Tiger Global Management has the highest number of unicorn portfolio companies, while SV Angel has made the most early-stage investments in $1B+ companies.
There are 344private unicorn companies globally valued at $1B+ as of 5/5/2019 —all featured on CB Insights’ real-time global unicorn tracker.
Over the years, a total of2,018 disclosedinvestors have backed those unicorns. While 72% of unicorn investorshave only invested in one unicorn company, there are some investors who have pulled away from the group, backing 10, 20, even 40+ unicorn companies.
Using CB Insights data, we looked into which investors have backed the most unicorns — and which are in the best position to see big returns, should these companies manage to exit at the valuations they’re getting in the private markets.
In this post, we’ll cover:
- Top investors overall
- Top early-stage investors
- Most efficient investors
- Geographic trends
- Appendix: Past unicorn hunters analysis
Note:We’ve done our unicorn hunters analysis 3 times before: July 2015, October 2016, and February 2017. Those results are included in the appendix at the bottom of this post.
Top investors overall
Key takeaways
- Tiger Global Management has the most unicorn companies in its portfolio (42).
- SoftBank’s unicorn portfolio has the highest cumulative valuation at $389B — that’s 45% more than Tiger Global Management, and more than double Tencent Holdings’ cumulative unicorn valuation.
- Sequoia Capital has backed the most deals to unicorns (99).
- There are now 143 institutional investors with at least 5 unicorns in their portfolio, up from 76 such investors in February 2017.
By portfolio Companies
In terms of total unique unicorns backed, New York-based Tiger Global Management takes the top spot, with 42 unicorn portfolio companies.
It is closely followed by China-based Tencent Holdings, with 40 unicorns, and Japan-based SoftBank Group, with 38.
Rounding out the top 10 are Sequoia Capital China (35), Sequoia Capital (33), Kleiner Perkins (30), DST Global (29),Fidelity Investments (28), Andreessen Horowitz (28), and Wellington Management (26).
A number of highly valued unicorns have received funding from multiple top 10 investors.
Online hospitality marketplace Airbnb ($29B valuation) has been backed by 8 of the top 10 unicorn investors, ride-hailing companyUber ($72B) has been backed by 6, and online payments startup Stripe($22.5B) has been backed by 5.
by Valuation
SoftBank’s unicorn portfolio companies have the highest cumulative valuation, with 38 unicorns worth a collective $389B.
Tiger Global Management comes in second ($269B), while Fidelity Investments comes in third ($231B).
Of the top 10 unicorn investors, Andreessen Horowitz’s unicorns have the lowest cumulative investment total, at $134B — roughly one-third of SoftBank’s figures.
Top early-stage investors
Investors that back these companies in early funding rounds stand to gain more from their exits. We evaluated which firms invested in the most unicorns at the seed and Series A rounds.
SV Angel has retained its #1 spot since our last analysis in February 2017, while Sequoia Capital has slipped in rankings from second to fourth place. Y Combinator and Sequoia Capital China round out the top 3 early-stage investors.
Most efficient investors
One way to measure a firm’s relative investment prowess is to look at the proportion of total unicorn investments to the number of those investments made at the early-stage. (In other words, how often a firm is getting in on the ground floor.)
A few of the most effective investors on this list are Y Combinator (18 unicorns, with 16 being early-stage investments), SV Angel (23 unicorns, 18 early-stage investments), and IDG Capital (18 unicorns, 11 early-stage investments).
Below is a complete list of the top investors in unicorn companies and the number of unicorn portfolio companies that they invested in at the early stages.
