#SPARK CAPITAL SERIAL#
#SPARK CAPITAL SOFTWARE#

Lewis’s book, praised the start-up’s ambitions to shake up the world of stock market trading and the quality of its founders.IVP Thayer Ventures Comcast Ventures Caffeinated Capital Scout Ventures GSV Acceleration Global Innovation Fund Uprising O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures Real Ventures Digital Currency Group DFJ K9 Ventures Nokia Growth Partners Techstars Binary Capital Social Capital Lightbank General Atlantic Bain Capital Ventures Insight Venture Partners Revolution Broadway Angels Thrive Capital Chicago Ventures BoxGroup Altair Capital Management boldstart ventures AngelPad Cubit Investments Ltd Coelius Capital Trustbridge Partners Presence Capital Melo7 Tech Partners, LLC Sequoia Capital Israel Congruent Ventures Sound Ventures Amplo Kapor Capital Sutter Hill Ventures Battery Ventures Fifth Wall Liquid 2 Ventures M34 Capital NKM Capital Real Estate Technology Ventures Alven CRV 7percent Ventures DBL Partners GV Richmond Global Ventures Kima Ventures Recursive Ventures #SecretFund Coinbase Ventures Craft Ventures Addition Viola Ventures Baseline Ventures Coatue Alkeon Capital Bling Capital Plum Alley Investments Bond Alumni Ventures Group ACME Capital Felix Capital Renegade Partners Scifi Vc SproutVest Ltd. Spark was also one of the first venture firms to pour money into IEX, which was explicitly designed as the opposite of modern-day high-speed trading and gained fame as the subject of Michael Lewis’s book “Flash Boys.” Alex Finkelstein, the Spark partner who led the investment and who learned about IEX from Mr. Other venture firms joined in, and Oculus surprised many by selling itself to Facebook a year later. In June 2013, Spark invested in the first major round of Oculus, then just a promising virtual-reality start-up that subsequently became a sensation on the crowdfunding site Kickstarter. On the flip side, some of its picks have been more esoteric. Hyatt said, though he added that the firm has invested in what became hot deals. He also said that Spark tried to avoid investment fads.

Hyatt argued, would not have been made if the firm had been focused that way. Spark’s partners insist that the firm is unafraid of pushing into new industries, without slavish regard for whether there is an existing, easily defined market for a start-up’s products. Its fifth venture fund, announced Monday, will have $400 million under management, and its second growth fund will have $600 million. The firm will now have more money to invest. Quinn, to be based in San Francisco and offer her insight as a former product designer for Google and the payments company Square.

#SPARK CAPITAL SERIAL#

Philips, a serial entrepreneur who got his start at McKinsey, to work out of its New York office, and later Ms. To lead the effort, Spark hired Jeremy G. Like other venture firms, Spark broadened its focus and added a growth fund aimed at older companies in need of bigger sums of money. The firm was an early backer of Foursquare, a location-based start-up that has lost much of its popularity and whose valuation was cut in half by January. And Oculus, the maker of virtual reality headsets, sold itself to Facebook for $2 billion.

Twitter, where Spark also got in on the ground floor, went public in 2013 with a market valuation of over $14 billion. Tumblr, one of the firm’s first investments, was acquired by Yahoo for almost $1 billion.

The firm, which has expanded to San Francisco and New York from its home base in Boston, has had some big wins. “No one knows what the next big platform is,” Nabeel Hyatt, a Spark partner, said. Those investments sit alongside bets on more recognizable companies like Slack, the popular messaging software, and Wayfair, the online home furnishings retailer, which is now publicly traded.

#SPARK CAPITAL SOFTWARE#

And so Spark, which formally announced on Monday its two latest investment funds, with a combined $1 billion in capital, has backed Cruise as well as some other eclectic companies: an upstart stock exchange called IEX, and Mark43, whose software helps police departments organize their records.

Spark capital