Despite more micro VCs and multistage funds investing at the seed-stage, seed investments fell to a 29% share of deals to VC-backed companies in Q4’15, a five-quarter low, according to our 2015 Venture Capital report. But despite the overall pullback, there are VCs who remain active at the early stages. We used CB Insights data to identify these and rank VC investors who were most active at the early-stage (seed/Series A) in 2015 globally.
500 startups was by far the most active in this area, with investments in nearly double the companies compared to the next investor in the ranking, San Francisco-based Slow Ventures.
500 Startups was also the only investor to make early-stage investments in more than 100 companies in 2015. NEA rounded out the top 3, making early-stage investments across a variety of sectors and round sizes, including large (>$30M) early-stage rounds into biotech companies Rhythm Metabolic and TherAchon. Several investors outside of the US found themselves on the list, including Germany-based High-Tech Gruenderfonds and East Ventures (the latter a testament to how quickly the Southeast Asian startup scene is growing).
| Rank | Investor | Select Investments |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 500 Startups | Chewse, HappyFresh, BlockCypher |
| 2 | Slow Ventures | GoButler, Button, Wag |
| 2 | New Enterprise Associates | Nuvolo Technologies, Pager, DataVisor |
| 4 | Social Starts | Granify, Canvs, Affinio |
| 5 | Accel Partners | Algolia, MindTickle, StreamSets |
| 6 | High-Tech Gruenderfonds | Juniqe, Graylog, coModule |
| 7 | First Round Capital | Flexport, Reserve Media, Clover Health |
| 7 | East Ventures | HipVan, Omise, Ralali |
| 9 | Andreessen Horowitz | Soylent, Skydio, Sensai |
| 10 | Foundry Group | Glowforge, DataHero, Spare5 |
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