Moshe Koyfman is an American businessperson and investor.

Biography

Koyfman is a native of New Jersey. He attended the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universit ...

. He holds a B.S. in economics with a concentration in finance and a B.A. in English.

Career

After graduating from college, Koyfman joined

Bear Stearns The Bear Stearns Companies, Inc. was a New York-based global investment bank, securities trading and brokerage firm that failed in 2008 as part of the global financial crisis and recession, and was subsequently sold to JPMorgan Chase. The c ...

as an investment banker, where he worked on mergers and acquisitions and raising financing for media, technology and entertainment companies. He next joined

IAC IAC may refer to: Medicine * IAC (chemotherapy), a chemotherapy regimen * Internal auditory canal Organizations * IAC (company), an American media company * India Against Corruption * Indigenous Advisory Council, an Australian government agency * ...

, an internet holding company as vice president of mergers and acquisitions and vice president of programming, helping to launch a new business unit focused on digital media. He led the IAC acquisition of Connected Ventures, the parent of

Vimeo Vimeo, Inc. () is an American video hosting, sharing, and services platform provider headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices. Vimeo's business model is through software a ...

CollegeHumor CollegeHumor is an Internet comedy company based in Los Angeles. Aside from producing content for release on YouTube, it was also a former humor website owned by InterActiveCorp ( IAC) until January 2020, when IAC withdrew funding and the websi ...

and

BustedTees CollegeHumor is an Internet comedy company based in Los Angeles. Aside from producing content for release on YouTube, it was also a former humor website owned by InterActiveCorp ( IAC) until January 2020, when IAC withdrew funding and the we ...

. He eventually served as the

chief operating officer A chief operating officer or chief operations officer, also called a COO, is one of the highest-ranking executive positions in an organization, composing part of the " C-suite". The COO is usually the second-in-command at the firm, especially if t ...

of Connected Ventures.

Venture investing

He was hired by

Spark Capital Spark Capital is a venture capital firm in the United States, responsible for early-stage funding startups of consumer, commerce, FinTech, software, frontier, and media sectors. It has branches in San Francisco, Boston, and New York City. Hi ...

, a Boston

venture capital fund Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which hav ...

in the summer of 2008. His work was focused on expanding into the New York media and entertainment sectors. Among the first investments led by Koyfman at Spark were stakes in online marketplaces

Skillshare Skillshare is an online learning community based in the United States for people who want to learn from educational videos. The courses, which are not accredited, are only available through paid subscription. The majority of courses focus on in ...

and

WorkMarket WorkMarket is a New York City-based company that provides an online platform and marketplace for businesses to manage contingent workers and IT talent. The company was founded in May 2010 by Jeffrey Leventhal. In January 2018, WorkMarket was acqui ...

. Later investments include eyeglass retailer

Warby Parker Warby Parker is an American online retailer of prescription glasses, contact lenses, and sunglasses, based in New York City. Warby Parker was founded as primarily online retailer, but now sells primarily (about 90%) through approximately 160 ...

, fraud prevention software company Sift Science, financial service provider

Plaid (company) Plaid is a financial services company based in San Francisco, California. The company builds a data transfer network that powers fintech and digital finance products. Plaid's product, a technology platform, enables applications to connect with u ...

, Kitchensurfing, Aviary, DIY, FundersClub, Consumer United, gdgt, and Svpply. Koyfman's exits for Spark include

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became ...

buying Svvply,

AOL AOL (stylized as Aol., formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City. It is a brand marketed by the current incarnation of Yahoo! Inc. ...

buying gdgt, and Adobe Systems buying Aviary. He became a member of the Board of directors for Skillshare,

, Aviary, Plaid, DIY and Consumers United. Koyfman was promoted in 2012 to General Partner, one of six at Spark, at the age of 35. In 2012, Koyfman was named one of New York's top 100 angel investors by

Business Insider ''Insider'', previously named ''Business Insider'' (''BI''), is an American financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Insider''s parent company Insider Inc. has been owned by the German pub ...

. He left Spark in 2016 and founded MOKO BRANDS, an investment company focused on consumer brands. In 2019, he launched Shine Capital, a new venture-capital firm, with business partner Josh Mohrer. An SEC filing on 11 November 2020 listed Shine Capital as having a gross asset value of $59,615,000.

Personal

Koyfman is married to Hillary Rosenman Koyfman, a designer.

Philanthropic activities

He has been on the board of directors of

ArtWorks A work of art, artwork, art piece, piece of art or art object is an artistic creation of aesthetic value. Except for "work of art", which may be used of any work regarded as art in its widest sense, including works from literature ...

, a non-profit that offers

art therapy Art therapy (not to be confused with ''arts therapy'', which includes other creative therapies such as drama therapy and music therapy) is a distinct discipline that incorporates creative methods of expression through visual art media. Art ther ...

to hospitalized children. He also served as a member of the

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...

Future Leadership Council,

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue on the corner of East 89th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It is the permanent home of a continuously exp ...

Collections Council, and the

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress) ...

Tech Advisory Group. In 2013, Koyfman became an early backer and member of the board of directors of

Sefaria Sefaria is an online open source, free content, digital library of Jewish texts. It was founded in 2011 by former Google project manager Brett Lockspeiser and journalist-author Joshua Foer. Calling itself "a living library of Jewish texts", Sefa ...

, a non-profit online open source free content library of Hebrew and English Jewish texts.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Koyfman, Mo Venture capitalists Angel investors Living people Businesspeople from New Jersey University of Pennsylvania alumni Year of birth missing (living people)