FirstMark is a venture capital firm based in New York City. The firm's mission is to partner with exceptional entrepreneurs who are changing the world by solving meaningful problems. FirstMark has proudly backed founders of remarkable businesses like Pinterest, Shopify, DraftKings, Discord, Airbnb, and dozens more.

FirstMark

New York Angels is one of the largest and most active angel investment organizations.  Founded in 2004 as the successor organization to the NYNMA (New York New Media Association) Angel Investor Program, New York Angels is a membership organization of over 110 active angel investors and early stage venture capital funds. The group meets monthly to screen and present early stage technology companies, and its members have invested over $100 million since 2002 into over 90 ventures. In April of 2017, PItchbook identified New York Angels as #3 in their list of the 8 top VCs funding seed rounds of New York-based companies.  Among the NYA membership are nationally known angel investors including Esther Dyson and David S. Rose. The group has one full-time staff, reporting to an 11 person Board of Directors chaired by Brian S. Cohen. Dr. Elizabeth Lindsey is currently Program Director of New York Angels. Since 2012, the membership has increased by 66% and investment activity has grown by over 215%.   New York Angels concentrates on early stage investments in the range of $100,000 - $1,000,000, although it has led deals as large as $2 million. It receives over 2,200 financing applications annually, from which it selects 12-16 companies each month for an in-person screening, where all members of New York Angels are invited to attend. The group meets again for an Investment Breakfast at the end of the month, where 2-4 opportunities present to the membership with a goal to close their current investment round within two months. The group is considered a leader in the growing field of organized angel investing. It was the first member of the national Angel Capital Association, hosted the ACA Summit conference in 2006, and was the initial test group for the now-standard gust (Angelsoft) funding platform.  Membership as an investor in New York Angels is by invitation only, and members are required to commit to investing at least $50,000 annually in early stage technology deals, in addition to the group's $3,500 annual membership dues.  Requests for funding for entrepreneurial ventures may be self-submitted through the group's website. New York Angels charges no fees to entrepreneurs.

New York Angels

We're Acequia Capital, a team and partnership with roots in Albuquerque. We're knowledge workers and systems thinkers who love to keep good company in most fields.

Acequia Capital (AceCap)

New York Venture Partners is a seed stage venture capital firm dedicated to the entrepreneur.  New York Venture Partners provide an ecosystem of financing, mentorship and strategic marketing consulting to the best entrepreneurs out there today.

New York Venture Partners

The Manatt Venture Fund is the investment arm of [Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP](/company/manatt-phelps-phillips-llp), a Los Angeles-based law firm. The Fund makes early-stage investments, and since its founding in 2000 it has made investments in over 90 companies. The official investment entity is MPP Holdings, LLC.

Manatt Venture Fund

Bessemer Venture Partners helps entrepreneurs lay strong foundations to build and forge long-standing companies. Their portfolio includes pinterest, shopify, twilio, yelp, linkedin, pagerduty, docusign, wix, fiverr, and toast, and has $19 billion of assets under management.

Bessemer Venture Partners

SV Angel is a San Francisco-based venture fund. Their experience spans helping companies like Airbnb, Coinbase, Databricks, DoorDash, Faire, Flexport, GitHub, Notion, Pinterest, Snap, Square, and Stripe Scale. Over the last 30 years of investing, their core values of trust, loyalty, and integrity along with a founder-first approach have driven our strategy. They are a service organization, investing in founders who share these values. They support entrepreneurs in building lasting companies by assisting at key inflection points and leveraging networks to help them propel their businesses forward.

SV Angel

Miroma Ventures is the investment arm of The Miroma Group, predominantly investing in growth stage consumer brands and media platforms. We leverage the complete offering of marketing capabilities and global reach of The Miroma Group, a bespoke collective of creative and marketing agencies for the Connected Age, uniquely placed to unlock value and drive growth for its clients.  As a strategic co-investor, Miroma Ventures brings both capital and a full suite of marketing services to the table—tailoring the offering to suit the stage of business and make the most impact for our partner companies. We have invested in over 50 media and consumer businesses to date with partners including ClassPass, Cedar, Pinterest, SBTV, Minute Media, Simba, MikMak, Who What Wear, and more.

