About First Star Ventures
First Star Ventures is a venture capital firm founded in 2014. It is primarily based out of Cambridge, United States. As of Nov 2025, First Star Ventures is an active investor, having invested in 49 companies, with 2 new investments in the last 12 months. It primarily invests in Seed round in United States based startups. Its investments are spread across a wide range of sectors from Enterprise Applications to High Tech and Food and Agriculture Tech. Most recently it participated in the $***** Seed round of Extellis Overall, First Star Ventures portfolio has seen 1 unicorn, 2 IPOs and 12 acquisitions including key companies like SugarCRM, Ambarella and Seven Bridges Genomics. A lot of funds co-invest with First Star Ventures, with names like Munich Re sharing a substantial percentage of its portfolio. First Star Ventures has team of 3 people including 2 partners.Key Metrics
Team Members
Portfolio Sectors
Portfolio Locations
Rounds of Entry
Seed, Series A & 1 more
Portfolio IPOs
Portfolio Unicorns
Portfolio Soonicorns
First Star Ventures' List of Top Investments
First Star Ventures has a portfolio of 49 companies, one of which is a Unicorn. Their most notable investments are in Iorgan and Resilinc.Their portfolio spans across United States, Canada, United Kingdom and 2 more locations. They have invested in Enterprise Applications, High Tech, Food and Agriculture Tech and 22 other sectors, across stages such as Seed, Series A and 1 more. Here is the list of top investments by First Star Ventures:
1. SugarCRM
AI-based open-source CRM software. The platform enables collaboration across the customer lifecycle with features such as revenue analytics, automation of sales and marketing, customer service, and case routing. It caters to marketing, sales, and services teams.
Key facts about SugarCRM
- Founded Year: 2004
- Location: Cupertino (United States)
- Stage: Acquired
- Total Funding till date: $152M
- Employee Count: 575 as on May 31, 2026
- Investors: SeedFord Partners, Goldman Sachs and 14 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series E, Aug 10, 2018, $*****
- Highlight: Acquired
2. Ambarella
Manufacturer of AI-enabled image processors. The platform provides users with solutions for ADAS, security cameras, and autonomous driving. It also offers chip architecture based on the computer-vision algorithm it produces. Its features include low power consumption, optimized compression efficiency, and image quality.
Key facts about Ambarella
- Founded Year: 2004
- Location: Santa Clara (United States)
- Annual Revenue: $100M - $500M as on Jan 31, 2026
- Stage: Public
- Total Funding till date: $15.4M
- Employee Count: 790 as on Sep 30, 2026
- Investors: Northgate Capital, Riverwood Capital and 7 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Post IPO, Jul 17, 2022, $*****
- Highlight: Public
Biomedical data analysis company accelerating healthcare research with software and analytics. It specializes in providing end-to-end bioinformatic solutions, including access to datasets, analytic workflows, algorithms, and cloud-computing infrastructure. The company empowers researchers to discover more from genomic and clinical data, fostering collaboration and streamlining clinical trial research. It offers immediate access to flexible computation, centralized data storage, and diverse public datasets, ensuring comprehensive security and compliance. The company delivers purpose-built data ecosystems to drive research and discovery, operationalizing genomic data collection, curation, and analysis. It deploys new analytic methods for population-scale genomic research, driving collaboration across institutions via secure data sharing. The company provides software and data analytics to drive public and private healthcare research.
Key facts about Seven Bridges Genomics
- Founded Year: 2009
- Location: Cambridge (United States)
- Stage: Acquired
- Total Funding till date: $113M
- Employee Count: 147 as on Sep 30, 2026
- Investors: Western Technology Investment, First Star Ventures and 3 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series C, Apr 27, 2021, $*****
- Highlight: Acquired
4. Swiftly
Provider of retail technology platform for grocers and consumer brands. The platform offers solutions for audience optimization, alcohol cashback, and retail media networks. It provides tools to personalize content, enhance customer engagement, and improve targeting across digital touchpoints. The platform aims to help retailers and brands connect with shoppers and increase sales.
