Top 10 International Venture Capital Investors to follow in 2021

New technology is constantly reshaping and improving people’s lives. Contrary to the established industrial and corporate business models which strive to achieve an economy of scale over time, smaller and more agile companies have proven to effectively facilitate the development and commercialization of the next disruptive innovations. Examples of such ventures are all around us. Companies such as Google, Amazon, and Uber are without a doubt an integral part of modern man’s life. This has not stayed unnoticed by investors. Quite the opposite. Investing in start-ups is considerably growing in recent years. Even more so, investors who have managed to correctly analyse and spot the potential of ventures have achieved staggering success.

TOP10 International VC Investors

In the list below we highlight 10 leading venture capital investors worldwide (selected by experts at Dealmatrix and Venionaire Capital) according to their rank in the Forbes Midas List. The list features the best start-up dealmakers around the globe. To enter the list, investors must have

  • a portfolio company that has either gone public or has been acquired for more than $ 200M
  • a portfolio company (at least) doubles its value from $ 200M

The DealMatrix and Venionaire Capital analyst teams selected 10 outstanding leaders from the international venture capital scene and researched their most notable deals, as well as their latest fund activities.

Midas Global Rank #6
  • General Partner

  • Current Portfolio: 36

  • # of Exits: 15

Ranked as the top 6 global tech investor according to Forbes 2020. A notable investment in his portfolio is the Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi, which went public in 2018 and is now valued at around $ 80B. In the past, Liu has invested in cloud communication, electric vehicles and even robotics.

Notable Deal

Read more about the most impressive deal we found ...

Xiaomi

Xiaomi IPOed in 2018 on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The company raised $ 3.05B from the public. Nowadays it is one of the largest smartphone manufacturers next to Huawei, Samsung and Apple. Currently, the company’s market capitalization varies around $ 80B. Morningside (5Y Capital) invested in Xiaomi in an early series A $ 5M round back in 2010 and continued to support the company in at least 6 more rounds before the IPO.

Recent Investments by Morningside (5Y Capital)

Midas Global Rank #7
  • General Partner

  • Current Portfolio: N/A

  • # of Exits: N/A

Bill Gurley | Benchmark

Ranked as the top 7 global tech investor according to Forbes, Gurley was one of the early investors in Uber and his firm Benchmark had a major stake (around $ 6B) upon the company’s IPO. He was also involved in other big exits such as Glassdoor and Sailthru. Currently, he has invested in newer companies such as Good Eggs, HackerOne, Instawork, Nextdoor, and Stitch Health.

Notable Deal

Read more about the most impressive deal we found ...

Uber

Uber is considered to be the global leader for ride-sharing. The company IPO-ed in 2019. This was the largest technology IPO until that moment as well as the most-watched one after Facebook. The company however had set their ambitions quite north for what was the investor’s view at the time. Uber was aiming at a $ 100B+ valuation but instead, it traded 7% lower than that. Due to investors’ concerns regarding the company’s ”no profit” financial strategy. It continued to lose value until March 2020. However, since then the share price has increased dramatically. Nowadays, the company has a market capitalization of more than $ 100B. Benchmark supported Uber in quite an early stage of development back in 2011 when the venture capital company led a series A round for 11M.

Recent Investments by Benchmark

Midas Global Rank #15
  • Partner

  • Current Portfolio: 1216

  • # of Exits: 143

Sameer Gandhi| Accel

Ranked as the top 15 global tech investor Gandhi has been an investor in some of the largest exits in recent years. These include Dropbox, Crowdstrike and Dropcam (acquired by Google). His current portfolio includes unicorns such as DJI (valued at $15 billion) and Freshworks (valued at $3.5 billion).

Notable Deal

Read more about the most impressive deal we found ...

Crowdstrike

Crowdstrike offers cybersecurity services with next-generation endpoint protection and delivers it as a single integrated cloud-based solution. It stands out from other traditional cybersecurity firms with a faster and more convenient to use solution leveraged by modern technology. Over the years the company has managed to attract some large clients such as Amazon Web Services and Credit Suisse. The company IPOed in 2019 and the opened trading with almost double the pre-IPO share price and reached a 97% higher valuation at the end of the first day of trading. The company raised $ 610M at a nearly $ 7B valuation. Accel invested in Crowdstrike for the first time in an A-series round in 2012 for $ 23M. Accel continued to support the company in consequent B, C, D and E rounds.

Recent Investments by Accel

Midas Global Rank #16
  • Managing Partner

  • Current Portfolio: N/A

  • # of Exits: N/A

Lee Fixel | Addition | Prev: Tiger Global Management

Ranked as the top 16 global investor in 2020 (according to Forbes), Lee Fixel was listed in the Midas List for the eight-time. Currently, he is heading the newly founded VC fund ”Addition”. Prior to that, he was a partner at Tiger Global Management where he was involved in quite a few unicorns such as Spotify and Peloton.

Notable Deal

Read more about the most impressive deal we found ...

UiPath

There are no big exit deals for Addition yet. However, as part of Tiger Global Management Fixel was involved in an early investment in Peloton. They invested in the company in series B (2014) and C (2015) rounds for $ 10.5M and $ 30M respectively. They invested one more time in an F series round in 2018 for $ 550M. Peloton went public via an IPO on NASDAQ in 2019 and was valued at above $ 16B. Tiger Global Management had a majority stake at the time of the IPO – around 20%.

Recent Investments by Addition

Midas Global Rank #36
  • Partner

  • Current Portfolio: 40

  • # of Exits: 13

Joe Lonsdale | 8VC | Prev: Formation 8

Lonsdale’s first appearance on the Forbes Midas list was in 2016, which made him the youngest-ever to join the list back then. In 2020 he was ranked as the top 36 global tech investor. In the past, he has been involved in some unicorn exits such as Guardant Health and Wish. Some of his more recent investments include Blink Health, Joby, Qualia.

