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Private company

Union Square Ventures

Logo: Union Square Ventures, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons3

American venture capital firm

Union Square Ventures (USV) is an American venture capital firm based in New York City. The firm has backed more than 130 startups, including Twitter, Etsy, Stripe, Coinbase, Zynga, Tumblr, Stack Overflow, Meetup, Kickstarter, MongoDB, Flurry, Cloudflare, Duolingo, Soundcloud, Clue, and Carta.2 It was founded by Fred Wilson.1 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

2003Founded1
  • HeadquartersNew York City1
  • Websiteusv.com
  • Legal formprivately held company1

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Union Square Ventures (USV) is an American venture capital firm based in New York City. The firm has backed more than 130 startups, including Twitter, Etsy, Stripe, Coinbase, Zynga, Tumblr, Stack Overflow, Meetup, Kickstarter, MongoDB, Flurry, Cloudflare, Duolingo, Soundcloud, Clue, and Carta.2

Corporate structure

Union Square Ventures sits at the top of its group. 13 entities, 4 countries on record. Switch between the flow chart and the network, and select any entity to see its details.

Major holders of Union Square Ventures

  • Frederick R. Wilson Owns 10% to 25% of Union Square Ventures, since 01/2004 (Form ADV)
  • Rufus Bradford Burnham Owns 5% to 10% of Union Square Ventures, since 01/2004 (Form ADV)
  • Albert Wenger Owns 10% to 25% of Union Square Ventures, since 01/2012 (Form ADV)
  • John Buttrick Owns 10% to 25% of Union Square Ventures, since 01/2012 (Form ADV)
  • Andrew Weissman Owns 10% to 25% of Union Square Ventures, since 01/2014 (Form ADV)
  • Rebecca Anne Kaden Owns 10% to 25% of Union Square Ventures, since 01/2019 (Form ADV)
  • Nicholas Grossman Owns 10% to 25% of Union Square Ventures, since 01/2021 (Form ADV)
  • Union Square Ventures New York City
    • Coinbase Stake · 8.1% · New York, New York, United States
      • CB Payments, Ltd Subsidiary · United Kingdom
      • Coinbase Asset Management, LLC Subsidiary · Delaware, United States
      • Coinbase Capital Markets Corporation Subsidiary · California, United States
      • Coinbase Credit, Inc. Subsidiary · Delaware, United States
      • Coinbase Custody International Limited Subsidiary · Ireland
      • Coinbase Custody Trust Company, LLC Subsidiary · New York, United States
      • Coinbase Derivatives, LLC Subsidiary · Delaware, United States
      • Coinbase Europe Limited Subsidiary · Ireland
      • Coinbase Financial Markets, Inc. Subsidiary · Delaware, United States
      • Coinbase Ireland Limited Subsidiary · Ireland
      • Coinbase Luxembourg S.A. Subsidiary · Luxembourg

Built from subsidiaries listed in Exhibit 21 of annual reports filed with the SEC; subsidiaries, stakes and holdings from Wikidata (CC0); major holders from Schedules 13D and 13G; owners and owned firms from Form ADV, the registration investment advisers file with the SEC. Each entity in the chart links to its source.

Investment adviser

Union Square Ventures is registered with the SEC as an investment adviser. This is what it reports on Form ADV, the registration every adviser files and keeps current.

Who owns it

Owners of 5% or more as the firm lists them (Schedule A), and the owners of those owners up the chain (Schedule B).

  • John Buttrickowns 10% to 25%, since 01/2012
  • Nicholas Grossmanowns 10% to 25%, since 01/2021
  • Rebecca Anne Kadenowns 10% to 25%, since 01/2019
  • Andrew Weissmanowns 10% to 25%, since 01/2014
  • Albert Wengerowns 10% to 25%, since 01/2012
  • Frederick R. Wilsonowns 10% to 25%, since 01/2004
  • Rufus Bradford Burnhamowns 5% to 10%, since 01/2004

What it owns

What Union Square Ventures reports owning in its annual reports to the SEC: buildings, land and equipment, real estate and locations, investments, intangible assets and inventory, at the end of its latest fiscal year and a year before.

Stakes and holdings (Wikidata)

Things Wikidata records the company as owning, with the share when stated.1

The story

Founded by Fred Wilson in 2003.1

Union Square Ventures (USV) was founded in 2003 by Fred Wilson and Brad Burnham. They created USV with the intent of investing in and fostering the development of early-stage companies. Their investments are "mostly U.S.-based Internet and mobile companies considered to be ‘disruptive’".

USV is regularly included in Red Herring’s lists of top venture capital firms. As of 2016, USV had 7x one billion plus dollar exits, including Twitter in 2013 and Twilio in 2016. USV's 2004 fund is one of the best-performing venture capital funds in history. In 2011 USV was chosen as the best-performing venture capital firm the United States, based on investment return rate.

In 2007, Albert Wenger, the former president of del.icio.us, joined the firm as a managing partner. In 2011, Betaworks co-founder Andy Weissman joined USV. In 2018, Rebecca Kaden, previously a General Partner at Maveron joined USV. In 2019, USV announced two new partners–Gillian Munson, formerly the CFO of XO Group, and Nick Grossman, who had previously worked at USV on special projects such as policy and crypto. In 2021, Samson Mesele, previously a corporate attorney at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, joined USV as general counsel and partner.

From Wikipedia’s article on Union Square Ventures, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Leadership

Who has led Union Square Ventures, and when. Pick a name to see everywhere that person has worked.

Subsidiaries and ownership

Also owns

From Wikidata.1

Timeline

  1. 2003Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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