In honor of the venture capital firms in NYC fueling the city's explosive tech growth, we've rounded up the top names that have helped build the city into what it is today.
NYC Venture Capital Firms to Know
- Union Square Ventures
- Insight Ventures Partners
- Scout Ventures
- Thrive Capital
- Corigin Ventures
- General Atlantic
- FirstMark Capital
- Time Warner Investments
Greycroft Partners makes initial investments from as little as $100,000 in their seed program to up to $20M from their growth fund. Approximately half of Greycroft’s portfolio is in New York and Los Angeles, and the other half is spread across the globe. They invest across a broad spectrum of Internet and mobile companies. They currently have clusters of companies in consumer Internet, eCommerce, enterprise software, cloud computing, financial technology, and advertising technology.
Location: New York and Los Angeles
Investments: 200+
Exits: 35+ acquisitions
Notable NYC portfolio companies: Managed by Q, Button, theSkimm, Venmo
Union Square Ventures is a venture capital firm that manages $1B across six funds. Their portfolio companies create services that have the potential to fundamentally transform important markets.
Location: New York
Investments: 170+
Exits: 4 IPOs and 15+ acquisitions
Notable NYC portfolio companies: Stack Overflow, MongoDB, Kickstarter
Launched by internet entrepreneur Kevin Ryan, AlleyCorp is an early-stage venture fund and incubator that focuses on founding and funding companies in New York. The company mostly invests in pre-seed and seed rounds and makes select series A investments.
Location: New York
Investments: 27+
Exits: 1 IPO and 1 Acquisition
Notable NYC portfolio companies: Business Insider, Gilt Groupe, Zola
Lux is a venture firm investing in counter-conventional, seed and early stage science and technology ventures. The firm manages $700 million in assets across four funds.
Location: New York and Silicon Valley
Investments: 71+
Exits: 2 IPOs and 1+ acquisitions
Notable NYC portfolio companies: Hometeam, Pager, Shapeways, Zipdrug
Insight is a global private equity and venture capital firm investing in growth-stage spftware, internet, and data-services companies.
Location: New York
Investments: 162+
Exits: 11 IPOs and 26+ acquisitions
Notable NYC portfolio companies: VTS, Shutterstock
Scout invests in seed stage companies that are disrupting established business models.
Location: New York
Investments: 69+
Exits: 4+ acquisitions
Notable portfolio companies: Signpost, Ampsy, Virtuix
Tribeca invests in early-stage companies that apply technology to the confluence of macro trends to create or disrupt a big market. They mostly focus in the New York metro area and invest $100 thousand to $4 million depending on stage, sector, capital needs, etc.
Location: New York
Investments: 52+
Exits: 2+ acquisitions
Notable portfolio companies: Commonbond, ShopKeep, Mighty
RTP invests in early-stage companies, notably engineers who solve big problems with technology.
Location: New York
Investments: 23+
Exits: 1 IPO and 2+ acquisitions
Notable portfolio companies: RingCentral, Koding, Datadog
Thrive Capital is a venture capital investment firm focused on media and internet investments.
Location: New York
Investments: 92+
Exits: 13+ acquisitions
Notable NYC portfolio companies: ClassPass, Justworks, Codecademy
ff Venture Capital is an early stage investor focusing on creative entrepreneurs who are using technology to transform industries such as food, disaster recovery housing, crowdfunding and drones.
Location: New York
Investments: 143+
Exits: 1 IPO and 9+ acquisitions
Notable NYC portfolio companies: Movable Ink, Contently, Appy Couple
IA is looking to invest in companies that create competitive advantage through data.
Location: New York
Investments: 78+
Exits: 8+ acquisitions
Notable portfolio companies: Mighty, TransferWise, DigitalOcean, Updater
Red Swan Ventures is a seed-stage venture firm launched by Bonobos founder Andy Dunn. They invest in entrepreneurs who delight customers, create culture, and disrupt industries.
Location: New York
Investments: 30+
Notable NYC portfolio companies: Warby Parker, Oscar, Betterment
Lerer is an early-stage technology venture capital firm investing in entrepreneurs who are seeking to transform large markets.
Location: New York
Investments: 260+
Exits: 38+ acquisitions
Notable portfolio companies: littleBits, Bloglovin, Songza, Percolate, Axial
Corigin Ventures is an early-stage investor looking for tech-enabled startups in high-growth markets led by inspirational teams. They focus on Seed and Series A investments.
Location: New York
Investments: 19+
Exits: 1+ acquisitions
Notable portfolio companies: fitmob, Compass, Mighty
Zelkova Ventures looks to invest in early stage companies, many times pre-revenue. They focus on several key sectors — Software Services, Internet Technologies, Environmental Technologies and Consumer Products.