Miroma Ventures

Andreessen Horowitz is a venture capital firm specializing in investing in seed, start-ups, early, mid-stage, growth, and late-stage. It prefers to invest in the social media business and technology sector with a focus on software, back-end infrastructure, the infrastructure of the Internet, cloud computing, enterprise software and services, consumer, business Internet, mobile-Internet, consumer Internet, cloud computing, data storage, social network browsers data-storage, consumer electronics, networking functions, software related biology, biotech, and medicine companies at the intersection of computer science and life sciences with a focus on digital therapeutics, cloud technology in biology, and computational medicine.

Andreessen Horowitz

Rakuten is a tech company that offers electronic commerce solutions in Japan and internationally. The company operates in three segments such as internet services, finance services, and others.  The internet services segment comprises businesses running various e-commerce sites, including Rakuten Ichiba, an internet shopping mall; travel booking sites; portal sites; and e-book businesses as well as businesses for advertising and sale of contents and similar on these sites.  Its offerings include e-reading, online travel reservations, online auctions, online marketing, online golf course reservations, portal sites, search engines, integrated internet marketing, online recipe posting and browsing, student recruiting community, online purchase of discount coupons, online shopping, and video on demand services. It is involved in the online sale of books, CDs, and DVDs.  The internet finance segment is engaged in providing services related to banking and securities, credit cards, life insurance, and electronic money. This segment provides credit card payment, internet banking, online brokerage, online comprehensive insurance, and face-to-face and online life insurance services as well as credit card transactions on smartphones and tablets.  The other segments are involved in the provision of communications services such as next-generation LTE-compatible mobile data communication, telecommunications, internet connection and corporate mobile phone services, and management of a professional baseball team.  The company was formerly known as MDM, Inc. and changed its name to Rakuten, Inc. in June 1999. Rakuten, Inc. was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.

Rakuten

Slow Ventures is a community built on the collective experience and fueled by curiosity, Slow understands the entrepreneurial journey. Investing at the center of technology and on the edges of science, society, and culture, Slow gives founders the resources, connections, experiences, and empathy required to build strong, sustainable companies.

Slow Ventures

We back founders who are reimagining the world. We invest $1-10m early, in those building daring adventures across Europe.  Our partners have worked in leading Silicon Valley startups since the dawn of the Internet and have collectively amassed over 50 years in tech on both sides of the Atlantic. We are a small team of investors and startup operators who typically make just a small number of new investments per year, so every relationship matters. We appreciate that success is not built overnight; we are in it for the long haul. We are humble, curious, open and straightforward — having learned from both mistakes and successes. Read about our thesis-driven approach to investing and what you can expect when working with us on our website.

Mosaic Ventures

Valiant Capital Management is a $2.7 billion global long/short equity hedge fund founded by Christopher R. Hansen in March 2008. Prior to that, Christopher Hansen was a Managing Director of Blue Ridge Capital from 2001 to January 2008. Mr. Hansen is the President and portfolio manager of Valiant and is supported by six junior partners who serve as senior analysts.

Valiant Capital Partners

Blisce Advisors and Blisce US - are growth stage venture investment firms focused on helping entrepreneurs build mission-driven global consumer brands and technology companies (Early Growth - Pre-IPO).  Regulatory Disclosure: The Blisce Group is an international investment management group that focuses on private equity and venture capital opportunities in technology companies and startups. The Blisce Group includes Blisce Advisors, which operates in Paris and provides direct advisory services to the Blisce Group’s clients, and Blisce US LLC, which operates in New York and focused on venture capital investment opportunities, at times on behalf of the Blisce Group. Within the Blisce Group, Charles-Henri Prevost, Alexandre Mars, Romain Sion, Romain Dovilliers, Anne-Claire Colomb, are personnel solely of Blisce Advisors, and Sam Giber & Himanish Shah are personnel solely of Blisce US LLC. The holdings identified on this page are intended to represent the current and historical investments of the Blisce Group and its partners. As such, these holdings may not represent all of the investments that have previously been purchased or sold by the Blisce Group. Furthermore, these holdings include without distinction both the proprietary investments of the Blisce Group and investments on behalf of its clients. It should not be assumed that recommendations made or investment opportunities available to clients in the future will be commensurate or profitable or otherwise will equal the performance of the holdings identified on this page.

