This site uses cookies to improve your experience. To help us insure we adhere to various privacy regulations, please select your country/region of residence. If you do not select a country, we will assume you are from the United States. Select your Cookie Settings or view our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Used for the proper function of the website
Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Strictly Necessary: Used for the proper function of the website
Performance/Analytics: Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
In todays volatile trade environment, businesses that rely on physical products face a vexing question: should they hold their products at ports to sidestep potential tariff hikes, or bring them in swiftly to avoid delays and rising costs? The uncertainty surrounding tariffsdriven by shifting political priorities, trade negotiations, and economic pressureshas left companies scrambling for strategies to achieve their operating plans and protect their bottom lines.
The end of 2024 and beginning of 2025 brought sunsets, snow, and spirited conversations. As always, our team covered plenty of groundconnecting with founders, investors, and ecosystem builders, with a few great meals and scenic stops along the way. From college towns to cliff-lined coasts, heres where we went and what we learned along the way. See you on the road thisspring.
Steve Case Testifies at U.S. House Committee on Financial Services Hearing, Beyond Silicon Valley: Expanding Access to Capital AcrossAmerica On March 25, 2025, Revolutions Chairman and CEO, Steve Case, testified before the Committee during a session examining policy proposals to improve capital access. Watch the hearing and read his full testimony here andbelow.
At Rise of the Rest, we back companies building solutions that are both transformational and tangible. Cambium s model is exactly thatredefining how supply chains function, starting withlumber. When we first invested in Cambium, we were drawn to the clarity of the teams vision: create a transparent and traceable logistics operating system that takes local, fallen trees (that would otherwise end up in landfills) and turns them into high-quality, lower carbon building materials.
Revolution Growth Invests in Hidden Level, the Company Building the Worlds Most Advanced Drone Detection Technology The $65M Series C will be used to expand production of its airspace monitoring technology, grow its Syracuse-based team, and scale internationally. Meet Hidden Level the leading developer of technology for sensing, identifying, tracking, and analyzing radio frequency (RF) spectrum signals to help customers detect potential threats.
Reflections on Georgetowns 2025 pitch competition from TedLeonsis Last week, Georgetown Universitys McDonough School of Business once again became a launchpad for the next generation of bold thinkers and doers. At this years Bark Tank Pitch Competition , eight teams took the stage to pitch their ventures to a panel of expert judges, competing for a record $150,000 in prizes.
Its that time of year again: prediction season. There are some known unknowns founders and investors will adapt toforemost, a change in administration. But if the last five years have taught us anything, its that far more unknown unknowns will play out in the months tocome. In 2025, startups beyond the coasts and outside of the traditional tech hubs will face new challenges and, with customary resourcefulness, also seize new opportunities.
In a historic election, Americans have voted to send Donald Trump back to the White House for a second term. Throughout his campaign, President Trump pledged to create the greatest economy in the world — a promise that I believe hinges on reigniting entrepreneurship in cities across America. After all, innovation and entrepreneurship aren’t blue state issues or red state issues; they are embedded in the very fabric of our nation.
Revolution Growth’s Latest Investment in Healthcare and AI: Pathos, the Company Re-Engineering the Drug Development Process The oversubscribed $62M Series C will be used to expand the team, accelerate platform development, and advance its clinical-stage pipeline of precision oncology therapeutics. Meet Pathos — the clinical-stage, AI-enabled biotech company that is re-engineering the drug development process to bring novel drugs to market.
We gathered 50 founders from across the country for 36 hours of connection and candor in Alexandria, VA, and no surprise: We left inspired. At Rise of the Rest, our boots on the ground approach is one of our biggest points of pride. We believe place matters, and that there’s no substitute for meeting founders where they are, in the ecosystems they’re building within.