Location: New York
Investments: 49+
Exits: 15+ acquisitions
Notable portfolio companies: Food52, Teckst, Kapost
Red Sea Ventures invests in early stage technology-enabled companies that are building product offerings that have the potential to transform industries and consumer experiences for the better.
Location: New York
Investments: 24+
Exits: 2+ acquisitions
Notable portfolio companies: Eargo, WayUp, Elite Daily, Splash
Born out of parent company Bertelsmann, BDMI invests out of two funds: a seed fund and a traditional early stage fund. For the seed fund, they seek products or services that are live in the marketplace with some initial data points that demonstrate early signs of product-market fit. In the main fund they're looking for Series A and Series B rounds with an initial investment of $500 thousand to $4 million.
Location: New York
Investments: 67+
Notable NYC portfolio companies: VHX, Food52, CrowdTwist
Betaworks is not a traditional fund, but they make small seed investments in companies. This generally means investing $100k - $200k in companies who don't have other investments or who have very little.
Location: New York
Investments: 119+
Exits: 35+ acquisitions
Notable NYC portfolio companies: Bitly, Chartbeat,Tumblr
Related: 9 NYC tech companies forged on betaworks' factory floor
General Atlantic is a leading growth equity firm that provides later stage venture and private equity investments as well as strategic support for growth companies.
Location: New York
Investments: 100+
Exits: 45+ acquisitions and IPOs
Notable NYC portfolio companies: BuzzFeed, SquareSpace, Gilt Groupe
BOLDstart invests in founders at the seed stage and Series A. They focus on seed investing in mobile, agile, and smart enterprise and business models that harness the power of network effects.
Location: New York
Investments: 48+
Exits: 9+ acquisitions
Notable portfolio companies: Klipfolio, Crew, Preact
BoxGroup is an early stage investment fund. Typical investment ranges from $50,000 to $250,000. They actively invest in New York, Silicon Valley, and Los Angeles though not exclusively. They are looking to partner with extraordinary entrepreneurs building disruptive technology companies and with visions to create the next generation of category defining businesses regardless of the stage.
Location: New York
Investments: 199+
Exits: 31+ acquisitions
Notable portfolio companies: Blue Apron, Harry's, Barkbox
Bowery is an early-stage investor backing founders modernizing business through technology in the seed stage. From marketing and sales to analytics and infrastructure, they want startups changing the way business is done.
Location: New York and San Francisco
Investments: 19+
Exits: 1+ acquisitions
Notable portfolio companies: TrackMaven, Wizeline, Premise
Brooklyn Bridge Ventures is the first venture capital fund based in Brooklyn, NY. It leads or co-leads investments of around $250,000 in the New York City area, aiming to be part of the first $750,000 a company raises.
Location: Brooklyn
Investments: 20+
Exits: 1+ acquisitions
Notable portfolio companies: Clubhouse Software, Homer Logistics, Tinkergarten
Collaborative focuses on emerging technology startups, specifically with the concept of collaborative consumption.
Location: New York
Investments: 66+
Exits: 4+ acquisitions
Notable portfolio companies: Upstart, HelloTech, TaskRabbit
Contour Venture Partners is an early stage venture capital firm investing in seed and early stage companies that provide innovative technology enhanced solutions into the financial services, enterprise SaaS and digital media sectors, with a focus on New York City. Contour has $145 million under management across its 4 funds.
Location: New York
Investments: 57+
Exits: 1 IPO and 6+ acquisitions
Notable portfolio companies: ShopKeep, RouteHappy, Bench
Eniac Ventures is a seed stage venture firm investing exclusively in mobile technologies. They have advised and invested in 150+ mobile software startups.
Location: New York
Investments: 77+
Exits: 11+ acquisitions
Notable portfolio companies: Hinge, Launchkey, Snips
Firstmark is an early stage venture capital firm seeking exceptional entrepreneurs who are changing the world by solving meaningful problems.
Location: New York
Investments: 139+
Exits: 2 IPOs and 9+ acquisitions
Notable portfolio companies: HopSkipDrive, Pinterest, Shopify
Genacast Ventures is a seed fund that invests up to $1 million in B2B start-ups in the northeastern US. They look for startups with innovative technology that provides competitive advantages and help erect barriers to entry.
Location: New York
Investments: 20+
Exits: 4+ acquisitions
Notable portfolio companies: Rocketrip, ZeroFOX, Yieldmo
Great Oaks provides seed investment for startups looking to fix societal, business and consumer problems by leveraging technology. They typically invest between $50,000 and $500,000 in Seed or Series A financings. The majority of their investments are based in New York, NY and San Francisco, though they don't exclude by geography.
