The 20 largest startup funding rounds in New York City in 2018 totaled $4 billion and made up 36 percent of the total dollar amount raised by all the city’s startups for the year (just over $11 billion), according to New York City-based AlleyWatch with data provided by Crunchbase.
Those data points came out of a blog post published Jan. 1 on 20 New York startups that have raised the largest funding rounds in 2018.
Somewhat surprisingly, only two financial technology startups made the list, and there is a good chance they have flown under the radar of most financial advisors (and others). The third startup is a bit better known, but it might surprise many just how much venture capital it now has in its coffers.
Trumid Financial has raised a total of over $142 million, $60 million of that in 2018. Among its more famous investors: Peter Thiel and George Soros. The firm, founded in 2014, created an electronic credit trading network and built a market intelligence platform for corporate bonds. Headquartered in New York, its customer base is made up of trading institutions from both the buy and sell sides, including 20 of the top 25 asset managers in terms of assets under management, according to the firm.
Paxos is the other fintech company on the list, with a total of more than $93 million in funding, $65 million of that in 2018. The company, which was founded in 2013, is a blockchain technology provider, including custody, trading and settlement for crypto currency transactions. Originally founded as bitcoin exchange itBit, the company later pivoted and rebranded into Paxos with a focus on providing blockchain-related services. It launched its own Ethereum blockchain-based stablecoin in September.
The third startup and the one some advisors might have heard of (at least those interested in real estate) is Compass. Founded in 2012, Compass has raised an additional $400 million in 2018 Series F funding from investors that include Institutional Venture Partners, Fidelity Investments, Softbank Vision Fund and Qatar Investment Authority on a $4 billion pre-money valuation. Compass now has raised a total of $1.2 billion over its 14 funding rounds.
The company’s original mission was more about creating a real estate technology platform that assisted prospective renters to find a place without a broker fee. The company has since pivoted more toward empowering real estate agents with a “real estate workflow platform,” as Alleywatch describes it.