RRE Ventures was founded in 1994 by James D. Robinson IV and Stuart Ellman, at a time New York City was, in Robinson's own words, still 'a small town for venture capital' - deals were scarce enough that the founders regularly had to fly to the West Coast to find them, and RRE kept a San Francisco office through the dot-com era before eventually consolidating fully in New York. That early, patient bet on New York as a genuine technology hub has compounded over three decades: RRE has invested in more than 400 companies and served on nearly 50 boards, building one of the city's oldest and largest venture firms with a portfolio spanning fintech, enterprise software, consumer, AI, media, space, and robotics. The firm's data-driven approach to identifying what it calls 'rare founders' produced early bets on Braintree, BuzzFeed, Bark, and BlackSky, and RRE now manages more than $2.5 billion across 10 funds.
Braintree's $800 million acquisition by PayPal in October 2013 - RRE was an early investor in the payments company years before its exit