FirstMark Capital is a private equity

Private equity

Private equity, in finance, is an asset class consisting of equity securities in operating companies that are not publicly traded on a stock exchange....

 firm focusing on venture capital

Venture capital

Venture capital is financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. The venture capital fund makes money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which usually have a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as...

 transactions in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. With approximately $2 billion of capital under management, FirstMark invests in technology companies early in a company’s lifecycle, frequently as the first institutional investor.

Among the firm's areas of focus are:

• Data and Analytics
• Emerging Media and Advertising
• Infrastructure
• Vertical Applications and Services

Originally known as Pequot Ventures, FirstMark was founded in 1996 as the venture arm of Pequot Capital Management

Pequot Capital Management

Pequot Capital Management was a multi-billion dollar hedge fund sponsor founded in 1998 by Arthur J. Samberg that was forcibly terminated by order of the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2010. The firm's investment funds invested in a range of markets through a variety of strategies...

. FirstMark Capital spun out of Pequot in 2008 and has since established itself as an independent investment firm.

Among the firm's most notable current investments are SecondMarket

SecondMarket

SecondMarket is an online marketplace for buying and selling illiquid assets, including auction‐rate securities, bankruptcy claims, limited partnership interests, private company stock, restricted securities in public companies, structured products, and whole loans.SecondMarket's participants...

, Knewton

Knewton

Knewton is an adaptive learning company that has developed a platform to personalize educational content. The Knewton platform allows schools, publishers, and developers to provide adaptive learning for any student. Knewton recently announced a partnership with Pearson Education to power the...

, MAP Pharmaceuticals, Lot18, Riot Games

Riot Games

Riot Games is an independent video game developer and publisher based in Santa Monica, California. Established in 2006, Riot Games launched the stand-alone Dota game, League of Legends as its first title in October 2009. Riot Games obtained around 20 million dollars from venture capital firms to...

 and Weplay

Weplay

Weplay, an American online community site for young athletes, parents, coaches, families and teams involved in youth sports, launched in March 2008...

.

FirstMark, and before that Pequot Ventures were also investors in Netgear

Netgear

Netgear is a U.S. manufacturer of computer networking equipment and other computer hardware....

, First Advantage , StubHub

Stubhub

StubHub is an online marketplace owned by eBay, which provides services for buyers and sellers of tickets for sports, concerts, theater and other live entertainment events....

, Netegrity, Flarion, OutlookSoft

OutlookSoft

OutlookSoft Corporation was a Stamford, Connecticut based software company with products for business performance management including planning, consolidation, forecasting, budgeting, dashboards, predictive analytics and reporting...

, Insulet, Syndesis, Analex, Vallent and Navic (Acquired by Microsoft

Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...

).

External links

• FirstMark Capital (company website)
• FirstMark Capital Profile. The Funded.com