Revolution LLC is an American investment firm based in Washington, D.C., founded in 2005 by AOL co-founder Steve Case, after leaving the AOL Time Warner board. The firm seeks to fund entrepreneurs who are transforming legacy industries with innovative products and services, with an overarching focus on companies that are based outside of the coastal tech hubs of

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, and

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

. Through the firm's Rise of the Rest platform, it has developed a network of business and civic relationships that helps Revolution source investments and support existing companies as they seek to expand across the country. Notable investments include LivingSocial, Zipcar, DraftKings, and sweetgreen.

Foundation

Revolution LLC was founded in 2005 by Steve Case, a well-known entrepreneur and a co-founder of America Online (AOL), the first Internet company in the world to go public along with Donn Davis and Tige Savage. After negotiating the merger of AOL and Time Warner, a transaction that today remains the largest merger in business history, AOL Time Warner floundered and Case resigned from his post in January 2003, with the merger often cited as one of the worst mergers ever. After leaving the AOL Time Warner board in 2005, Case co-founded venture capital firm, Revolution LLC, where he is the chairman and CEO.

Investment funds

Revolution operates three major investment funds with different focuses. Revolution Ventures focuses on early-stage technology investments under $10 million. Revolution later announced their "Rise of the Rest" seed fund that included major investors from across multiple industries including

Jeff Bezos Jeffrey Preston Bezos ( ;; and Robinson (2010), p. 7. ; born January 12, 1964) is an American businessman best known as the founder, executive chairman, and former president and CEO of Amazon, the world's largest e-commerce and clou ...

and the Walton family. Revolution Growth makes growth-stage investments of $10 million and above, primarily in consumer technology businesses. It was created in 2011 with $450 million of initial capital. It typically invests in two to three new companies per year, mostly on the

East Coast of the United States The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, the Atlantic Coast, and the Atlantic Seaboard, is the region encompassing the coast, coastline where the Eastern United States meets the Atlantic Ocean; it has always pla ...

. Its major investments have included Sweetgreen, Bigcommerce, Optoro, Handybook, and PolicyGenius. Revolution Places makes real estate and hospitality investments, usually between $25 and $50 million. It is usually the majority shareholder in each portfolio company. Profile investments in the collective Revolution portfolio include Zipcar, LivingSocial, Lolly Wolly Doodle, Waterfront Media, FedBid, Exclusive Resorts, Inspirato, Miraval, SparkPeople, Extend Health, BrainScope, AddThis, BenchPrep, Framebridge, SpareFoot, OrderUp, and Custom Ink.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.revolution.com/ Financial services companies established in 2005 Venture capital firms of the United States American companies established in 2005 2005 establishments in Washington, D.C. Companies based in Washington, D.C.