ Dashlane Passes 2M Users, Collects $22M For Its Client-Based Password Manager. TechCrunch, May 19, 2014
  22. ^ "2023 06 16 Synthesia Announces 90 Million Series C // Cooley // Global Law Firm". www.cooley.com. Retrieved 2023-06-28.
  23. ^ Mascarenhas, Natasha (2022-02-15). "Existing investors double down on Ro at boosted $7 billion valuation". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2023-06-28.
  24. ^ Isaac, Mike; Griffith, Erin; Satariano, Adam (2020-07-06). "Uber Buys Postmates for $2.65 Billion". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-01-08.
  25. ^ "viagogo Acquires StubHub from eBay for $4.05 Billion". investors.ebayinc.com. Retrieved 2025-01-08.
  26. ^ "Riot Games", Wikipedia, 2025-01-07, retrieved 2025-01-08
  27. ^ Shapton, David. "Analysis: Why exactly did Adobe just drop $1.3bn on Frame.io?". www.redsharknews.com. Retrieved 2025-01-08.
  28. ^ "CCC finalises $730m EvolutionIQ acquisition". January 7, 2025.
  29. ^ "FirstMark Capital LLC". www.bloomberg.com. 2023.
  30. ^ "Platform". FirstMark. Retrieved 2025-01-08.
  31. ^ "Platform". FirstMark. Retrieved 2025-01-08.
  32. ^ "Past Speakers". CloudNY. Retrieved 2025-01-08.
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