JD Vance worked at Revolution for about a year and a half, starting in 2017, following the publication of his best-selling book, Hillbilly Elegy. The book’s focus aligned well with Revolution’s Rise of the Rest, an initiative started and championed by Steve Case to shine a spotlight on emerging startup ecosystems between the coasts. JD helped launch the first Rise of the Rest Seed fund, joined us for a number of Rise of the Rest Road trips, and led investments in companies such as Anduril, Branc
In Their Own Words: Female Founders and CEOs Discuss the Discourse That’s Missing (and Hitting) the Mark This year’s International Women’s Day theme is “ Inspire Inclusion ” — a call to recognize the unique perspectives and contributions of women from all walks of life, in all facets of life, including the innovation economy. Why does representation matter when it comes to startups?
We started the day at sunrise watching hundreds of balloons prepare for one of Albuquerque’s most spectacular events: the mass ascension. Buoyed by that iconic New Mexico experience, we gathered for breakfast alongside local founders, investors, and civic leaders to delve into the city’s expanding innovation landscape. After listening to several speakers, a young man asked some members of our team if they would consider being interviewed for the local news.
Revolution Ventures Invests in Oula, the Maternity Care Startup Combining the Best of Obstetrics and Midwifery Oula will use the $28M Series B to open additional clinics and launch new services. Meet Oula — the healthtech startup redesigning maternity care with a midwifery-first, team-based model that dramatically improves patient satisfaction while delivering better quality outcomes.
Reflecting on a fall and winter well-spent on the road as we see glimmers (maybe, hopefully) of spring. From the Sunshine State to the Windy City, and college to coastal towns, we met up with some incredible founders, ecosystem builders, and co-investors last quarter, and experienced just about every season along the way. Check out our Q4 travels in photos and itineraries below.
Revolution Ventures Invests in Kashable, the Fintech Leading the Socially Responsible, Employer-Sponsored Credit Movement The $25.6M Series B will be used to expand sales and engineering teams and increase the company’s loan portfolio. Meet Kashable — the fintech equipping working America with a better way to tackle costly debt and cover unexpected expenses during times of financial hardship.
To fill a pail with rocks of different sizes, it’s better to put big rocks in first, and then finish with small rocks. Investing is similar. If you get the big questions right, you can get other stuff wrong and do well. The biggest question: “How much risk should I take right now?” For individuals, that could mean allocations between stocks and bonds; for institutions, it could mean allocations across various risk buckets.
For years, tech companies, talent, and venture capital were concentrated on the coasts — a precedent the pandemic tipped, if not flipped. While VC dollars still overwhelmingly funnel into places like Silicon Valley, Brookings research shows tech jobs are finally spreading out — movement spurred by the availability of hybrid and remote work, private investment, and federal initiatives.
To fill a pail with rocks of different sizes, it’s better to put big rocks in first, and then finish with small rocks. Investing is similar. If you get the big questions right, you can get other stuff wrong and do well. The biggest question: “How much risk should I take right now?” For individuals, that could mean allocations between stocks and bonds; for institutions, it could mean allocations across various risk buckets.
In the process of finding, funding, and supporting startups that will transform their markets, investors can get caught up in KPIs, ROI, and other three-letter success indicators. Make no mistake, metrics matter, but so does the well-being of the human at the center of it all. Founders are not machines. Sure, they might wear countless hats and execute in a way that makes it seem like they have more hours in the day, but behind that drive lies an individual with vulnerabilities, families, emotion
Unpacking Proptech: A data-driven series on advancing built world innovation In Part 1 and Part 2 , I reviewed proptech financing trends, sources of capital and investor types, scaling and fundraising lessons from the past five years, and potential conflicts of interest. That brings us to one of the most exciting topics — exits. Diving into the Data According to Pitchbook, there have been 390 exits in proptech between 2018 and 2022.
At Rise of the Rest, we’ve spent years traversing the country, spotlighting emerging startup hubs, and building a network of entrepreneurial champions and ecosystem builders beyond Silicon Valley, New York City, and Boston. At first, we primarily played an advocacy and convening role, working with policymakers and administrations , organizing bus tours, and telling the stories of the entrepreneurs we met along the way.
