Capital Chaos

FirstMark Capital (New York, NY) is the new name of the spun out venture arm of Pequot Capital. The decision to separate the businesses and also add a new name comes at a time when it is growing increasingly hard for these funds to raise capital. While the firm has had a lot of success in the past 18 months having closed 7 funds, completed 8 successful exits and made 12 investments, the timing of this announcement is a bit interesting. More and more funds are finding it increasingly hard to generate the same type of interest that they have in the past and many blame economic conditions for this. Spinning out the VC part of the business allows Pequot Capital to focus more on the hedge fund side of their business and less on the VC part - but which can still be presumably leveraged by FirstMark Capital. The new named firm will still remain in NYC and focus on the following sectors:

• Applications & Services
• Infrastructure
• Emerging Media & Advertising
• Data & Analytics

The firm will also maintain oversight of its previous and existing investments such as Clickable, WePlay, Live Gamer, Elance and others and based on their press release, they are looking for other opportunities. No word on whether FirstMark Capital will be seeking new offices independent of their digs 153 East 53rd street but as soon as we know, we will publish it.