500 Global
Formerly500 Global
TypeVenture capital firm
Founded2010 (2010)
Founders
Headquarters
Number of locations
Global
Key people
  • Christine Tsai (CEO)
  • Courtney Powell (COO)
Website500.co

500 Global (previously 500 Startups) is an early-stage venture fund and seed accelerator founded in 2010 by Dave McClure and Christine Tsai.[1][2] The fund admitted a first "class" of twelve startups to its incubator office in Mountain View, California in February 2011.[3] They expanded to a second class of 21 in June 2011 and a third class of 34 in October 2011.[4][5]

History

In 2012, 500 Global acquired Mexican.VC, an accelerator in Mexico City, expects to substantially ramp up its investment in Mexico. Through its investment in Alta Ventures, 500 Global planned to have better access to deal flow in this region.[6] 500 Global LATAM is directed by Santiago Zavala and has startups like Platzi in its portfolio.

As of February 2021, 500 Global had invested in over 2,400 companies[7] including Eat App,[8] IDreamBooks, Little Eye Labs, myGengo, Cypheme, Cucumbertown,[9] Visual.ly, Canva,[10] Convoz,[11] Udemy,[12] RidePal[13][14] and Aircall.[15] As of August 2015, more than 20% of the companies had participated in other incubators, 20–30% were international, and over 60 had been acquired.[16]

As of 2015, some of the firm's active companies were Credit Karma,[14] Twilio,[14] GrabTaxi,[14] and Talkdesk. The exits include $403M acquisition of MakerBot by Stratasys,[17] $350M acquisition of Wildfire by Google,[18] $200M acquisition of Viki by Rakuten,[19] and $117M acquisition of Simple by BBVA.[20]

500 Global has investment partners and advisors from all over the world, e.g. Jassim Alseddiqi (United Arab Emirates),[21] Enis Hulli (Turkey),[22] Binh Tran (Vietnam),[23] and Tilo Bonow (Germany). A famous partner, Monique Woodard from Black Founders, left the early-stage venture fund in 2018.[24] 500 Global has locations in San Francisco, Mexico City, Miami, Dubai, Bahrain, Istanbul, Seoul, Singapore, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, and Kuala Lumpur.[25] In 2015, they announced they would be starting a three-month growth program in London, UK[26] as well as a pre-accelerator in Oslo, Norway.[27] Full global programs have expanded to Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Cambodia, Georgia, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Canada.[28]

In July 2017, co-founder Dave McClure resigned as general partner of all funds and entities managed by 500 Startups amid allegations of sexual harassment.[29][30]

In March 2018, 500 Startups announced that it chose Downtown Miami as its first East Coast U.S. outpost.[31]

In July 2019, Courtney Powell was named Chief Operating Officer of the firm. [32]

In November 2020, 500 Startups formed a two-year partnership with Khmer Enterprise, a unit under the Cambodian Ministry of Economy and Finance. Through the Angkor 500 initiative, the firms will bring together founders throughout Cambodia to form teams and technology companies.[33]

In September 2021, 500 Startups announced their rebranding to 500 Global and the closing of a $140M global flagship fund – the firm’s largest fund to date–bringing assets under management to $1.8B. The firm has stated it is expanding its investment strategy beyond the accelerator and seed stage.[34]

In October 2021, 500 Global had its first fully virtual accelerator class.[35] In early 2023, the firm announced that it has launched an accelerator program in Tbilisi, Georgia as a part of its expansion in Eastern Europe.[36]