Investor | Number of Unicorns | Early-Stage Unicorn Investments |
---|---|---|
Tiger Global Management | 42 | 4 |
Tencent Holdings | 40 | 4 |
SoftBank Group | 38 | 1 |
Sequoia Capital China | 35 | 14 |
Sequoia Capital | 33 | 11 |
Kleiner Perkins | 30 | 5 |
DST Global | 29 | 3 |
Fidelity Investments | 28 | 0 |
Andreessen Horowitz | 28 | 11 |
Wellington Management | 26 | 0 |
Accel | 24 | 10 |
SV Angel | 23 | 18 |
Institutional Venture Partners | 23 | 2 |
Google Ventures | 23 | 6 |
Goldman Sachs | 23 | 1 |
New Enterprise Associates | 22 | 9 |
GGV Capital | 22 | 3 |
General Atlantic | 21 | 2 |
Temasek Holdings | 20 | 1 |
Hillhouse Capital Management | 20 | 2 |
Index Ventures | 19 | 7 |
Founders Fund | 19 | 7 |
Baillie Gifford & Co. | 19 | 0 |
Y Combinator | 18 | 16 |
T. Rowe Price | 18 | 0 |
IDG Capital | 18 | 11 |
GIC | 18 | 2 |
Thrive Capital | 17 | 6 |
ICONIQ Capital | 17 | 0 |
Coatue Management | 17 | 0 |
capitalG | 17 | 0 |
Alibaba Group | 17 | 3 |
Spark Capital | 15 | 2 |
Qiming Venture Partners | 15 | 8 |
Insight Partners | 15 | 2 |
Khosla Ventures | 14 | 8 |
General Catalyst | 13 | 5 |
Warburg Pincus | 12 | 3 |
Shunwei Capital Partners | 12 | 6 |
KKR | 12 | 2 |
Bessemer Venture Partners | 12 | 1 |
Sharespost | 11 | 0 |
Ribbit Capital | 11 | 4 |
Lightspeed Venture Partners | 11 | 3 |
Greylock Partners | 11 | 5 |
G Squared | 11 | 0 |
Dragoneer Investment Group | 11 | 0 |
Battery Ventures | 11 | 2 |
Geographic trends
The majority of unicorns are in the United States (49%), followed by China (26%). Among the top 10 unicorn hunters, unicorn portfolio companies are largely US-based, followed by China-based unicorns.
Unsurprisingly, China-based investors back proportionally more Chinese unicorns, and US-based investors back proportionally more American unicorns.
All top 10 US-based unicorn investors have at least half of their unicorn investments in US-based companies. All investors shown above have the majority of their investments in US-based companies, with the exception of Tencent Holdings and Sequoia Capital China.
Sequoia Capital China has backed the most number of Chinese unicorns (27), representing 29% of all China-based unicorns.
SoftBank has backed the most unicorns (18) that are based outside of the United States and China.
Appendix: Past analysis
February 2017
SV Angel | 23 |
Sequoia Capital | 23 |
Tiger Global Management | 23 |
DST Global | 20 |
Fidelity Investments | 20 |
Andreessen Horowitz | 20 |
Wellington Management | 19 |
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers | 19 |
Goldman Sachs | 19 |
Tencent Holdings | 17 |
GGV Capital | 16 |
Baillie Gifford & Co. | 16 |
Temasek Holdings | 15 |
T. Rowe Price | 15 |
Morgan Stanley | 15 |
Accel Partners | 15 |
Institutional Venture Partners | 13 |
Insight Venture Partners | 13 |
New Enterprise Associates | 13 |
Founders Fund | 13 |
Khosla Ventures | 12 |
Iconiq Capital | 12 |
capitalG | 12 |
Google Ventures | 11 |
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. | 11 |
Alibaba Group | 11 |
Salesforce Ventures | 10 |
Qiming Venture Partners | 10 |
General Atlantic | 10 |
Hartford Funds Management Group | 10 |
General Catalyst Partners | 10 |
BlackRock | 10 |
Thrive Capital | 9 |
Greylock Partners | 9 |
Benchmark | 9 |
TPG Growth | 8 |
SoftBank Group | 8 |
Index Ventures | 8 |
Comcast Ventures | 8 |
Coatue Management | 8 |
Y Combinator | 7 |
Technology Crossover Ventures | 7 |
Rocket Internet | 6 |
Qualcomm Ventures | 6 |
Horizons Ventures | 6 |
Meritech Capital Partners | 6 |
Lakestar | 6 |