Location: New York
Investments: 233+
Exits: 1 IPO and 28+ acquisitions
Notable portfolio companies: ThinkCERCA, PageVault, Mattermark
Liberty City Ventures is a seed stage fund investing in startups that are innovating at the cross-sections of technology, media and commerce.
Location: New York
Investments: 13+
Exits: 2+ acquisitions
Notable portfolio companies: itBit, Farm Hill, Parenthoods
LCG invests in late seed-stage companies that have reached an inflection point in their business development that strongly suggests continued growth, attractive future funding rounds, and current tangible value. They're seeking companies which have built disruptive B2B SaaS or PaaS based businesses that solve immediate marketing, distribution, communications, and workflow problems created by the technology revolution occurring within an identified sector.
Location: New York
Investments: 27+
Exits: 4+ acquisitions
Notable portfolio companies: Wymsee, Better Mobile Security, TripleLift
MESA invests in early stage internet and enterprise startups. They seek the most promising entrepreneurs as partners and co-invest alongside Seed and Series A investors.Location: New York
Investments: 52+
Exits: 6+ acquisitions
Notable portfolio companies: Fuisz Media, FEM, MakersKit
Metamorphic Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in startup and early stage technology companies. They focus on investing in entrepreneurs building game-changing companies in massive markets, whether that be in categories like marketplaces, e-commerce, payments, web services, the Internet of Things, virtual reality, or even new categories that haven’t been discovered yet.
Location: New York
Investments: 48+
Exits: 12+ acquisitions
Notable portfolio companies: WhipClip, Indigogo, Mass Relevance
Milestone Venture Partners is an early stage venture capital fund with $110 million under management. They invest in high growth, technology-enabled services companies which have initial users and early revenue. Their initial investment size usually ranges between $500,000 and $1.5 million.
Location: New York
Investments: 39+
Exits: 7+ acquisitions
Notable portfolio companies: MapMyFitness, Senet, SHYFT
Quotidian invests in early stage companies with technology products that modernize large existing industries. They mainly invest in New York City.
Location: New York
Investments: 76+
Exits: 15+ acquisitions
Notable portfolio companies: Bench, Adcade, August
Rho invests mostly in information technology, communications, new media, healthcare and new energy.
Location: New York
Investments: 48+
Exits: 6 IPOs and 10+ acquisitions
Notable portfolio companies: Dashlane, Plotly, Philo
RRE Ventures is a venture capital firm looking for early and mid-stage companies who seek to disrupt and transform industries, particularly in products or services enabled by information technology. RRE has raised 1.5 billion dollars across seven funds. They invest across the United States and occasionally overseas.
Location: New York
Investments: 304+
Exits: 17 IPOs and 60+ acquisitions
Notable portfolio companies: Brilliant Bicycles, Gem, theSkimm
SoftBank invests in early to late stage companies building disruptive enduring businesses.
Location: New York
Investments: 49+
Exits: 15+ acquisitions
Notable portfolio companies: NatureBox, flightcar, fitbit
StarVest Partners is a venture capital firm looking to invest in outstanding expansion stage technology-enabled business-to-business services companies.
Location: New York
Investments: 100+
Exits: 18+ acquisitions
Notable portfolio companies: UrbanBound, ideeli, Fieldglass
Time Warner invests in early to mid-stage companies that generate strategic value for Time Warner’s businesses. They seek to acquire minority equity stakes in private companies and target an investment size of up to $25M.
Location: New York
Investments: 59+
Notable portfolio companies: FanDuel, Maker Studios, Bustle
VRSE invests in teams building tomorrow's companies through unique consumer insight and relentless drive. Their sweet spot is in the first round of institutional financing, funding either as lead investors or as part of a syndicate.
Location: New York
Investments: 56+
Exits: 1+ acquisitions
Notable portfolio companies: Lawnstarter, Food52, Birchbox
Vaizra US invests in early and late stage opportunities. They want to see talented teams with creative solutions to existing or emerging consumer and enterprise needs.
Location: New York
Investments: 36+
Exits: 1 IPO and 2+ acquisitions
Notable portfolio companies: YikYak, Casper, ZeroCater
Warburg Pincus is a global private equity firm focused on growth investing.
Location: New York
Investments: 109+
Exits: 8 IPOs and 22+ acquisitions
Notable portfolio companies: Crowdstrike, CarTrade, Quickr
Related: Best Startups to Work for in NYC