First Round Capital Targets $200M+ For Seventh Flagship Fund

On Thursday morning, Philadelphia-based early-stage fund First Round Capital filed SEC paperwork indicating intent to raise approximately $220 million between two new venture funds.

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The primary investment vehicle, First Round Capital VII, L.P., is targeting an oddly specific $209,392,283 in its offering. A sidecar, First Round Capital VII Partners Fund, L.P., aims to raise up to $10,607,717. First Round hasn’t raised capital for either fund yet.

Fund 7 is the largest flagship fund First Round Capital has raised to date. Its last fund, Fund 6, was announced in September 2016 and topped out at $175 million.

In addition to six prior funds (and their associated sidecar funds), First Round Capital also raised $2 million to seed the first Dorm Room Fund, which continues to invest in entrepreneurial college students around the country.

Here’s who’s listed on the filing:

• Founding general partner Josh Kopelman.
• Robert “Rob” Hayes, a partner since 2006 who led the firm’s investments in Square, Mint.com, Planet Labs, and Uber.
• William “Bill” Trenchard, an entrepreneur and angel investor who joined as a partner in 2012.
• Phineas “Phin” Barnes, a fitness and video game entrepreneur who joined First Round as a partner in 2012 after several years at the firm.
• Birchbox Co-founder Hayley Barna, who became the firm’s first female partner in early 2016.
• Christopher “Chris” Fralic, who joined First Round as a partner in 2006 and in July stepped down from his role of partner.
• Brett Berson, who started at First Round in 2008 as a college intern before being named a partner in 2016.

First Round capital is one of the most prolific investors in the U.S. venture capital market, having invested in 31 rounds in 2018 to date, according to Crunchbase data. (That number is likely higher due to documented reporting delays for seed and Series A rounds, the primary stage First Round invests at.)

In the past year, First Round Capital has seen a number of notable exits, including outdoor home security company Ring being acquired by Amazon for $1 billion in April and beauty subscription startup Birchbox getting picked up by Viking Global Investors for $15 million in May.

In addition to these recent exits, First Round Capital has a number of portfolio companies you might have heard of. In 2010, First Round led a $1.25 million angel funding round in a little company called Uber. It invested in car insurance company Metromile’s Series A round, led a $5 million early venture round in home wifi company Eero, and holds early-stage stakes in other companies like Boxed, Flexport, Warby Parker, Roblox, and many others.

The fact that First Round filed to raise a new fund now is not surprising. The firm is on a two year tick-tock timeline for its capital raises. And the fact that it’s raising a bigger fund now isn’t surprising either. Even if the firm makes no more investments out of Fund 7 than it had out of prior funds, rising seed and early stage round sizes thus require larger checks.

Consider this upped fund size just a spec bump in the city of brotherly love.

Illustration: Li-Anne Dias