Today’s e-commerce companies, faced with tightening advertising budgets and increased competition, are finding creative solutions to help personalize and gamify the customer experience. In this rapidly evolving landscape, having an intimate knowledge of your customer and leaning into lifestyle branding is more crucial for e-commerce brands than ever before.
We spent the good part of the past three months doing our favorite part of the job: meeting the startups we seed (and the communities that rally around them) on their home turf. We’ve read plenty of articles on the movement of tech talent and the surge of American entrepreneurship , but seeing that momentum in person is a different kind of invigorating.
Although politicians from both sides of the aisle want to avoid a government shutdown, and we are already seeing some last-minute deals as a result, there remains a strong likelihood that we will see one this October. While shutdowns used to be enormously rare measures of last resort, as our political system becomes more and more polarized, shutdown threats have become more commonplace.
While economists continue to debate the likelihood of a more widespread downturn, something that looks very much like a recession has been plaguing the e-commerce industry for months. Rising inflation rates, supply chain uncertainties, a growing number of layoffs, and former industry darlings’ bankruptcy filings have become commonplace. Consequently, when it comes to investing in e-commerce, you’ll hear many VCs say they’re “waiting for the dust to settle.
In the following series, I’ll examine the current status of “work” and how it impacts lives — from where people are moving to how they are spending their time — and various business models that support these new habits. First up: Where are people spending their time now compared to pre-pandemic? For decades, most people’s existence revolved around a 9-to-5 workday with a lengthening two-way commute, (hopefully) bookended by some family time.
Savvy Games Group’s acquisition of the Revolution Growth-backed company marks the sixth-largest transaction in gaming history. Revolution Growth first partnered with Scopely in 2017 when we led the company’s Series C. Core to our investment thesis was Scopely’s platform approach to IP partnership and game development, its exceptional ability to drive monetization among users, and the team’s dedication to becoming the preeminent free-to-play mobile gaming publisher.
CAVA’s founders had a vision to bring heritage, heart, health, and innovation to the fast-casual sector. Now their company is trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Our partnership with CAVA began in 2015, when the Mediterranean fast-casual chain had just a dozen locations in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. That financing kicked off a period of accelerated growth for the company — from creating a compelling digital offering to acquiring a company three times its size to scaling to more than 250 l
Unpacking Proptech: A data-driven series on advancing built world innovation As mentioned in Part 1 , an outsized portion of the proptech investor base comes from the real estate community — a reality I would argue is complicating the industry’s growth. Part of the antidote for startups: employing a more prudent approach to raising capital and curating a diverse investor base.
Insights and soundbites from our second Beyond Silicon Valley Summit This year, we had more than 150 investors from 31 states join us for our second Beyond Silicon Valley Summit. And while this May’s economic backdrop was markedly different from last’s , enthusiasm was high and outlooks remained positive for the startup momentum building between the coasts.
A salon dinner on planet, policy, and private sector momentum By Revolution Growth Partners, Kristin Gunther and Todd Klein Over the past decade, Revolution has backed a number of sustainability-focused companies, including those working to enable the circular economy, support the adoption of electric vehicles, create planet-friendly culinary experiences, and facilitate the adoption of clean energy.
Everyone is bullish on planet-forward innovation right now. Our investors share what they think will emerge from the pack. Climate change has never been more prevalent or prominent in our daily lives, from the movies and shows we watch to how we shop and dine to the “once-in-a-lifetime” weather events we experience from coast to coast. But rather than viewing global warming as an insurmountable problem, bold entrepreneurs have galvanized around workable solutions to address its causes.
Revolution Growth Invests in Carbon Robotics, the Leader in AI-Powered Robotics for Specialty Crop Growers The $35M Series C will be used to expand sales in North America, optimize and scale manufacturing, develop new software and hardware, and enter international markets Meet Carbon Robotics — the Seattle-based startup pioneering the next revolution in agriculture by solving one of farming’s biggest obstacles.
