If you’re an entrepreneur in Boston, you certainly understand what a wealth of opportunities the city brings. It’s a home to a buzzing startup ecosystem ranked fifth in the world with a valuation of $96 billion fueled by $3.9 billion in early-stage funding from the best venture capital firms in Boston.
Major factors behind Boston’s success include an abundance of highly skilled talent, government support, in addition to a growing base of venture capital firms:
.406 Ventures:
.406 Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in innovative Information Technology and services companies. They are a veteran team of industry entrepreneurs, operators and investors who apply real world experience, deep industry knowledge, networks, and strong company-building skills to create value not only for their entrepreneurs but for their investing partners too.
Notable investments: Adtuitive, Mashery, ThreatGRID, Vaultive…
Ascent Venture Partners:
Ascent Venture Partners is dedicated to investing in innovation for the enterprise. The firm has remained committed to its mission of partnering with exceptional entrepreneurs striving to build innovative market leaders, backing more than 100 early-stage emerging technology companies since 1985.
Ascent’s investments have yielded powerful results generating more than $10 billion in enterprise value, which speaks to the firm’s deep knowledge, experience, commitment, and networks. The Ascent investment team manages five venture funds with total commitments of more than $450 million, and is located in Boston, Mass.
Ascent invests in early-stage companies in the east coast with initial investment ranging from $2million to $5 million.
Notable investments: Timetrade, Revulytics, CloudLock, bizo, Zoominfo…
Bain capital ventures:
Bain Capital Ventures invests in seed to growth-stage startups that are using tech to disrupt existing markets or create entirely new ones. The firm invests from seed to growth in enterprise software, infrastructure software, as well as industries being transformed by data.
With more than $5.2 billion of assets under management and offices in three us cities, Bain Capital Ventures has helped launch 200-plus companies.
Notable investments: DocuSign, LinkedIn, SurveyMonkey, Boston Heart Diagnostics…
Battery Ventures:
Battey Ventures is a technology-focused investment firm with offices in Boston, Silicon Valley, and Israel. Since its inception in 1983, the firm has raised over $8.9 billion and is now investing in cutting-edge businesses in markets including application software, IT infrastructure technologies, in addition to consumer-internet, and industrial technologies.
Notable investments: Amplitude, Coinbase, Glassdoor, Groupon, Marketo…
Charles River Ventures:
CRV is a venture capital firm investing in early-stage technology companies for almost half a century. Its name comes from the Charles River that starts in Hopkinton and divides Boston and Cambridge.
The firm has raised over $4.3 billion, and backed nearly 400 startups in its 51-year history.
Notable investments: Zendesk, HubSpot, DoorDash, Airtable, Scribd, Twitter, Udacity…
Flybridge Capital Partners:
Flybridge is a seed-stage VC investing with entrepreneurs to leverage the power of the community. It prefers to invest in computer hardware, software, SaaS, and big data sectors.
Notable Investments: Infracommerce, MongoDB, Splice, Codeacademy…
General catalyst
General Catalyst is one of the best venture capital firms in boston that provides early-stage and growth equity investment. Their team provides ongoing momentum that accelerates ideas, careers, and companies toward standout success. In other words, They create the ideal conditions for growth, surround clients with the right people, and offer mentorship based on deep experience.
To date, General Catalyst has managed eight venture capital funds totaling approximately $3.75 billion in capital commitments.
Notable investments: Airbnb, Deliveroo, HubSpot, Classpass, Snapchat, Stripe, Canva, Grammarly…
GV:
GV, formerly know as Google Ventures, is the venture capital investment arm of Alphabet inc., founded by Bill Maris. The firm run currently as an independent, return-driven fund with more than $5 billion under management, with Alphabet as their sole limited partner.
They’ve funded more than 500 companies in the fields of life science, healthcare, artificial intelligence, robotics, transportation, cyber security, and agriculture… Their companies aim to improve lives, change industries, and push the edge of what’s possible.
They’ve built a team of not only investors but also world-class designers, scientists, marketers, and engineers in order to provide exceptional support on the road to success.
Notable investments: Uber, Medium, Slack, Stripe, Docusign, Lime, Gitlab, Cloudera…
Highland Capital Partners:
Founded in 1998, Highland Capital Partners is a global venture capital firm focused on putting the entrepreneur first.
Highland has raised over $4 billion in capital and invested in more than 280 companies resulting in 51 IPOs, and 138 Acquisitions.
Highland also serves as a mentor for aspiring entrepreneurs through a program that provides students with the environnement, and most importantly the resources to take their startups to the next level.
Notable investments: Malwarebytes, Harry’s, Scopely, Eko, LevelUp…
Matrix partners:
Founded in 1977, Matrix Partners works with visionary founders of early-stage startups to amplify their potential. Their general partners blend deep experience with personal commitment to support founders from start to success. The firm invests in seed and early-stage companies, particularly in the software, communications, semiconductors, data storage, Internet or wireless sectors.
Notable investments: HubSpot, Canva, Oculus VR, Zendesk, Lever, Namely…
PJC:
PJC is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on investing in, and supporting entrepreneurs who are creating the future. The firm founded in 2001 and based in Boston, has invested in over 100 companies across north America.
Notable investments: Expensify, Nest, Nexamp, Appcast, BlockFi…
Polaris partners:
Polaris Partners has over 20-year history partnering with entrepreneurs and innovators who are improving the way people live and work. The multibillion-dollar firm invests in healthcare and technology companies across all stages, from founding to profitable growth.
Notable investment: Bitium, Accordant, 170 systems, Cliqr, Kissmetrics, WordPress…
Spark Capital:
Spark Capital is a venture capital firm responsible for early-stage funding of technology startups. It has branches in Boston, San Francisco, and New York City. Since its inception, the firm has raised nine funds, and has invested in multiple sectors including consumer, FinTech, and Software…
Notable investments: Twitter, oculus, Slack, Discord, Postmates, Coinbase, Trello, Etoro…
OpenView partners:
OpenView is an expansion stage venture firm that helps grow software companies into market leaders. Through their Expansion Platform, they help companies hire the best talent, acquire the right customers, as well as partner with industry leaders. OpenView’s focus on the expansion stage makes it suited to provide truly tailored operational support to their portfolio companies compared to other firms.
Notable investments: Calendly, Expensify, SwiftStack, Workfront, ExactTarget, Zipwhip…
In conclusion, venture capital firms are an important pillar of Boston’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…