Spark Capital
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 | |
| Industry | Venture capital |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2005 |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, New York, and Boston |
Key people | Alex Finkelstein, Nabeel Hyatt, Jeremy Philips, Santo Politi, Yasmin Razavi, Will Reed, Bijan Sabet, Kevin Thau |
| AUM | USD $15 Billion |
| Website | sparkcapital |
Spark Capital Partners, LLC is a multi-stage venture capital firm based in the U.S. with operations in San Francisco, New York, and Boston. Spark is a generalist VC firm with a portfolio that spans verticals such as consumer internet, enterprise software, gaming, infrastructure technologies, hardware, semiconductors, crypto, fintech, and AI.
Spark Capital was launched in 2005 by Paul Conway, Santo Politi, and Todd Dagres.[1][2]Today the firm manages assets north of $12 billion. They have raised eight early-stage funds: US$265 million in 2005; $360 million in 2008; $360 million in 2010; $450 million in 2013;[1] $400 million in 2016;[3] $450 million in 2019; $700M in 2021; and $700M in 2024.[4]They have also raised five growth funds: $375 million in 2014;[5] $600 million in 2016;[3]$900 million in 2019; $1.4B in 2021; and $1.4B in 2024.[4]
Team
Spark Capital was founded in 2005 by Bijan Sabet, Paul Conway, Santo Politi, and Todd Dagres. Other people who have joined the company since its inception include Jeremy Philips, Alex Finkelstein, Yasmin Razavi, Will Reed and Nabeel Hyatt. The company consists of approximately 11–50 employees.[6]
Investment approach
Spark Capital has been known for co-investing with Union Square Ventures. Many of Spark Capital's early picks, including Twitter, Tumblr, and Foursquare, were made via partner Bijan Sabet and were joint investments with Union Square Ventures, made by partner Fred Wilson.[7][8][9][10] Sabet says that Spark Capital's portfolio companies do not use non-compete agreements, which he says have been a key factor in limiting startup growth in New York and Boston.[11]
