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First Round Capital
VC firm · Founded 2004 · Active in 2026
First Round Capital was founded in 2004 by Josh Kopelman in Philadelphia and San Francisco. The firm pioneered the 'Seed-only by design' model — First Round explicitly does not write Series A or later cheques, by philosophy. Each company gets a Seed cheque plus access to the First Round Network: a private community of First Round founders and operators.
The firm runs the Dorm Room Fund and the Angel Track program, both feeders into the broader Seed ecosystem. Notable bets include Square, Uber, Roblox, Notion, and Looker.
First Round’s biggest exits.
First Round portfolio companies worth $1B+ that have IPO’d or been acquired. Each shows its valuation at exit and, in grey, its current value if still public.
First Round’s selected top holdings.
An estimate of First Round’s largest live positions — disclosed shareholding × Dealroom’s latest valuation — across 8 companies where First Round is a named shareholder, worth about $2.4B in estimated equity value.
2 companies hidden on this public profile. Estimated value = First Round’s disclosed ownership % × Dealroom’s latest company valuation; direct named stakes only, exited positions excluded. Figures are indicative, not reported marks. First Round also appears inside investor groups in Flexport, Together, where a standalone stake isn’t disclosed. See the underlying cap tables on Dealroom →
The 49 First Round Power Law outcomes ($100M+ revenue or $1B+ valuation).
Snapshot of where the outcomes are concentrated by country, sector, and stage entered.
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USA47
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France1
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Canada1
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Fintech10
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Other B2B Software7
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eCommerce & Marketplaces7
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AI6
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Marketing5
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Health Tech & Medtech3
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Cybersecurity3
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Other2
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Biotech & Life Sciences2
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Transportation1
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Food1
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Space1
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Series B+4
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Series A15
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Seed29
First Round's 49 Power Law outcomes.
How does First Round stack up?
First Round in orange, your selection in blue and other colours. Pick from the global roster of 34 peer investors — scope by startup location or hit "Find similar shapes" to auto-pick the three closest. The funnel matrix mirrors the spider chart on the ranking page; the line chart shows each firm's share of unicorns minted in the selected startup location — peaks reveal vintage years.
Share of new unicorns per year
% of global unicorns minted that year, year by year · hover the chart to see which unicornsStage focus
Companies by entry stage and outcome tierSector focus
Companies per investor across the 10 highest-volume sectorsWhere First Round's portfolio founders come from — and where they studied.
104 founders across the 49 Power Law outcomes — split by country of origin, university attended, and the company they worked at before founding. Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and Microsoft are the deepest single pipelines.
Key people at First Round.
Market sentiment
What the market is saying about First Round Capital
An AI-synthesized read of the highest-engagement posts about First Round on X over the past 7 days. We rank by likes & retweets, ignore corporate channels, and surface the themes that broke out from real people.
Reading the room on X — pulling top posts and synthesizing themes…
Source: X recent search ranked by engagement (likes + retweets) · Synthesis by Claude · Cached for 1 hour
In the news
Latest news about First Round Capital
Recent press, funding announcements, and portfolio moves mentioning First Round — pulled live from Dealroom's news feed.
Want the full picture on First Round Capital?
The Dealroom platform tracks every round, every co-investor, and every portfolio company in real time — across 25,000+ investors and 3M+ companies globally.