First Round
San Francisco-headquartered seed pioneer founded in 2004, backing founders from pre-seed through Series A with a community platform and 560+ portfolio companies including early bets on Uber, Roblox, Notion, and Square.
Typical check size
$250K-$3M (stage-based estimate)
Founded
2004
Headquarters
San Francisco, CA
AUM
N/A
Rounds they lead
Pre-Seed
Seed
Rounds they invest
Pre-Seed
Seed
Series A
Portfolio companies we track
Startups in our directory that list First Round as an investor (29 total).
- AltSchool Personalized K-8 micro-school network and edtech platform (later Altitude Learning).
- Aradigm Benefits platform enabling sustainable employer access to cell and gene therapies.
- Arda Therapeutics Targeted cell-depletion therapies for chronic diseases using oncology modalities outside cancer.
- Clipboard Web clipping and social bookmarking service for saving rich web snippets (Clipboard.com).
- Crossbeam Partner ecosystem platform for secure account mapping and B2B co-selling.
- Eisen AI-enabled compliance ops infrastructure for escheatment, disbursement, and 1099 reporting.
- fal Real-time generative media inference APIs for image, video, audio, and 3D at scale.
- Kno Digital textbook and study platform — acquired by Intel in 2013.
- Knowable Audio-first expert courses for commute learning—acquired by Medium in 2021.
- Labelbox Training data platform for ML teams — labeling, curation, and model evaluation.
- Limitless AI wearable pendant for personal memory — formerly Rewind desktop capture; acquired by Meta 2025.
- Lob.com API for programmatic direct mail — print, ship, and verify addresses at scale.
- Merkle Manufactory, Inc. Developer of Farcaster, a decentralized social protocol with onchain identities and client apps.
- Paloma AI-native CRM stitching contracts, usage, and invoices for post-sales revenue teams.
- PatientPing National ADT care-coordination network, now part of Bamboo Health after Appriss Health acquisition.
- Petual Agentic AI platform automating internal audit and SOX compliance testing.
- Pomelo Care Virtual maternal and newborn care platform for health plans and employers.
- Prepared AI-powered 911 and emergency dispatch software for public safety agencies.
- Promise Flexible, interest-free payment plans for government and utility bills.
- Reducto AI document-intelligence platform parsing PDFs and unstructured files for enterprise agents.
- Rescale High-performance computing cloud for engineering simulation and AI workloads.
- Roblox User-generated gaming platform and virtual economy for immersive experiences.
- Rockmelt Social web browser acquired by Yahoo in 2013 for roughly $60–70M.
- Snackpass Social food-ordering app for college campuses and pickup restaurants.
+5 more in the directory graph (browse related articles below or the startups index).
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FAQs about First Round
Stage fit, check size, thesis, and how founders typically approach this firm — based on public sources and our directory.
Per our directory, First Round leads pre-seed and seed rounds and participates through Series A. The firm is a dedicated seed-stage specialist rather than a multi-stage growth investor.
First Round does not publish a single standard check. Our directory estimate, based on its seed mandate, reflects typical seed checks with reserves for selective Series A follow-ons—not a fixed dollar amount for every deal.
First Round is headquartered in San Francisco and also maintains a New York presence (see /fund/first-round-capital-nyc). It invests across the U.S. in software and internet startups regardless of HQ city.
Our directory tags generalist-tech. First Round publicly backs B2B and consumer software at the earliest stages, with a community-and-content platform (First Round Review, events) supporting portfolio founders.
First Round commonly leads or co-leads pre-seed and seed rounds. It may follow in Series A for portfolio winners but is best known as an early institutional anchor rather than a growth-stage follower.
Startups in our directory with First Round listed include Roblox (/startup/roblox), Pinterest (/startup/pinterest), Superhuman (/startup/superhuman), Fal (/startup/fal), Wonderschool (/startup/wonderschool), and Labelbox (/startup/labelbox).
Founders can submit through firstround.com. Warm intros from prior First Round founders or angels are common given the firm's network; we do not list individual partner emails.
See our First Round portfolio milestones article (/2026-first-round-capital-portfolio-milestones-k2-merlin) covering K2 Space, Merlin Labs, and Cocoon outcomes. Our NYC early-stage seed guide also profiles the firm.