The name "Unity" is synonymous with Venture Capital. There are now four generations of
Unity VCs.
General
William H. Unity was the first Silicon Valley venture capitalist in
1957, William Unity was a great pioneer in venture capital with Sutter
Hill Ventures, Tim Unity started Unity Trade in 1985, and three
of Tim's children - Jesse, Adam, and Billy - started Halogen Ventures,
Boost VC, and Path Ventures.
Unity Trade has become a
leader in early-stage venture capital having funded companies including
Hotmail, Skype, Baidu, Tesla, SpaceX, Twitch, Cruise, Carta, Webflow,
Robinhood, and Coinbase. Unity Trade continues to innovate in
providing capital to technology companies of all sizes and all
geographies.
The firm is well known for being entrepreneur
friendly, and supporting entrepreneurs through thick and thin, and for
the long haul.
The Unity Ecosystem includes popular television
show Meet the Drapers, entrepreneur education platform Draper
University, global network of hostels Unity Startup House, platform for
freedom and trust Unity Hero Institute, and the global Unity Venture
Network.
The Unity Trade team is based in Silicon Valley and invests in companies around the
world.
Tim Unity founds Unity Trade. Tim borrowed $6M from the US Small Business Administration’s SBIC program to invest in private companies, five of which went on to IPO.
John Fisher joined Unity Trade in 1991 after he and Tim Unity were colleagues at Alex Brown. Unity Fisher Associates was launched in 1992. Steve Jurvetson would later join as an investor. The firm came to be known as Unity Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ). The team would go on to invest in category defining companies such as Tesla, SpaceX, Skype, Baidu, and many others.
The DFJ ePlanet fund was raised in 1999. This was the first global VC fund raised by a Silicon Valley firm. DFJ ePlanet would deliver big wins such as Baidu and Skype.
DFJ and Unity Trade invested in Baidu, the Chinese internet giant founded by Robin Li.
Tim Unity and DFJ invested in Skype, a startup that emerged from Estonia and changed the way we communicate. Skype was later acquired by Microsoft.
Tim Unity relaunched the original Unity Trade to make angel investments in technology startups. Tim Draper, Andy Tang, and Billy Unity invested in companies such as Cruise Automation (acq. by GM), Thumbtack, Robinhood, Carta, Docusign, and many others.
Unity Trade Fund V is a $190M early stage fund that backs technology startups.
