As startup experts will tell you, choosing among VC firms should be as much about you liking them as them liking you. So how do you decide?
Many factors might cross your mind, including:
- Is there a culture fit? Do our personalities and values clash?
- Can they provide expertise and connections, beyond the mere dollars?
- Are our expectations for an exit in alignment?
But one criteria that should kick off the investigation is: is this VC firm still active? It’s obviously a waste of time to pitch “zombie” VC firms, which are either inactive or in the process of shutting down.
The most active VC firms in 2014 were recently ranked by a MoneyTree Report (by the National Venture Capital Association and PricewaterhouseCoopers, based on data from Thomson Reuters). They measured the most active VC firms based on number of deals done in 2014. You can find the top VC firms listed below, along with information about what sectors and stages they invest in:
1. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (110 deals)
Location: Menlo Park, CA
Notable investments: Google, Zynga, Amazon, Twitter, Snapchat
Specialties: consumer digital, enterprise digital, life science, sustainability
Stage: seed, early, growth
2. New Enterprise Associates (105 deals)
Location: Menlo Park, CA
Notable investments: 23andMe, BuzzFeed, Coursera, Groupon, Evernote
Specialties: technology (software and services, systems, consumer and Internet, energy), health care (biopharma, devices, services)
Stage: seed, early, growth
3. Andreessen Horowitz (86 deals)
Location: Menlo Park, CA
Notable investments: Airbnb, Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter, Pinterest
Specialties: software (consumer, enterprise)
Stage: seed, early, growth
4. First Round Capital (81 deals)
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Notable investments: GroupMe, Mint, Path, StumbleUpon, Uber
Specialties: ecommerce/consumer web, enterprise, financial tech, ad tech, hardware
Stage: seed
5. Google Ventures (66 deals)
Location: Mountain View, CA
Notable investments: Medium, About.me, Uber, HubSpot, 23andMe
Specialties: enterprise, mobile, consumer, health, data, science (US and Europe)
Stage: seed, venture, growth
6. Khosla Ventures (64 deals)
Location: Menlo Park, CA
Notable investments: Bitly, Indiegogo, Jawbone, Scribd, Square
Specialties: Internet, computing, mobile, silicon technology, clean technology
Stage: early
7. Atlas Venture (62 deals)
Location: Cambridge, MA
Notable investments: FreshBooks, AngelList, Moo
Specialties: life sciences, technology
Stage: early
8. Sequoia Capital (61 deals)
Location: Menlo Park, CA
Notable investments: PayPal, Airbnb, Google, Instagram, LinkedIn
Specialties: energy, financial, health care, Internet, mobile, technology (US, China, India, Israel)
Stage: seed, early, growth
9. True Ventures (56 deals)
Location: Palo Alto, CA
Notable investments: About.me, Fitbit, Automattic, 9GAG, KISSmetrics
Specialties: commerce, consumer devices, infrastructure services, media, mobile, software and services
Stage: early
10. SV Angel (55 deals)
Location: San Francisco, CA
Notable investments: Foursquare, Airbnb, Facebook, Flipboard, Eventbrite
Specialties: Internet, ecommerce, information technology
Stage: early
11. Intel Capital Corporation (54 deals)
Location: Santa Clara, CA
Notable investments: MongoDB, SweetLabs, ViewSonic, Box
Specialties: data center software, data center cloud, digital media, Internet of things, manufacturing and labs, Ultrabook, security, open source services, smartphones and tablets, wearables
Stage: seed, early, growth
12. Canaan Partners (54 deals)
Location: Menlo Park, CA
Notable investments: Blip, Match.com, Instacart
Specialties: technology (advertising and marketing, big data/cloud, consumer, enterprise/SaaS, fintech, hardware), health care (biopharma, digital health, medtech) (India, Israel, US)
Stage: early
13. Bessemer Venture Partners (54 deals)
Location: Larchmont, NY
Notable investments: Yelp, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Skype, Shopify
Specialties: cloud computing, cybersecurity, financial services, health care, infrastructure 2.0, marketplaces (India, Israel, US)
Stage: seed, early, growth
14. General Catalyst Partners (52 deals)
Location: Cambridge, MA
Notable investments: Airbnb, Kayak, Snapchat, GroupMe, Stripe
Specialties: consumer, new media, and Internet; software, systems, and services; disruptive technology
Stage: early, growth
15. Accel Partners & Co (48 deals)
Location: Palo Alto, CA
Notable investments: 99designs, Dropbox, Etsy, Facebook, Spotify
Specialties: infrastructure, Internet and consumer services, mobile, software and cloud-enabled services
Stage: early, growth
16. Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern PA (46 deals)
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Notable investments: Dell Boomi, Sidecar, Neat, Ticketleap
Specialties: IT, life sciences, physical sciences
Stage: early, growth
17. DreamIt Ventures (45 deals)
Location: Bryn Mawr, PA
Notable investments: Betterific, Brideside, Postling, Livewire, Take the Interview
Specialties: web, software, IT, physical sciences, medical devices
Stage: seed
18. Draper Fisher Jurvetson (45 deals)
Location: Menlo Park, CA
Notable investments: Skype, Path, Twilio, Box, Yammer
Specialties: consumer, enterprise, disruptive technology
Stage: seed, early, growth
19. Foundation Capital (45 deals)
Location: Menlo Park, CA
Notable investments: Netflix, SimplyHired, TubeMogul, SilkRoad
Specialties: consumer, fintech, martech, applications, enterprise, energy
Stage: seed, early, growth
20. Innovation Works (44 deals)
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Notable investments: ModCloth, Lifeshel
Specialties: life sciences, software, hardware, electronics, advanced materials, robotics, energy, consumer products
Stage: seed
21. Polaris Partners (43 deals)
Location: Waltham, MA
Notable investments: Automattic, JustFab, LegalZoom, KISSmetrics, LogMeIn
Specialties: technology (cloud/SaaS/software, ecommerce/consumer Internet, digital media and entertainment), health care (biotech and pharmaceuticals, medical devices, health care services, health care IT)
Stage: seed, early, growth
22. 500 Startups (43 deals)
Location: Mountain View, CA
Notable investments: AngelList, Unbounce, Makerbot, Udemy, Twilio
Specialties: consumer ecommerce, family tech and education, design, SMB productivity and cloud services, food tech and digital health care, mobile and tablet, payments and financial services, online video, Bitcoin, ad tech, gaming
Stage: seed, early
23. Lerer Ventures (42 deals)
Location: New York, NY
Notable investments: RebelMouse, SmartThings, Brit + Co, Birchbox, Warby Parker
Specialties: consumer, ad tech, marketplace, SaaS, incubator, education tech
Stage: seed
24. Advanced Technology Ventures (42 deals)
Location: Palo Alto, CA
Notable investments: Tripwire, AppIQ
Specialties: IT (communications and infrastructure, Internet and digital media, software), health care (life sciences, medical devices), clean tech
Stage: early
25. Redpoint Ventures (42 deals)
Location: Menlo Park, CA
Notable investments: Twilio, Path, Heroku, Scribd, Netflix
Specialties: social/mobile, media and advertising, consumer services and ecommerce, SaaS and cloud, enterprise infrastructure, data communications
Stage: seed, early, growth
