Firstminute Capital

Firstminute Capital
Name	Firstminute Capital
Type	Venture capital firm
Founded	2016
Founders	Brent Hoberman; Spencer Crawley
Headquarters	London, United Kingdom
Industry	Venture capital
Products	Seed funds, venture funds

Firstminute Capital is a London-based seed-stage venture capital firm founded in 2016 by Brent Hoberman and Spencer Crawley. The firm focuses on early-stage technology investments across consumer and enterprise sectors and operates with a global remit from a UK base. It has raised multiple funds and attracted attention for a distinctive community-driven model and a roster of high-profile backers.

History

Firstminute Capital was established in 2016 by entrepreneurs and investors Brent Hoberman and Spencer Crawley after prior involvement in ventures and asset management linked to technology startups. Its founding came amid a wave of European venture formations following successes by companies like TransferWise, Monzo, Revolut, Delivery Hero, Spotify, and Supercell. Early activity placed the firm alongside contemporaries such as Index Ventures, Accel Partners, Balderton Capital, Atomico, Sequoia Capital, and Benchmark (venture capital firm). The firm expanded fundraising and investing through 2017–2020 even as macro events including the Brexit referendum and the COVID-19 pandemic influenced European capital markets. Firstminute engaged with accelerator ecosystems similar to Y Combinator, Techstars, and Seedcamp and partnered with corporate and institutional investors drawn from entities like SoftBank Group, Goldman Sachs, UBS, HSBC, and family offices linked to entrepreneurs such as Li Ka-shing and Elon Musk-adjacent networks.

Investment strategy and thesis

The firm pursues seed-stage investments emphasizing founder-market fit, product-market validation, and scalable technology in sectors including fintech, marketplaces, software-as-a-service, artificial intelligence, healthtech, and climate tech. Its thesis resonates with patterns observed in portfolios of Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures, Benchmark, and Greylock Partners, focusing on network effects and long-term compound returns exemplified by companies like Facebook, Amazon (company), Google, Netflix, and Airbnb. Firstminute applies a community-driven model that leverages a global network of operators, entrepreneurs, and institutional LPs similar to networks maintained by Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and GV (company). The firm emphasizes small initial checks to capture upside in rounds that may include follow-on from lead investors such as Bessemer Venture Partners, Kleiner Perkins, and Insight Partners.

Portfolio and notable investments

The firm’s portfolio spans consumer applications, enterprise software, fintech platforms, and deep technology companies. Notable investments include startups that have scaled or exited in markets alongside peers like Stripe, Square (Block, Inc.), Robinhood Markets, N26, Wise (formerly TransferWise), UiPath, and Klarna. Portfolio companies have worked with major corporates and platforms such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, Apple Inc., and Meta Platforms. The firm has participated in seed rounds for companies that later collaborated with partners like PayPal, Visa, Mastercard, JP Morgan Chase, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, and Santander. Its investments reflect trends across ecosystems evident in exits to acquirers including Microsoft, Salesforce, Cisco Systems, Oracle Corporation, and Adobe Inc..

Fundraising and investors

Firstminute’s fundraising has attracted a mix of institutional and individual limited partners, combining sovereign wealth-like capital sources akin to Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, pension-like allocators reminiscent of CalPERS, corporate investors such as Samsung Ventures, and technology founders and angels similar to Peter Thiel, Reid Hoffman, Garry Tan, Marc Benioff, and Jack Dorsey. Later funds reportedly included commitments from high-net-worth individuals, family offices, and strategic backers comparable to those backing funds by Tiger Global Management, SoftBank Vision Fund, and General Atlantic. The firm has marketed its funds to European and North American LP bases, mirroring capital flows between hubs like Silicon Valley, New York City, London, Berlin, Paris, Stockholm, and Tel Aviv.

Leadership and team

Founders Brent Hoberman and Spencer Crawley lead a team that includes partners, principals, and operational advisors with backgrounds at technology companies, investment banks, and startups. The leadership draws parallels to management structures at firms such as Index Ventures, Balderton Capital, Atomico, Seedcamp, and Octopus Ventures. Advisors and talent associated with the firm have worked at organizations like McKinsey & Company, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Stripe, and Skype. The team engages a community of entrepreneurs and executives similar to mentorship networks found at Y Combinator and Plug and Play Tech Center.

Impact, exits, and performance metrics

Portfolio outcomes include follow-on financings, strategic partnerships, acquisitions, and public listings comparable to trajectories of companies that underwent exits via Initial Public Offering or acquisition by major technology firms including Microsoft, Adobe Inc., and Salesforce. Performance metrics emphasized by the firm mirror venture industry standards reported by limited partners and analysts at Preqin, PitchBook, CB Insights, and Crunchbase News, focusing on internal rate of return (IRR), multiples on invested capital (MOIC), and distribution to paid-in (DPI) ratios. The firm’s ecosystem approach aims to generate network-driven value creation similar to models at Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital. Significant exits and successful follow-ons in the portfolio have been highlighted in coverage by business outlets akin to Financial Times, The Economist, Bloomberg L.P., and The Wall Street Journal.

Category:Venture capital firms