Friday, January 29, 2010

First Round Capital Rolls Its Own Startup Exchange Fund

Venture capital firm First Round Capital, the early stage venture fund whose Managing Directors include Idealab's Howard Morgan, said last night that it has created its own startup exchange fund, a fund which allows the founders of the firm's various startups to diversify their investments and share in the success of the company's portfolio. The fund allows founders of First Round Cpaital's portfolio firms to contribute some of their equity into a central pool, and share in any exit success of others who also participate in the fund. The fund is similar to Startup Exchange, a fund run by Michael Barton, which strives to do the same thing across venture firm lines. First Round Capital said the new fund is only available to its portfolio firms. First Round's local portfolio firms include GumGum, Dayak, Kidzui, Techforward, and OpenX, and Howard Morgan sits on the boards of Internet Brands, Energy Innovations, Evolution Robotics Retail, and Snap.com

---