Venture capital investments in New York City continued to skyrocket in July, raising $1.3 billion in total fundings. The top five rounds alone raised $1 billion. Here’s a look at those investment deals.
5. Artsy, $50 million, July 18
Investor: Bob Pittman, Rich Barton, Sky Dayton, Wendi Murdoch, Dasha Zhukova, Greg Maffei, Joe Gebbia, Larry Gagosian, Shumway Capital, Thrive Capital, L Catterton and Avenir Growth Capital
Bio: Artsy was founded with the mission to make the art world easily accessible to anyone with an internet connection. Now, the company has over 180 employees globally, 800,000 artworks in its database and a full suite of tech products behind its platform, all in the name of access.
News: Artsy plans to use the investment to dive deeper into auctions, which today are the fastest-growing part of the company’s site.
4. Bitly, $63 million, July 12
Investor: Spectrum Equity
Bio: Bitly is a URL shortening service, used primarily on social networks, email and SMS platforms.
News: The investment will allow Bitly to expand its link management capabilities from a strong foothold in enterprise marketing to an increasingly diverse set of customers and teams.
3. Betterment, $70 million, July 21
Investor: Francisco Partners, Menlo Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners and Kinnevik AB
Bio: Betterment is the largest independent automated investing service in the U.S.
News: Betterment’s services provide users with optimized investment returns for individual, IRA, 401(k) and rollover accounts. The company’s recently updated features include access to licensed financial advisors and advanced tax-efficiency tools that produce better returns and lower fees. This latest funding is expected to improve the service even further.
2. Vroom, $76 million, July 14
Investor: General Catalyst, L Catterton, T.Rowe Price
Bio: Vroom is an online pre-owned car retailer.
News: To date, the company has raised $295 million in total equity funding since its inception.
1. WeWork, $760 million, July 10
Investor: Not disclosed
Bio: WeWork is a coworking company, servicing entrepreneurs with space and community in locations around the world.
News: The new round puts WeWork’s estimated valuation at around $20 billion. That means the company is now worth more than Twitter, Box and Blue Apron — combined.
Images via Facebook.
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