The reports on 1Q 2018 are in: 1,683 venture-backed companies raised $28.2 billion in funds last quarter, according to industry database Pitchbook. It’s the fourth quarter in a row that has seen over $20 billion in venture capital, and $28.2 billion marks the largest amount of VC dollars offered in a single quarter since 2006. 17 unicorns alone earned a combined $7.2 billion.
In other words, the tech community is getting more VC money than ever, even if it’s still going to an incredibly small amount of billion-dollar companies. Entrepreneurs looking for funding across the nation still need to track down the right VC firm for them. That’s a truism that applies to startup founders in Boston as much as anywhere else, which is why we’ve tracked down all the major venture capital firms operating in and around the Boston area.
Atlas Venture
This firm invests in early-stage biotech companies in a variety of areas from gene editing to autoimmunity (see their portfolio here). The majority of their investments are located near their Cambridge, Massachusetts-located headquarters.
Avalon Ventures
Avalon’s seed and early stage companies tend to fall into the life science and the information technology sectors. They can be contacted here.
Bain Capital Ventures
Bain looks for “disruptive B2B founders” to invest in: Infrastructure Software, SaaS and Data Services, Marketing Tech, FinTech and Healthcare all make their list of startup sectors they’ll consider for seed or growth investments.
Battery Ventures
This 35-year-old firm operates internationally, and has invested in over 300 companies. They have offices in Silicon Valley and Israel as well as Boston. You can check out their portfolio here, and you can contact them via the “submit your idea” button on the bottom of this page.
Bessemer Venture Partners
Bessemer holds $4.5 billion under management, and their typical investments can cover anything between $100k and $75M, across all sectors. You can find contact information for Bessemer’s Boston office here.
Charles River Ventures
This firm’s focus is Series A, with only a few Seed or Series B investments — they’re interested in becoming a lead investor early on. Their past investments include Twitter and Zendesk. You can contact their Boston office here.
Commonwealth Capital Ventures
This venture capital firm takes aim at both early and growth stage tech companies. You can read more about their investment process here, and can learn how best to contact them here.
Flybridge Capital Partners
This seed and early-stage venture capital firm’s offices include New York City as well as Boston, and it has $625 million under management. Its focus is on software and next-gen hardware sectors, and its investment isn’t just monetary, as it includes a network of advisors and partners. Flybridge also broadcasts a commitment to preventing discrimination “on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, race, religion, age, nationality, or gender identity” on its website.
General Catalyst Partners
This firm’s offices span San Francisco, Palo Alto, Boston and NYC, and its focus rests on early-stage and “transformational” investments. Its portfolio includes Airbnb and Hubspot. They can be contacted here.
Greylock Partners
This venture capital firm invests in all stages, exclusively in consumer and enterprise software companies. It led the Series B round for both Facebook and Linkedin, You can see its full portfolio here, read their anti-harassment and discrimination policy here and find contact information here.
Highland Capital Partners
This early-stage investor is drawn to only the most compelling, innovative, and disruptive companies, according to their website copy. They can be contacted here.
Matrix Partners
This firm’s over-40-year-long span of B2B, infrastructure and consumer technology investments (with $4 billion under management) has led to 65 IPOs from its portfolio. You can find their contact information here.
NextView Ventures
This seed-stage venture capital firm describes itself as “high-conviction” and “hands-on” in its pitch deck aimed at any founders considering it. They’ll invest between $100k and $1.5M in pre-seed and seed-stage companies prior to any strong traction metrics. Their contact information is available here.
North Bridge Venture Partners
North Bridge Venture Partners offers seed to growth funding to a portfolio covering a range of sectors including Communications & Infrastructure, Healthcare, Software, Materials, and Digital Media. Their East Coast office is located in Waltham, MA — a thirty-five minute drive from Boston — and their contact information is available here.
Polaris Partners
With more than $4.3 billion under management, Polaris focuses on two industries: technology and healthcare companies. Their site holds a page dedicated to entrepreneurs who have earned Polaris funding multiple times, which should provide examples of the type of founder that Polaris is interested in. They can be contacted through this link.
RockPort Capital
This venture capital firm looks to invest between $500K and $25M in companies within three sectors: energy, mobility, and sustainability. You can read more about their approach here and find their contact information here.
Sigma Prime Ventures
Sigma Prime, together with its West Coast partner Sigma West, holds more than $2 billion under management through its investments in “innovative technology startups.” The East Coast-focused Sigma Prime opts for primarily early-stage companies in the SaaS, mobile, and cloud sectors. A contact form and address are available here.
Spark Capital
With $3 billion under management, Spark in a wide variety of stages and sectors, including — deep breath — Commerce, consumer, Fintech, frontier, marketplaces, media, and software & services. They can be contacted here.
.406 Ventures
Cybersecurity, Healthcare IT, Data/Analytics, and Cloud Infrastructure are the main areas of interest for .406 Ventures, a Boston venture firm particularly interested in early-stage enterprise tech companies. They’ve raised close to $650M across four funds. You can check out their portfolio here and find their contact information at the bottom of their homepage.
Header image: Flickr / Emmanuel Huybrechts