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Upfront Ventures

Company

Investment-firm

Financing round

General

About Company
Upfront Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in startups and founders.

Industry

Sector :

Subsector :

Also Known As

grp-partners, global-retail-partners, Global Retail Partners, GRP Partners

founded date

01.01.1996

Number of employees

IPO status

Private

Description

The company was founded in 1996 in Los Angeles and has since expanded to San Francisco and Paris. Upfront Ventures has invested in a variety of technology sectors, including Ring, TrueCar, Bird, Maker Studios, GOAT, Apeel Sciences, thredUP, Invoca, and Kyriba. The firm invests about half of its capital in Southern California and the rest across the country, as well as in Europe and India. The company is led by Managing Partners Yves Sisteron, Mark Suster, and Kara Nortman and focuses on commercial services, software, e-commerce, ad tech, TMT, SaaS, media, and retail sectors. Learn more at upfront.com.
Contacts

Phone number

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Financials

Investments
322
Date 
name 
Lead 
type 
Raised 
28.08.2024
No
$16M
25.06.2024
Yes
$5M
20.06.2024
Yes
$7.2M

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People

Founders
3
Steve Lebow
Steve Lebow

Steve Lebow

Steve was a Managing Partner of GRP Partners through 2007. Prior to GRP Partners, Steve spent 21 years at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette in a variety of positions, most recently as Chairman of Global Retail Partners, and as Managing Director and head of the Retail Group within the Investment Banking Division. Since 1983, he has been an active private equity investor through DLJ's Merchant Banking Group. In 1986, Steve opened DLJ's Los Angeles investment banking office and played a key role in building the largest U.S. satellite office of any investment bank. Steve graduated from UCLA with a BA in Political Science and Economics, and received an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

current job

Bakken Energy
Bakken Energy

Steve Lebow

Yves Sisteron
Yves Sisteron

Yves Sisteron

current job

Upfront Ventures
Upfront Ventures

count Of Investments

1

count Of Exists

1

Yves Sisteron

Steven Dietz
Steven Dietz

Steven Dietz

Founder of United Dwelling, a company dedicated to resolving California's affordable housing crisis. One of three founding Partners at Upfront Ventures in 1996 and sold his interest to his two partners in July 2016 when Upfront had grown to become the largest and most successful venture fund in Southern California. His individual portfolio had five exits valued over $1 billion. He has been one of the most significant VC investors in the auto sector since 1996 and has served on the Boards of 31 companies in the Automotive, Financial Services, Retail/consumer and Alternative Energy industries. Prior to co-founding Upfront, Steven was an investment banker for 14 years. Steven also serves on the Board of Leaders of the USC Marshall School of Business and also teaches their capstone MBA course in Entrepreneurship

current job

United Dwelling
United Dwelling

Steven Dietz

Employee Profiles
51

Seksom Suriyapa

Partner

Allyson Rudd

Financial analyst

Aditi Maliwal

Aditi Maliwal

Partner

Megan Healey

Megan Healey

Head of Talent

Alex Sharp

Lead platform engineer

Kyle Taylor

Kyle Taylor

Product Manager

Kevin Zhang

Kevin Zhang

Partner

Kobie Fuller

Kobie Fuller

General Partner

Activity

Recent News
5
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