The wave of momentum that's been building up over the past year in First Round Capital's portfolio hit a crescendo this week with the announcement of its first significant exit. The individual investors at the firm enjoyed sizable exits in their private portfolios before, but the early-stage venture capital firm obtained its first big profits as a unit when StumbleUpon agreed to a $75 million cash acquisition by eBay.
It's not First Round Capital's first exit. There was the strange case of Odeo and then the $12 million sale of SnapCentric to VeriSign earlier this year. But, the StumbleUpon deal is clearly what the investors at the firm hope is the first of many. There's been no lack of positive developments so far. Here are some highlights:
Aggregate Knowledge - Went on to raise $20 million from investors including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
BazaarVoice - Achieved profitability in 14 months.
Jingle Networks - Went on to raise $30 million from investors including Goldman Sachs.
RockYou - Raised a follow on round of funding led by Partech at a reportedly high valuation.
VideoEgg - Went on to raise follow-on funding from WPP.
There are definitely some duds in the portfolio. But, for every successful exit, firm founder Josh Kopelman send the involved entrepreneur a bottle of Dom Perignon. I imagine he has a case on hand.
Tags: first+round+capital, stumbleupon, vc, venture capital.
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