THE TOP VENTURE CAPITAL FIRMS IN 2018, MOST ACTIVE VC FIRMS, VC DEAL INVESTMENT CONTINUES STRONG IN 2019

Data from Crunchbase reveals who the active VCs are now, and who might be the best investors to pitch with your deck.  There is plenty of money out there, from plenty of hungry investors.  According Pitchbook:

The most dollars are going into late stage startups, followed by early stage funding, then funding for technology growth and angel or seed series rounds.

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Now find out who is handing out the cash…

Active Lead Investors

According to data from Crunchbase here are the 10 most active lead investors. 

1. Start-Up Chile
2. Insight Venture Partners
3. Tencent Holdings
4. New Enterprise Associates
5. Sequoia Capital China
6. Accel
7. Sequoia Capital
8. Higher Ground Labs
9. Quake Capital Partners
10. Goldman Sachs

Most Active Seed Stage Investors

Whenever you are pitching, you want to be sure you are reaching those who are most likely to fund your type of round. According to Crunchbase, these were the most active investors in seed rounds during the past 3 months. 

1. Startup-Chile
2. Hiventures
3. Crowdcube
4. Plug and Play
5. Innovation Works
6. 500 Startups
7. Innova Memphis
8. Entrepreneurs Roundtable
9. Berkeley SkyDeck Fund
10. Quake Capital Partners

According to Pitchbook: 

        

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Top Early Stage Investors

If you are raising an early stage round, consider these active players: 

1. IDG Capital
2. New Enterprise Associates
3. Sequoia Capital China
4. Accel
5. Y Combinator
6. ZhenFund
7. Sequoia Capital
8. Matrix Partners China
9. Intel Capital
10. Index Ventures

According Pitchbook:

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Most Active Late Stage Investors 

If you are looking to raise a Series B or anything above for a growth stage round you may want to tap into the following firms:

1. Sequoia Capital
2. Tencent Holdings
3. Insight Venture Partners
4. Bpifrance
5. Goldman Sachs
6. Bessemer Venture Partners
7. New Enterprise Associates
8. Khosla Ventures
9. Andreessen Horowitz
10. Sequoia Capital China

According Pitchbook:

"Driven by the massive $12.8 billion funding of Juul, total late-stage capital invested in 4Q 2018 recorded a decade high of $30.8 billion and total late stage funds of $82.5 billion for the year 2018. Removing Juul, total capital invested still came in at a near-record level."

Who Has the Money Now?

When strategizing who you will pitch, it is not only worth looking at who has recently been active in putting money into deals, but who is achieving successful exits, and may now be flush with capital and bullish on reinvesting some of those gains.

Factors to Consider in Choosing Who to Pitch

Connecting with potential investors, presenting and attending meetings takes up precious time that could be used to work on and push your business forward. Getting funded can help to make big leaps in growth, but it is still a task that should be approached efficiently. As an entrepreneur, your biggest resource is time.

The data above may reveal the willingness of different venture capital firms to get involved at different series of funding, and at different positions within each of those fundraising rounds. Data on exits and fundraising by these firms can also be useful for gauging who has the liquidity and sense of urgency to act quickly in the months ahead as well.

It is smart to know which potential angel and venture capital firm investors are most likely to place capital into your industry. Have they shown interest in your type of business, product category, or size of deal you are offering? Have they been successful in it? Was it a good experience for them? Could your venture help compliment other recent investments they’ve made?

Knowing if they are likely to stay in the game and follow up with more capital in your next fundraising round can be valuable too. That could dramatically reduce the time and effort you have to make next time.

Perhaps even more importantly, are they a good fit for you? Remember that money is just one reason to venture down this path. It’s only one of the benefits of these relationships. Ask yourself how they can help beyond the money. What is their history of relationships with the startups and CEOs they’ve funded in the past? Is there alignment in goals, values, timelines and the terms they likely to offer?

Summary

Funding for startups is plentiful in the current economy. New record amounts of investment are being made, and by a diverse range of investors. Knowing who these active investors are may help shorten the time it takes to get funded, while providing more efficiency in the process. Do your homework, learn who your ideal investors are, and design a powerful pitch deck that gets their attention, and closes the deal faster.

COMMENTARY:  According to the Pitchbook-National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), through the first half of 2019, total VC deal value has reached $66.0 billion and is nearly on pace to match 2018’s $130.6 billion record.   For Q1 2019, total VC deal value reached $32.6 billion across 1,853 deals.  For Q2 2019, total VC deal value reached $33.4 billion. 

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If this pace holds, 2019 would mark the second consecutive year in which VC invested has topped $100 billion, substantiating how the strategy has matured over the last decade. The ability of companies to raise rounds of $100 million or more in the private markets is one of the most stark changes, with the number of mega-deals exploding from 36 in 2013 to 208 in 2018. Robust exit activity has boosted returns and produced strong distributions for LPs, who are recycling that capital into new VC funds. With this level of capital availability, we expect investment activity to persist in strength. Growing businesses are further supported by non-VC sources of capital, such as corporates and PE firms, which continue to seek out high-growth VC opportunities and the associated returns.

The biggest story in the venture industry from 2Q was the exit market, fueled by 34 venture-backed IPOs that pushed exit value to a record $138.3 billion. The high-profile nature and aftermarket success of most of these newly public companies should also imbue confidence in the 14 VC-backed companies currently in IPO registration. Including M&A activity, total venture-backed exit value for the first half of 2019 reached $188.5 billion, eclipsing every full-year total on record.

 

A crucial aspect of the flood of big VC-backed exits is the liquidity they bring not only for the companies and their employees but also for venture funds and LPs. With so many VC-backed companies staying private for longer and with gains consequently staying primarily on paper, some LPs tapped out their allocation to venture. Recent gains flowing back to LPs will allow them to reinvest in venture, so the dip in venture fundraising observed early in 2019 is likely transient and not indicative of declining LP interest in the asset class.

 

The IPOs of companies such as Uber, Zoom and Pinterest stole headlines in 2Q, but VC-backed life science companies, particularly biotech, continued to see robust IPO activity. The insatiable public market appetite for life sciences companies has resulted in an active M&A market as well. This is particularly important for medical device and supply companies, which have experienced a healthy M&A environment in 2019. On the investment front, life sciences trends have mirrored those seen across the venture industry: fewer, larger deals and rising valuations. If current trends continue, life science companies as a proportion of total VC investment could reach the highest level since 2011, indicating the growing strength of the sector within the venture industry.

 

Courtesy of article submitted by by Alejandro Cremades titled Top Venture Capital Firms and a press release dated January 10, 2019 by Pitchbook and the Pitchbook-NVCA Venture Monitor for Q1 2019 and the Pitchbook-NVCA Venture Monitor for Q2 2019