(Vator Splash LA will be taking place on October 15. Speakers will include Adam Goldenberg Founder & CEO of JustFab; Brian Lee. Co-Founder & CEO of The Honest Company; Michael Dubin, Founder & CEO of Dollar Shave Club; and TJ Sassani, Founder & CEO of zozi. Get your tickets here!)
As we approach our upcoming event in LA (it's just two week away, people!) we are continuing our deeper drive into the ecosystem, seeing what makes it work.A
As we have already shown you, LA is home to the world's best rappers, it's home to some of today's most promising startups, such as SnapChat, Whisper, The Honest Company, DollarShaveClub and JustFab. In fact, recent fundings into SnapChat, DollarShaveClub and The Honest Company this year have driven LA VC investments up 5X in five years.
Now we want to look at who is on the other side of that equation: the investors, the ones who are supplying that funding and allowing those companies to flourish.
Here are the most active LA-based investors, based on number of investments, in the first half of 2015, according to data supplied to VatorNews from NVCA. And, we're proud to say we have partners from the top three firms joining us at Vator Splash LA on Oct. 2015. Have you registered yet? Join us by registering here. Use "vatormember" for a 20% discount. Register here.
Firm: Upfront Ventures
Number of deals: 18 in 17 companies
Total amount invested: $37.14 million
Average equity per deal: $2.06 million
Stage: Seed to late stage
Notable investments: GumGum, ChowNow, Shots Mobile, Kyriba, AlphaDraft
Firm: Wavemaker Partners
Number of deals: 16 in 15 companies
Total amount invested: $2.9 million
Average equity per deal: $0.18 million
Stage: Early stage
Notable investments: Clutter, Local Store Identity, Isomnio, Bridg, Sensay
Firm: Tech Coast Angels
Number of deals: 12 in 12 companies
Total amount invested: $3.63 million
Average equity per deal: $0.3 million
Stage: Seed/early stage
Notable investments: Beatshare, FloWater, Kitabu
Firm: Double M Partners
Number of deals: 9 in 9 companies
Total amount invested: $2.11 million
Average equity per deal: $0.23 million
Stage: Early stage
Notable investments: HONK, Quick.ly, Sense360, Orbitera, Local Store Identity
Firm: CrossCut Ventures
Number of deals: 8 in 7 companies
Total amount invested: $6.59 million
Average equity per deal: $0.82 million
Stage: Early stage
Notable investments: Mobcrush, Conversion Logic, Little Labs, Big Monday, Local Store Identity
Firm: Queensbridge Venture Partners
Number of deals: 7 in 7 companies
Amount invested: $4.82 million
Average equity per deal: $0.69 million
Stage: Seed/early stage
Top investments: Mobcrush, CoinTent, Shift Messenger, Draft, MightySignal, Fitmob
Firm: March Capital Partners
Number of deals: 5 in 5 companies
Total amount invested: $16.08
Average equity per deal: $3.22 million
Stage: Early stage
Notable investments: Quick.ly, Burrito Labs, E8 Security, CoHo Data, Heal
Firm: LAUNCH Fund
Number of deals: 5 in 5 companies
Total amount invested: $11.36 million
Average equity per deal: $2.27 million
Stage: Early stage
Notable investments: HomeHero, Signpost, REscour, ToutApp
Firm: Karlin Ventures
Number of deals: 4 in 4 companies
Total amount invested: $8.93 million
Average equity per deal: $2.23 million
Stage: Early stage
Notable investments: ChowNow, Laurel & Wolf, Prevoty
Firm: Core Innovation Capital
Number of deals: 4 in 4 companies
Total amount invested: $5.56 million
Average equity per deal: $1.41 million
Stage: Early stage
Notable investments: Mayvenn, Ripple Labs, Honest Dollar, CoverHound
Firm: Amplify.LA
Number of deals: 4 in 4 companies
Total amount invested: $2.21 million
Average equity per deal: $0.55 million
Stage: Early stage
Notable investments: AlphaDraft, Big Monday, Mapsense, Little Labs,
(Image source: californiainjuryaccidentlawyer.com)
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Steven Loeb
Angel group/VC
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Karlin Ventures is an early-stage venture capital fund based in Los Angeles. They are value-add partners helping entrepreneurs who take contrarian approaches to create impactful solutions to big, interesting problems. Karlin Ventures is an affiliate of Karlin Asset Management, a private investment firm managing over $1.4 billion of unleveraged equity capital.
Angel group/VC
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Investing in financial technology companies that serve Main Street.
Angel group/VC
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Who we are?
What have we done?
What do we provide to entrepreneurs?
Angel group/VC
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There are no shortcuts to building revolutionary companies, but our background, network and capital can help smooth the path.
We are looking for dedicated entrepreneurs who have the foresight and personal fortitude to take their ideas and make them happen. In a big way. Passion and conviction required, but also a grounded sense of the realities inherent in starting and building a world-class company. We like entrepreneurs who can cut against the grain.
Angel group/VC
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Double M Partners, LP is a $7.2MM early stage venture fund based in Los Angeles and formed in August 2012. The Fund invests in Internet, Media and Communications (“IMC”) companies who primarily are either business to business infrastructure, software, management platform and/or technology focused companies. The Fund is managed by Mark Mullen who has more than 20 years of investing and investment banking experience across the IMC sector. The Fund’s current portfolio is comprised of 19 companies primarily in Southern California, but also including companies in San Francisco, Oregon and Canada. It is estimated the Fund will have a total of approximately 25 investments in the range of ~$200,000-$500,000. The Fund is supported by a premier group of investors, as well as fund advisors who are all successful entrepreneurs, investors and business leaders.
Angel group/VC
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Upfront Ventures, previously GRP Partners, is an LA based Venture Capital firm that focuses on early stage investments (mostly Seed & Series A).
GRP, rebranded as Upfront Ventures in June 2013, has been operating since 1996, making investments in tech companies like Overture, CitySearch, BillMeLater, Envestnet, DealerTrack, CyberSource, Qualys, and HDI in that time. For the firm, the rebrand represents its movement toward a new, 21st-century style of investing, emphasizing openness and transparency.
