Which Is World’s Most Successful VC Firm With Investments Into 328 Of World’s Top Startups?

The Hurun Global Venture Capitalists 2022 Half-Year Report was released by The Hurun Research Institute. This report details the ranking of the world’s most successful venture capital investors based on the number of unicorns and gazelles in their portfolio.

For this report, the cut-off date used was 30 June 2022. 

Since 2017, Hurun Research has been tracking unicorns and venture capitalists.

Unicorns & Gazelles

There are two popular terms in the world of startups, unicorns and gazelles.

Now, unicorns are the companies which have a valuation of over US$1bn, whereas the gazelle is worth over US$500mn and most likely to ‘go unicorn’ in 3 years. That’s what unicorn and gazelle is!

Now speaking globally, there are 1312 unicorns and 621 gazelles in the world at the moment.

These unicorns which are roughly 8 years old on average, come from 48 countries, up from 42, spread around 259 cities, up from 221 and are disrupting sectors like financial services, business management solutions and healthcare.

The gazelles are roughly started in 2015, and total 621 of them come from 33 countries and 151 cities. Disrupting healthcare, financial services and business management solutions, majority are selling software and services, with only 26% selling physical products. 58% are selling to businesses, whilst 42% are consumer-facing.

As compared to the last decade, US$600bn of venture funds were invested globally last year, which is ten times what it was in the last decade.

Rupert Hoogewerf, Chairman & Chief Researcher, Hurun Report said that “The Hurun Global Venture Capitalists is targeted at investors who are looking to know which venture capitals houses are best at identifying the current crop of fastest-growing start-ups in the world. Investors include high net worth individuals, such as those from the Hurun Global Rich List, as well as pension funds and government sovereign wealth funds. The number of blockbuster start-ups from the likes of the Hurun Global Gazelle Index and Hurun Global Unicorn Index has led to investors allocating a larger part of their portfolio towards start-ups.”

“The opportunity for innovation remains vast. The impact of technology is no longer just in computers but across all parts of the business world. Venture capitalists play a critical part in the start-up ecosystem, bringing money, advice and connections to help start-ups grow into global-scale business.”

With San Francisco topping the headquarters for Hurun Global Venture Capitalists, the influence of Silicon Valley can also be seen. Both Menlo Park and Palo Alto making the Top 5. Just when the Silicon Valley was gaining steam, we can say that the venture capital was starting out. The mid-nineties was the next boom, also in Silicon Valley, followed by the boom in China after 2005.

For most investors, managing to find just one of the Hurun Unicorns or Hurun Gazelles is enough for a lifetime, but the Hurun Global Venture Capitalists make it look easy, investing into hundreds of the world’s current crop of best start-ups. They have shown that they are not just a one-trick pony, getting lucky once with a big win and then coasting on their reputation.

Top 10 Venture Capitalists in the world

Numero uno in the list is Sequoia Capital!

This VC is investing into 328 of the world’s unicorns and gazelles, up 43 from last year.

	Investor	No. of Investments
1	Sequoia Capital	328
2	Softbank	217
3	Tiger Global	196
4	Tencent	122
5	CICC	115
6	Accel	115
7	Y Combinator	111
8	Andreessen Horowitz	110
9	Insight Partners	109
10	Lightspeed	92