Long known as the world’s epicenter for movies and entertainment, Los Angeles is proving to be more than that. Despite being in the same state as Silicon Valley, Los Angeles has become not just one of America’s top startup ecosystems, but a global hotspot as well with top notch startups including SpaceX, Hulu, Oculus, Snap, Tinder, Dollar Shave Club, Beyond Meat… Here are the best venture capital firms in Los Angeles, that helped the city become a major Startup hub not just in media, gaming, and AdTech, but also in food, biotech, Agritech, life-sciences…
Bonfire Ventures:
Bonfire Ventures leads Seed rounds for B2B software founders with huge ambitions striving to transform the industries they target. Headquartered in Los Angeles, California the firm was founded in 2005 by Jim Andelman and Mark Mullen. Their team brings over 25 years of combined fund investing as well as over 20 years of SAAS operating experience to the table. They have seen first-hand what works and what doesn’t and roll up their sleeves with their founders in order to accelerate the former and avoid the latter.
Notable Investments: Spekit, Boulevard, DISQO, Cube, Topia, Figment, TaxJar, Openpath…
Greycroft Ventures:
Greycroft is a leading venture capital firm that focuses on technology start-ups and investments in the internet and mobile markets. It manages in excess of $1 billion and has invested in more than 200 companies.
Greycroft is a full lifecycle investor, it invests between $500000 and $10 million in a first check, and will invest up to $15 million through the venture fund. The growth fund on the other hand starts at $10 million and will invest up to $50 million.
Notable Investments: Segment, Braintree, Venmo, The Huffington Post, Bumble…
Mucker Capital:
Mucker Capital is a venture capital firm specializing in incubation, pre-seed, seed, startup, early-stage, and Series A investments. It targets investing in internet software, services, and media ventures. It also prefers to invest in Enterprise, fintech, B2B and consumer Products.
The firm seeks to invest in Los Angeles and broader Southern California. It typically invests between $0.25 million and $1 million per deal. It runs an accelerator program; the duration of the program can be as short as 3 months to as long as 24 months. It invests between $21,000 to $150,000 in exchange for a 7% to a 12% equity stake.
Notable Investments: Auditboard, emailage, emotive, Honey, LeaseLock, RESORTPASS, UpKeep…
Upfront Ventures:
Upfront Ventures is one of the largest and longest-serving venture capital firms in Los Angeles having invested more than $1 billion since 1996 in technology-based companies. While Upfront is a national investment firm, they invest about 50% of their capital in Southern California-based technology companies from San Diego to Santa Barbara, with the balance across the country as well as investments in Europe and Israel.
Notable Investments: Ring, TrueCar, Bird, Maker Studios, GOAT, thredUP, Invoca, Kyriba…
Crosscut Ventures:
Crosscut Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm in Los Angeles. The firm invests early in start-ups that have the potential to scale, disrupt, and build large markets. Crosscut is a catalyst for innovation, bringing decades of expertise in technology and entrepreneurship to help passionate founders build world-class companies. Founded in LA, the firm has been committed to powering the entrepreneurship community in southern California since 2008.
Notable Investments: Buzzfeed, Fabletics, Lettuce, Pulpo, Ipsy, Docstoc, Omaze, Zingle…
Pritzker Group Venture Capital:
Pritzker Group Venture Capital helps entrepreneurs build market-leading technology companies at every stage of their growth. Since its founding in 1996, the firm has worked side-by-side with entrepreneurs at more than 100 companies, building partnerships based on trust and integrity. Its proprietary capital structure allows for tremendous flexibility, and their experienced team of investment professionals and entrepreneurs offers companies a vast network of strategic relationships and guidance.
Notable Investments: SinglePlatform, Zinch, Playdom, Lefthand Networks, and TicketsNow…
Frontier Venture Capital:
With Partners in California, New York, Colorado and Oregon, Frontier is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage media and technology companies. The firm supports uniquely capable entrepreneurs and provides a breadth of business assistance, including strategy, corporate management, hiring, customer acquisition, and fund raising in order to amplify joy, well-being, safety and productivity around the globe.
Notable Investments: Netpulse, Intematix, Big Frame, Niantic, Livekick, Amava, Privafy…
Anthem Venture Partners:
Anthem Venture Partners is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage Series A and B technology companies. Their typical deal size is initial investment between $1,000,000 and $5,000,000 with reserve for follow-on investments. They are active investors who almost always lead or co-lead and take a board seat. They focus particularly on Southern California investments.
Notable Investments: Android, TrueCar, Celenex, Interset, Solarflare, Blurb, Plixi, Viewdle…
Baroda Ventures:
Baroda Ventures is a Los Angeles based venture capital firm focused on pre-seed and seed stage investments in various industries such as consumer internet, e-commerce, mobile, SaaS, blockchain, and digital media with a particular interest in Los Angeles based companies.
They work side-by-side with scrappy entrepreneurs who are passionate about building lasting businesses. They believe in the power of well-designed products, intellectual honesty and personal integrity in entrepreneurs.
Notable Investments: Amplify, Hello Tech, SurfAir, Policy Genius, Crexi, Gallant, Embrace…
Steamboat Ventures:
Steamboat Ventures was founded in 2000, and named after the famous Mickey Mouse cartoon Steamboat Willie. The firm’s mission is to help young companies successfully face the challenges of becoming leaders in their markets. They invest in early through growth stage companies that are pursuing opportunities at the intersection of technology, media, and consumer sectors.
Notable Investments: GoPro, Anova Data, Fanzter, Kyte, Pure Digital Technologies, Popular Media…
Wavemaker Partners:
Wavemaker Group is a multi-faceted cross border venture capital firm founded in 2003. The firm is dual headquartered in Los Angeles and Singapore and has raised over $600M across multiple funds. They currently have a team of more than 80 people across various practices. Wavemaker is one of the most active early-stage in southern California and Southeast Asia and has invested in Over 400 companies in the last 18 years.
Notable Investments: Mindbody, DigitalGlobe, StyleHaul, Luxola, ArtofClick, Pie…
In conclusion, venture capital firms are an important pillar of San Francisco’s startup ecosystem. In fact, these firms often play a crucial part in the success of a startup, by providing not only capital but also strategic assistance, introductions to potential customers, partners, and employees, and much more.
We are starting a new series of articles about the best venture capital firms in major tech hubs across the world such as New York City, Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas, Tokyo…