Blisce

Fidelity is a privately owned investment management firm that serves a wide range of clients. It offers services including IRAs, rollovers, annuities, discount brokerage, retirement planning, estate planning, wealth management, securities execution and clearance, and life insurance. They serve individual investors, businesses, financial advisors, and institutions. The firm manages equity, fixed-income, and balanced mutual funds and invests in public equity and fixed-income markets. It also conducts in-house research to inform its investment decisions.

Fidelity

A.Capital Ventures is an early-stage investment firm that finances consumer and enterprise technology companies. It was founded in 2014 by Ronny Conway. A.Capital Ventures is based in Menlo Park, California.

A.Capital Ventures

Innovation Department builds next-generation wellness companies hands-on, from the ground up. Our team of brand strategists, marketers, operators and builders are obsessed with reducing the time to product-market fit and creating repeatable success for the launch of early-stage businesses.  The Innovation Department family of brands includes WellPath, Finn, DojoMojo and our newest brand, Grummies. We’ve also invested in exceptional companies including Pinterest, Dropbox, Lyft, ClassPass, Daily Harvest, Databricks, DigitalOcean and hims.

Innovation Department

Wellington Management focuses on investment management. The company applies its full resources to meet the needs of the institutional clients they serve. Their investment approaches span equity, fixed income, currency, commodity, and alternative markets. They also offer asset allocation, multi-manager, and speciality approaches.

Wellington Management

Goldman Sachs Investment Partners is a global team of professionals from a wide range of backgrounds with one common goal—driving technology-based disruption. They have invested more than $6 billion in over 100 late-stage venture capital and growth equity transactions since 2003. They are dedicated to partnering with entrepreneurs around the world to build revolutionary businesses.

Goldman Sachs Investment Partners

Founded in 2011, G Squared is aligned with a fundamental shift: venture-backed companies stay private longer. As a result, private companies need both primary capital to continue their growth trajectory and transitional capital to provide liquidity to early investors, current and former employees, and other sellers. Positioned at the crux of this liquidity access challenge, G Squared partners with portfolio companies throughout their lifecycle using a fundamentally different approach than traditional VCs. The company invests in companies that challenge the status quo and demonstrate a clear path to superior returns, partnering with world-class entrepreneurs tackling big problems. G Squared funds have invested in household names such as 23andMe, Coursera, Instacart, Lyft, Pinterest, and Spotify, as well as in the next generation of disruptors, including Asana, Blend, Bolt, Brex, Capsule, Flexport, Impossible Foods, Toast, and Turo.

G Squared

Pinterest

Pinterest is a visual bookmarking tool for saving and discovering creative ideas. It helps its users to discover and do what they love--including recipes, arts and crafts, clothing, and home projects. Its site and app allow its users to save and post images on different boards, categorized and curated to each user's individual tastes. Users can also follow boards created by other users, and re-post (or ''pin'') items to their own boards. The company was launched in 2009. To date, the site has more than 150 million monthly users and has more than 1,000 employees.

<div>  <p>    Pinterest (NYSE: PINS) is a visual discovery platform that allows users to find inspiration and ideas for their interests and hobbies. Founded in 2010 by Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra, and Evan Sharp, Pinterest has grown to become a popular social media site with 498 million monthly active users as of February 2024. The platform enables users to &quot;pin&quot; images and videos to virtual boards, allowing them to save and organize content around specific themes or projects.  </p>  <p>    Pinterest offers a range of features for both personal and business use. For individuals, it provides a space to collect and curate visual content on topics like home decor, fashion, recipes, travel, and DIY projects. For businesses, Pinterest offers marketing and advertising tools to reach potential customers, including promoted pins, video ads, and shopping features. The platform's visual search capabilities and AI-powered recommendation system help users discover new content and products related to their interests. Pinterest has positioned itself as a positive, inspirational platform focused on personal growth and creativity rather than social networking.  </p>  <p>    In recent years, Pinterest has expanded its ecommerce capabilities and AI-powered features. The company has focused on attracting younger users, with Gen Z now making up 42% of its monthly active users. Pinterest has also emphasized its commitment to body positivity and inclusivity, banning weight loss ads and introducing AI tools to increase diverse representation in search results. The platform continues to evolve its advertising offerings, recently launching an AI-powered media buying tool called Performance+ to compete with similar products from Meta and Google. Pinterest's revenue reached USD 3 billion in 2023, with the majority coming from advertising in the US market.  </p></div>

