FirstMark Capital

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, and Ro.

History
FirstMark was founded in 2008 by Amish Jani and Rick Heitzmann as a spinoff from Pequot Capital Management.

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

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, representing more than $3.5B of total committed capital since inception.

Team
As of 2022, the firm has five investing partners: Rick Heitzmann, Amish Jani, Matt Turck, Beth Ferreira, and Adam Nelson. In early 2023 Rick Heitzmann was named to the Forbes Midas List for the third consecutive year.

Investments and Model
FirstMark has a heavy presence in New York City, and invests primarily in companies based on the East Coast and in Europe. The firm's main areas of investment include AI, healthcare, finance, consumer, property technology, marketplaces, infrastructure, e-commerce, education, and enterprise software.

The firm's most notable investments include Pinterest, which debuted on New York Stock Exchange on April 18, 2019, as well as Shopify. Other prominent investments include Riot Games, creator of League of Legends (Acquired by Tencent Holdings), Discord, Airbnb, Upwork, TraceLink, Dataiku, Dashlane, Synthesia, and Ro.

FirstMark also has a dedicated Platform team that offers products and services to its portfolio companies to fuel their growth. Guilds by FirstMark is the firm's collection of private communities for C-level executives from its portfolio companies, as well as breakout venture-backed technology companies. Through Guilds, members access high-quality programming, private forums, exclusive resources, access to private events, and more.