IDG Capital Partners | 6 |
Hillhouse Capital Management | 6 |
Intel Capital | 6 |
Dragoneer Investment Group | 6 |
Felicis Ventures | 6 |
Bessemer Venture Partners | 6 |
Bezos Expeditions | 6 |
Valiant Capital Partners | 5 |
Silicon Valley Bank | 5 |
Warburg Pincus | 5 |
Redpoint Ventures | 5 |
Lowercase Capital | 5 |
Glynn Capital Management | 5 |
Microsoft | 5 |
In-Q-Tel | 5 |
GIC | 5 |
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. | 5 |
Draper Fisher Jurvetson | 5 |
Didi Chuxing | 5 |
First Round Capital | 5 |
Access Industries | 5 |
Credit Suisse | 5 |
october 2016
Sequoia Capital | 24 |
SV Angel | 23 |
Tiger Global Management | 23 |
Andreessen Horowitz | 21 |
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers | 21 |
DST Global | 21 |
Fidelity Investments | 20 |
Wellington Management | 19 |
Accel Partners | 18 |
Goldman Sachs | 17 |
T. Rowe Price | 17 |
Baillie Gifford & Co. | 17 |
GGV Capital | 15 |
Tencent | 15 |
Temasek Holdings | 15 |
Institutional Venture Partners | 14 |
Founders Fund | 13 |
Google Ventures | 13 |
New Enterprise Associates | 13 |
Insight Venture Partners | 13 |
Khosla Ventures | 12 |
General Catalyst Partners | 11 |
Salesforce Ventures | 11 |
General Atlantic | 11 |
Hartford Funds Management Group | 11 |
Google Capital | 11 |
Alibaba Group | 11 |
Qiming Venture Partners | 10 |
Greylock Partners | 10 |
Sequoia Capital China | 10 |
Iconiq Capital | 10 |
Benchmark | 9 |
Index Ventures | 9 |
TPG Growth | 9 |
Meritech Capital Partners | 9 |
BlackRock | 9 |
Thrive Capital | 8 |
Morgan Stanley | 8 |
Intel Capital | 8 |
Coatue Management | 8 |
Comcast Ventures | 8 |
Y Combinator | 7 |
Technology Crossover Ventures | 7 |
Lightspeed Venture Partners | 6 |
Redpoint Ventures | 6 |
Bezos Expeditions | 6 |
Valiant Capital Partners | 6 |
SoftBank Group | 6 |
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co | 6 |
Dragoneer Investment Group | 6 |
In-Q-Tel | 6 |
First Round Capital | 5 |
Lowercase Capital | 5 |
Draper Fisher Jurvetson | 5 |
IDG Capital Partners | 5 |
Bessemer Venture Partners | 5 |
Allen & Company | 5 |
Warburg Pincus | 5 |
Horizons Ventures | 5 |
DAG Ventures | 5 |
Sands Capital | 5 |
Qualcomm Ventures | 5 |
Recruit Strategic Partners | 5 |
Lakestar | 5 |
Hillhouse Capital Management | 5 |
Glynn Capital Management | 5 |
GIC | 5 |
JPMorgan Chase & Co. | 5 |
DFJ Growth Fund | 5 |
Didi Chuxing | 5 |
july 2015
Sequoia Capital | 17 |
Andreessen Horowitz | 15 |
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers | 15 |
T. Rowe Price | 14 |
Wellington Management | 13 |
Fidelity Investments | 13 |
SV Angel | 12 |
Goldman Sachs | 12 |
Accel Partners | 11 |
Founders Fund | 11 |
Tiger Global Management | 11 |
New Enterprise Associates | 11 |
Khosla Ventures | 10 |
Greylock Partners | 10 |
Benchmark Capital | 9 |
Institutional Venture Partners | 9 |
Meritech Capital Partners | 8 |
Salesforce Ventures | 8 |
General Catalyst Partners | 7 |
Insight Venture Partners | 7 |
Google Ventures | 7 |
Iconiq Capital | 7 |
Y Combinator | 6 |
Lowercase Capital | 6 |
Venrock | 6 |
GGV Capital | 6 |
Draper Fisher Jurvetson | 6 |
Morgan Stanley | 6 |
First Round Capital | 5 |
Lightspeed Venture Partners | 5 |
Bessemer Venture Partners | 5 |
DAG Ventures | 5 |
Valiant Capital Partners | 5 |
JPMorgan Chase & Co. | 5 |
TPG Growth | 5 |
Redpoint Ventures | 5 |
Industry Ventures | 5 |
Digital Sky Technologies | 5 |
Bezos Expeditions | 5 |
Intel Capital | 5 |
BlackRock | 5 |
Alibaba Group | 5 |
Comcast Ventures | 5 |
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