How L’Oréal’s bigger Pinterest bets are winning over Gen Z

The intersection of beauty and technology to deliver hyper-personalized products.

Beauty Tech

Companies that leverage technologies such as AI/ML and AR/VR  to enable cosmetic producers to offer personalized product offerings to consumers. This could include virtual-try-ons for cosmetics such as makeup and hair color in addition to solutions for skin analytics.

Companies that formulate customized solutions for skin, leveraging technologies such as AI/ML to conduct skin analysis, and provide personalized recommendations, which are directly sold to consumers.

Companies that leverage biotechnology, nanotechnology, or other technologies to develop biomaterials or novel lab-grown ingredients (e.g., bio-based cosmetic polymers) for use by the broader beauty industry.

Companies that leverage technologies like IoT to develop smart devices (e.g., smart mirrors, wearables) that offer real-time analysis of skin health, skincare routines, and product usage for consumers. This also includes companies that offer 3D-printed makeup, at-home beauty tech (e.g., at-home manicure machines), and other tech-based personal care products (e.g., tech-enabled color-changing nails).

Companies that leverage technologies such as AI/ML to match consumers with third-party beauty products by offering personalized recommendations to consumers, which are curated based on each individual customer’s preferences.

Companies that formulate customized hair and other beauty solutions such as fragrances, leveraging technologies such as AI/ML to tailor product recommendations, which are directly sold to consumers.

Giving creators the power of content monetization and audience engagement.

Creator Economy

Platforms that allow creators to share several types of content. Some platforms also offer fan engagement/ interactions with the creative artist via videos/ live streams.

Platforms that offer exclusive content to signed up members.

Platforms that allow creators to share their written works and blogs.

Platforms that provide tools to discover relevant analytics, produce content, engage with the audience, and help with the overall process.

Platforms that allow creators to share one of either videography, live streams, photos, music or audio podcasts with fan engagement capabilities.

Blockchain-based Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) allow creators to transfer ownership of their content via platforms that share proceeds with buyers, sellers, creators, and platforms via smart contracts.

Harnessing the power of social influence to fuel online sales

Social Commerce

Platforms for creating, scheduling, and managing a brand or independent seller’s social media presence. A number of these platforms also provide AI-powered social listening and data analytics tools to gauge customer sentiment.

AI-powered tools for automatically monitoring and responding to customer queries across multiple social media channels.

Platforms for identifying and managing influencers to promote and sell products and services through social media.

Tools typically used by influencers to demonstrate and sell products and services via social media. The solutions are the digital equivalents of live teleshopping programs.

Platforms for curating and displaying customer reviews, recommendations, and product and service feedback on a brand or independent sellers' social media pages and websites.

Tools to create and implement instant shopping features to an image or video advertisement

Using AI to automate, enhance and optimize marketing activities

Marketing Automation

Tealium has introduced new first-party data activation capabilities with major media platforms such as Meta, Snap, TikTok, Twitter, Pinterest, Spotify, and Google. This integration allows brands to effectively restore signals and improve their connection with customers. Tealium's collaboration with Meta resulted in a significant increase in social media ad conversion rates and return on ad spend for tourism company TUI. Similarly, their work with media publishing company Dodo resulted in a boost in online sales and social media ad conversion rates. Tealium's customers have shown a 50% increase in adopting these capabilities in 2022, and further adoption is expected in 2023.

Pinterest

Featured Industries

About EDGE

Contact Us

Resources

Area of Focus

Technology Research Made Effortless