Notable Deal

Read more about the most impressive deal we found ...

Wish

Wish is a discount internet marketplace. The company went public via an IPO on the NASDAQ stock exchange in 2020. By the end of the first trading day, the company was valued at $ 11.2B. Lonsdale invested in Wish through his previous firm – Formation 8 – where he was a partner until Dec 2015. Formation 8 led an $ 8M Series A round for wish in 2012 and invested further in B and C rounds in 2013 and 2014 respectively.

Recent Investments by 8VC

Midas Global Rank #44
  • Chairman

  • Current Portfolio: N/A

  • # of Exits: 273

John Doerr | Kleiner Perkins

Doerr was ranked as the top 44 global investor according to the Forbes Midas list in 2020. After leaving Intel and co-founding two other companies Doerr decides to join Kleiner Perkins. The company is famous for its early investments in modern giants such as Amazon, Google, and Twitter. Doerr himself is the one credited with leading the company to invest $ 12.5M in Google in 1999 which grew to billions in 2004 when the company went public.

Notable Deal

Read more about the most impressive deal we found ...

Slack

Slack was launched in 2013 as a supporting, side project for the game company Tiny Speck. Today the company has grown to be one of the most popular team communication tools in the modern workplace. As part of Kleiner Perkins John Doerr together with Mamoon Hamid and Ilya Fushman led the first three investment rounds for Slack. The company’s professional chat software was very well-timed for the market which resulted in rapid growth over just 6 years. In 2019 Slack went public and was valued at above $ 15B. Contrary to some expectations the company traded for lower than their IPO price for approximately a year due to skepticism and concerns about competition. However, the stock shows some considerable signs of recovery lately and is now trading above IPO price.

Recent Investments by Kleiner Perkins

Midas Global Rank #50
  • Founder and Managing Director

  • Current Portfolio: 102

  • # of Exits: 39

Rick Heitzmann| FirstMark Capital

Rick Heitzman was ranked as the top 50 global tech investor according to Forbes 2020. In the past, he has invested in some of the most industry disruptive ventures. Some of them include Riot Games (online gaming), Upwork (recruiting & freelancing), Discord (communication) and notable Pinterest (social media and the internet as a whole).

Notable Deal

Read more about the most impressive deal we found ...

Pinterest

Pinterest revolutionised the reality of the modern internet. The company went public in 2018 on the NYSE. Initially valued at $ 10B the company reached the remarkable $ 14B valuation at the end of the first day of trading. FirstMark Capital invested in Pinterest in their very first seed round for $ 600k in 2009 together with Manatt Venture Fund. The investment firm continued to invest in Pinterest and participated in 8 more rounds before the company’s IPO.

Recent Investments by FirstMark Capital

Midas Global Rank #23
  • Managing Partner

  • Current Portfolio: 355

  • # of Exits: 62

Ranked as the top 73 global tech investor Garry Tan has invested in more than just a few multibillion startups. These include Instacart, Coinbase and Flexport.

Notable Deal

Read more about the most impressive deal we found ...

Coinbase

Coinbase was founded in 2012 and as of today is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the US. On Jan 28 the company announced its plans to go public via a direct listing on Nasdaq. The company has officially started to move towards a public listing by filing to the SEC in Dec 2020. According to a valuation from 2018 when Coinbase successfully attracted $ 300M investment the company was valued at $ 8B. Initialized Capital has supported the company since its very beginning. It was the sole investor in Aug 2012 seed investment as well as the lead investor in the second seed round in Sep 2012 for $ 600K. Later on, the Initialized capital participated in Series C and E rounds in 2015 and 2018 respectively.

Recent Investments by Internalized Capital

Midas Global Rank #96
  • Cofounding Partner

  • Current Portfolio: 248

  • # of Exits: 81

Ann Miura-Ko| Floodgate

Ranked as the top 96 global tech investor according to Forbes, Mura-Ko scored a nearly 10 000% return for her and her firm in 2010. She has backed some of the fastest-growing scaleups among which are the ride-sharing provider Lyft and growing media platform Refinery29.

Notable Deal

Read more about the most impressive deal we found ...

Lyft

Lyft was founded in 2012. The company has established itself as a leader in the market for P2P rides. In 2019 the company IPOed and raised $ 2.3B from the public. By the end of its first day of trading, the company reached a value of $ 22.2B. Floodgate invested in Lyft when the fund participated in a Series B round for $ 15M.

Recent Investments by Floodgate

Midas Global Rank #100
  • Partner

  • Current Portfolio: 636

  • # of Exits: 143

Scott Raney | Redpoint Ventures

Scott Raney is ranked as the top 100 global tech investor according to Forbes Midas List 2020. As a partner at RedPoint Ventures, Raney has invested in unicorns such as Guild Education and Stripe.

Notable Deal

Read more about the most impressive deal we found ...

Stripe

Stripe was founded in 2010 with the mission to grow the GDP of the internet. The company provides solutions to businesses that have online platforms and use platforms for financial transactions. Stripe offers the development of program infrastructure that enables functions such as online marketplaces and crowdfunding campaigns. Among the company’s clients are Apple, Google, Alipay, Tencent, Facebook and Twitter. Up to date, the company has attracted more than a $ 1.5B investment. In February 2021 the Forbes reported that investors value the company at $ 115B and its potential IPO in 2021 has some serious expectations attached to it. Redpoint invested in Stripe back in 2012 in a Series B round for $ 20M together with Sequoia Capital and 8 other investors.

Recent Investments by Redpoint Ventures