Why it will revolutionize the way we shop, browse, and learn Source: openai.com/blog/chatgpt-plugins The electrifying launch and global adoption of ChatGPT has been amazing to witness. The platform continues to achieve historical milestones, garnering more than 100 million users in its first two months, marking the beginning of a new era of disruption.
Women represent 50.5% of the U.S. population, but in 2022, companies with solely female founders garnered just 2% of the total capital invested in venture-backed startups. The share of funding for companies co-founded by women? That ticked up to 15.4% last year, which still leaves a massive delta. The long and short of it: Female founders face systemic barriers to founding, funding, and scaling their businesses.
By Revolution Ventures Managing Partner David Golden and VP Alex Shtarkman Given the tumultuous year in tech and overall market uncertainty, a hot topic among institutional investors right now is the magnitude of potential markdowns in the coming year or two. But what could that look like? To determine approximately how many U.S. VC dollars are at risk, we conducted a historical analysis of top quartile fund managers over the past quarter century (as far back as we could access reliable Cambridg
Since the beginning of modern venture capital investing — a relatively nascent asset class — the industry has been biased toward funding what it knows best: founders with familiar demographics (white, male) in familiar geographies (Silicon Valley). Despite the recognition of bias and calls for change, systemic inequities unfortunately persist. Case in point: only 1% of 2022 VC dollars went to Black founders, a marked decrease year over year.
2022 brought new connections and perspectives as we met with entrepreneurs, portfolio companies, and ecosystem builders on the ground in startup communities across the country. [link] Our travels and our portfolio inevitably inspire our gift-giving strategy every year. So this holiday season, we’ve compiled a cross-country guide of Revolution-backed brands to shop and share with your friends and family this winter.
We've come a long way since the introduction of the first veggie burger in the early 1980s. Today, innovation has spurred a plethora of meat alternatives, but consumer skepticism and startup economics are still barriers to parity with real animal protein. But I believe we are on the precipice of a major shift. Millennials and younger generations are acutely aware of the consequences of global warming (and how cattle contribute to methane emissions) and they are using their purchasing power t
This article originally appeared in Harvard Business Review on October 3, 2022. Hill Street Studios/Getty Images There was never a guarantee that Detroit would become the Motor City. At the turn of the 20th century, any number of American municipalities with similar access to talent, materials, investment, and transportation might have emerged as the beating heart of the automobile industry.
This September, the metro area convened for DC Startup Week — a five-day, 180+program occasion hosting more than 11,000 entrepreneurs. The event showcased just how robust DC’s tech community has grown — but that wasn’t always the case. Just ask our Chairman and CEO, Steve Case, who built AOL in Northern Virginia in the 1990s. Over the next few decades, the company served as a tech engine throughout the region.
This article originally appeared in Harvard Business Review on September 28, 2022. “ For Startups, a Bleak Year for IPOs and Acquisitions ” — Fast Company “ Venture capital investing plunged in 2009 ” — The Washington Business Journal “ Venture investments fall 61 percent in Q1 ” — Associated Press Though these alarming headlines seem all too familiar today, each originally ran from 2007–2010: The Great Recession dramatically slowed venture capital fundraising for many companies, just as rece
A Glimpse Inside The Rise of the Rest: How Entrepreneurs in Surprising Places are Building the New American Dream Today, my second book, The Rise of the Rest: How Entrepreneurs in Surprising Places are Building the New American Dream , was released by Simon & Schuster?—?but its message has been more than a decade in the making. If you’ve followed my journey as an investor and advocate, it’s likely one you know well: Great companies can start and scale anywhere.
We organize all of the trending information in your field so you don't have to. Join 24,000+ users and stay up to date on the latest articles your peers are reading.
You know about us, now we want to get to know you!
Let's personalize your content
Let's get even more personalized
We recognize your account from another site in our network, please click 'Send Email' below to continue with verifying your account and setting a password.
130 
Let's personalize your content