Key facts about Swiftly
- Founded Year: 2017
- Location: Seattle (United States)
- Valuation: $*****
- Stage: Series C
- Total Funding till date: $220M
- Employee Count: 177 as on Sep 30, 2026
- Investors: Western Technology Investment, Wormhole Capital and 13 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series C, Sep 19, 2022, $*****
- Highlight: Editors' Pick
Offering AI-based solutions for weather forecasting. It uses ocean data and machine learning algorithm to predict the weather. It provides weather forecasting for diverse applications across agriculture, energy and utilities, insurance, finance and commodities, retail, natural disaster planning and others.
Key facts about Salient Predictions
- Founded Year: 2017
- Location: Cambridge (United States)
- Valuation: $*****
- Stage: Series A
- Total Funding till date: $5.65M
- Employee Count: 19 as on Jul 31, 2026
- Investors: Blindspot Ventures, Munich Re and 8 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Grant (prize money), Feb 24, 2025, $*****
- Highlight: Editors' Pick
First Star Ventures' Year-on-Year Investment Trends
First Star Ventures has invested in 49 companies over the last 12 years, with an average of 2 new investments annually in the last 10 years. In 2025, it made 3 investments. Its most recent first time investment was in Extellis and most recent follow-on round was in Bedrock Energy.Year | No. of Investments | ||
|---|---|---|---|
1st Round | Follow-on | Total | |
2026 (YTD) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2025 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
2024 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
2023 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
2022 | 8 | 0 | 8 |
2021 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
2020 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
2019 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
2018 | 3 | 1 | 4 |
2017 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
First Star Ventures' Investments by Stage
First Star Ventures has made 17 investments in Seed stage with an average round size of $4.63M, 10 investments in Series A stage with an average round size of $14.1M and 1 investment in Series C stage with an average round size of $71M.Stage of entry | No. of Investments |
|---|---|
Seed | 17 |
Series A | 10 |
Series C | 1 |
Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments
First Star Ventures' Investments by Sector
First Star Ventures has a diverse portfolio, with companies operating in the Enterprise Applications, High Tech, Life Sciences, Vertical SaaS and Artificial Intelligence - Industry Applications. Notably, it has invested in 44 Tech companies, 42 Enterprise (B2B) companies, 37 Software companies and at least 20 companies focusing on Saas.Sector | No. of Investments |
|---|---|
Enterprise Applications | 19 |
High Tech | 8 |
Life Sciences | 5 |
Vertical SaaS | 5 |
Artificial Intelligence - Industry Applications | 4 |
Others | 43 |
Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments
First Star Ventures' Investments by Geography
First Star Ventures has made most investments in United States (23), followed by Canada where it has made 3 investments.Country | No. of Investments |
|---|---|
United States | 23 |
Canada | 3 |
Iceland | 1 |
Israel | 1 |
Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments
First Star Ventures' recent investments
First Star Ventures has not made any investment in 2026 so far.Here are the most recent investments by First Star Ventures:
Filter this listDate | Company | Location | Round Details | Round Amount | Co-Investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nov 10, 2025 | United States | Seed | 8181 | [+4] | |
Nov 04, 2025 | United States | Seed | 3144 | [+4] | |
Jan 22, 2025 | United States | Series A | 6249 | [+7] | |
Oct 21, 2024 | Canada | Seed | 8459 | [+1] | |
Sep 27, 2024 | United States | Seed | 1118 |
Unicorns in First Star Ventures' Portfolio
First Star Ventures has 1 unicorn in its portfolio - Swiftly. The most recent unicorn in their portfolio is Swiftly which became a unicorn in 2022, 4 years before First Star Ventures first invested in it.Here is a list of unicorns in First Star Ventures' portfolio:
Tracxn Score | Company | Short Description | Founded year | Sector | Location | Company Stage | First Investment/ Acquisition Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
65 | Provider of retail technology platform for grocers and consumer brands | 2017 | Seattle | Series C | iqutiib |
IPOs and Publicly Listed companies in First Star Ventures' Portfolio
2 of First Star Ventures' portfolio companies have become public. Cambridge Cognition got listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), in Apr 2013 at marketcap of $112M and Ambarella got listed on the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (NASDAQ) at marketcap of $56.1M.Here are First Star Ventures' portfolio companies that went public:
Company | IPO Date | First Invested on | First Round of Investment | Round Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Apr 18, 2013 | - | - | 3506 | |
Oct 10, 2012 | - | - | 6289 |
Acquired companies in First Star Ventures' Portfolio
12 companies from First Star Ventures' portfolio have been acquired. The most recent acquisition was Talla in Jul 2023 by Bloomfire for $*****.Here are First Star Ventures' portfolio companies that got acquired most recently:
Company | Acquisition Date | First Invested on | First Round of Investment | Round Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Jul 19, 2023 | - | - | 9800 | |
Jul 14, 2023 | Oct 06, 2022 | Series A | 7571 | |
Jan 13, 2023 | Feb 16, 2016 | Series A | 3267 | |
Jan 11, 2023 | Nov 18, 2019 | Series A | 3711 | |
Oct 25, 2022 | May 13, 2015 | Seed | 7041 |
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Team profile of First Star Ventures
First Star Ventures has a team of 3 members including 2 Partners and 1 Venture Partner located in United States and Singapore. First Star Ventures' team does not sit on the board of any company as of now.Here is a list of all team members in First Star Ventures:
Name | Designation | Location | Board Memberships | Contact Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Partner | Boston | - | ||
Partner | Cambridge | - | ||
Venture Partner | Singapore | - |
Co-investors of First Star Ventures
Over the past 12 years, 175 investors have co-invested in First Star Ventures's portfolio companies. This includes funds and angels.
- Invested before First Star Ventures: Climate Capital, Genomics England and 23 others have invested in rounds before First Star Ventures. There are 2 companies where Climate Capital has invested before First Star Ventures and 1 company where Genomics England has invested before First Star Ventures.
- Top Co-investors of First Star Ventures: 93 investors entered a company along with First Star Ventures. These include investors like Munich Re (2 companies).
- Invested after First Star Ventures: A total of 57 investors have invested in First Star Ventures's portfolio after their investments. Top Investors include National Science Foundation (2 companies), Europa (1 company) and HHS (1 company).
Recent News related to First Star Ventures
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iOrganBio Emerges from Stealth with $2M and Launches CellForge™, the First AI-Powered Cell Manufacturing Platformintelligence360•Nov 04, 2025•First Star Ventures, Iorgan
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Convoke Secures $5 Million Series A Funding for AI Customer Support RevolutionePRNews•Aug 20, 2025•First Star Ventures, BoldCap, Convoke
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Bedrock Energy Raises $12M Series A to Scale Geothermal Heating and Coolingintelligence360•Feb 06, 2025•Bedrock Energy, Titanium Ventures, Energy Impact Partners, Sustainable Future Ventures and 6 others
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Bedrock Energy Raises $12M in Series A FundingFinSMEs•Jan 22, 2025•Bedrock Energy, Titanium Ventures, Energy Impact Partners, Sustainable Future Ventures and 6 others
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Atlanta Deep Tech Team Lands Over $7 Million Seed RoundHypepotamus•Jan 15, 2025•SoloPulse, First Spark Ventures, EVE Atlas, Georgia Tech Foundation and 9 others
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Phaseshift Technologies Closes US $3 (CA $4.1) Million Seed Financing to Design Next-Generation Materials Using A.I.intelligence360•Oct 31, 2024•Phaseshift, Innospark, Draper, First Star Ventures and 1 other
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Phaseshift Technologies: Advanced Materials Company Raises $3 Million (Seed)Pulse 2.0•Oct 22, 2024•Phaseshift, Innospark, Draper, First Star Ventures and 1 other
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Phaseshift Technologies Closes US $3 (CA $4.1) Million Seed Financing to Design Next-Generation Materials Using A.I.Financial Post•Oct 21, 2024•Phaseshift, Innospark, Draper, First Star Ventures
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Bot Auto Secures $20M in Pre-A Funding to Commercially Deploy Autonomous Truckingintelligence360•Oct 10, 2024•Bot Auto, Brightway Future Capita, Cherubic Ventures, EnvisionX Capital and 6 others
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Hou Xiaodi's New Company Botauto Announced The Completion Of $20 Million Pre-a Round Of FinancingInvestorscn•Oct 03, 2024•iyfbodn.com, Linear Venture, M31 Capital, Brightway Future Capita and 6 others