References

  1. Matt Rosoff (February 10, 2011). "Super Angel Dave McClure Launches Incubator Program, Dismisses "Bubble" Talk". Business Insider.
  2. Clifford, Catherine (17 April 2020). "These are the new hot spots of innovation in the time of coronavirus". CNBC. Retrieved 30 September 2020.
  3. Tsotsis, Alexia (June 9, 2011). "500 Startups Unveils 2nd Batch: 21 Startups". TechCrunch.
  4. Ha, Anthony (June 9, 2011). "500 Startups accelerates 21 new companies". Venture Beat.
  5. Lawler, Ryan (January 25, 2012). "The best and brightest from 500 Startups' third demo day". GigaOM.
  6. Source:Alta Ventures Mexico Raises $70M First Fund, Draws Support from 500 Startups
  7. "500 Startups – Home". 500 Startups. Retrieved 2021-02-10.
  8. "Meet the 9 Startups from first batch of QSTP & 500 Startups' Doha Dojo". June 2, 2017.
  9. B Pradeep Nair. "Recipe to bring cooks and foodies together". The Times of India.
  10. "Canva Investors". Archived from the original on 2013-07-25. Retrieved 2015-08-16.
  11. "Canva Raises $3 million".
  12. Toto, Serkan, "MyGengo Is Mechanical Turk For Translations". The Washington Post. 2010-01-11
  13. Perez, Sarah. RidePal, The “Google Bus For The Rest Of Us,” Scores $500K From 500 Startups & Others, TechCrunch. September 10th, 2012
  14. 1 2 3 4 "Startups". 500 Startups. Retrieved 2015-11-23.
  15. "Aircall, seule startup française représentée à l'accélérateur 500 Startups". Maddyness – Le Magazine sur l’actualité des Startups Françaises (in French). 2015-09-27. Retrieved 2021-02-26.
  16. Empson, Rip (April 6, 2012). "500 Startups Raising New $50M Fund, Names 4 New Partners, With 250+ Investments To Date". TechCrunch.
  17. Etherington, Darrell (19 June 2013). "Stratasys Acquiring MakerBot In $403M Deal, Combined Company Will Likely Dominate 3D Printing Industry". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2015-11-23.
  18. Constine, Josh (31 July 2012). "Google Acquires Wildfire, Will Now Sell Facebook And Twitter Marketing Services [Update: $350M Price]". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2015-11-23.
  19. "Exclusive: Japan's Rakuten Acquires Viki Video Site for $200 Million". AllThingsD. Retrieved 2015-11-23.
  20. Etherington, Darrell (20 February 2014). "Banking Startup Simple Acquired For $117M, Will Continue To Operate Separately". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2015-11-23.
  21. "500 Startups Appoints SHUAA Capital as an Advisor to its 500 Falcons I Fund". www.businesswire.com. 2020-10-18. Retrieved 2021-02-10.
  22. "Interview with Enis Hulli, GP, 500 Startups Istanbul". Vasco Patricio Executive Coaching. 2020-02-07. Retrieved 2021-02-10.
  23. "Binh Tran". Chinaccelerator. Retrieved 2021-02-10.
  24. by (2018-01-18). "Monique Woodard Is Leaving 500 Startups, Destination: Unknown". Moguldom. Retrieved 2021-02-10.
  25. "500 startups". 500 startups. Retrieved 16 Aug 2015.
  26. O'Hear, Steve (24 June 2015). "500 Startups Arrives In London With "Distro Dojo", A Three-Month Growth Program For Post-Seed Startups". Techcrunch. Retrieved 16 Aug 2015.
  27. Murray, Neil (10 August 2015). "Doubling down on Europe: after 'Distro Dojo' in London, 500 Startups launches a 'pre-accelerator' in Oslo". Tech.eu. Retrieved 16 Aug 2015.
  28. "Accelerators". 500 Global. Retrieved 2023-01-08.
  29. Oreskovic, Alexei; Carson, Biz. "The tech investor who apologized for being a 'creep' resigns from 500 Startups after being accused of sexual harassment". Business Insider. Retrieved 2020-05-27.
  30. Primack, Dan. "Exclusive: Dave McClure resigns as general partner of 500 Startups funds". Axios. Retrieved 2020-05-27.
  31. "Downtown Miami's newest resident: A $400 million dollar Silicon Valley fund". miamiherald. Retrieved 2018-06-02.
  32. Geron, Tomio (2019-07-29). "500 Startups Names Courtney Powell to Lead Operations". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2022-08-10.
  33. "500 Startups partners with government unit to support tech startups in Cambodia". www.techinasia.com. Archived from the original on 2020-11-23. Retrieved 2021-07-28.
  34. "500 Announces $140M Global Flagship Fund, Rebranding to 500 Global". 500 Global. Retrieved 2021-09-15.
  35. "Meet the Startups in 500's First Fully Virtual Accelerator".
  36. Butcher, Mike (2023-04-14). "500 Global spreads its wings across the Caucasus and Eastern Europe, via Tbilisi". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2023-04-27.

[1]

  1. malik, talha (18 August 2023). "500 Startups: Paving the Way for Innovative Ventures - Startupblogerve.com". Startupblogerve. talhamalik. Retrieved 18 August 2023.
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