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Whileonline discoursewould make it seem that speculation has withdraw to the Bay Area , with San Francisco being the most authoritative plaza to build a startup , Index Ventures is looking to bulk up its New York - base investment team .
The firm is currently looking to hire another New York - based investor with plans to contribute three or four new people to the team within the next class , Shardul Shah , a partner at Index Ventures , told TechCrunch . That ’s an strong-growing improver to the current 10 - member squad .
“ For a speculation fund , that ’s hypergrowth , ” Shah read , adding that Index is trying to “ capitalise on the ecosystem here , and the energy we have as a team . ”
Shah tell there is a set to like about the New York ecosystem that is different from San Francisco ’s . While the Bay Area may have better density when it comes to engineering science endowment and venture capital letter , Shah said that New York has it beat in one key country : density of customers . This is especially true for companies build in the health or financial fields , he order . While a overplus of investors is helpful for former - stage startups , a recondite pool of customers is what really help companies grow sustainably . The city ’s variety of industriousness is another asset , too , Shah said .
He add that it ’s also a natural place for firm to maintain a bearing if they have portfolio companies or colleagues in both San Francisco and Europe . He bestow that European companies expanding to the U.S. generally position up shop in New York first , which is another interesting stream of likely slew flowing .
It probably does n’t ache that Index has already garnered a successful portfolio in New York . The firm was early an investor in some of the metropolis ’s largest startup winner , including Datadog , which went public with a $ 7.8 billion valuation in 2019 , and Cockroach Labs , which was valued at nigh $ 5 billion in its most recent funding round in 2021 .
forefinger was founded in 1996 in Geneva and has expanded into a new geographics about every 10 years , Shah said . The firm opened its New York office in 2022 amid a undulation of Bay Area investor expanding eastward . Lightspeed Venture Partners open up a New York position that year as well . Sequoia opened one in 2023 .
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And of course , this waving is mingling with a number of New York ’s prominent , homegrown VC firms like $ 80 billion in assets under direction Goliath Insight Partners and storied firm Union Square Ventures .
New York systematically maintains its blot as the second largest venture ecosystem in the U.S. Startups in New York put up $ 12.6 billion in the first one-half of 2024 , according to PitchBook data . While importantly less than the $ 40.4 billion indue in California startups in the first half of this year , it ’s nothing to sniff at .
According to CB Insights ’ unicorn tracker , New York is also home to 122 unicorn liken to San Francisco ’s 182 . There are , of track , rafts more Bay Area unicorns when adding in those in the greater area ( Palo Alto , Redwood City , etc . ) . But New York has far more of them than any other venue besides Silicon Valley .
Still , New York ’s ecosystem does have a impuissance : large loss . Datadog is arguably the most outstanding inauguration exit from the ecosystem and that happened five age ago .
forefinger is ready to fund more growth .
“ It sounds like multitude are going back like 20 eld , like when they said Europe is a museum , ” Shah said about the current rhetoric . “ To say that [ venture capital ] only happens on the West Coast , it ’s not precise . It ’s not even close . ”
