While huge valuations and funding rounds dominated the headlines in 2014, it turned out to be another huge year for seed-stage venture investing. According to CB Insights data, the number of active seed venture capital investors jumped to a new high – up 23% from 2013’s total.
The rise of micro VC funds has helped contribute to this trend, but it’s not just the small guys getting busy. Khosla Ventures, which ties for 9th based on seed activity this year, is looking to raise a whopping $400M seed fund according to filings.
The number of active seed venture investors has grown over time as illustrated below hitting 138 investors in 2014. An active seed venture capital firm is defined as one making four unique seed investments in the year. To ensure consistency with last year’s report, corporate VCs including highly active seed investor Google Ventures were excluded for the purposes of this analysis.
2014’s most active seed VC investors were led once again by 500 Startups, followed by SV Angel, Andreessen Horowitz, Foundry Group and Lerer-Hippeau Ventures. Among the firms that fell within or out of the top 10 from 2013 was First Round Capital which dropped from 5th to 9th place and CrunchFund which fell from 6 to 15th based on unique company seed deals. New entrants to the top 25 most active seed funders included Metamorphic Ventures, Foundry Group and Lowercase Capital.
| 1 to 26 | 27 to 52 | 53 to 78 | 79-106 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 500 Startups | Social Starts | Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers | Green Visor Capital |
| SV Angel | Sherpa Ventures | Lightbank | Innovation Endeavors |
| Andreessen Horowitz | Mucker Capital | Morado Venture Partners | A-Grade |
| Foundry Group | Collaborative Fund | NewSchools Venture Fund | KEC Ventures |
| Lerer Hippeau Ventures | Greylock Partners | Floodgate | SK Ventures |
| BoxGroup | Rothenberg Ventures | Innovation Works | MESA+ |
| New Enterprise Associates | Vayner RSE | Greycroft Partners | Lighter Capital |
| Data Collective | BOLDstart Ventures | Founder Collective | Long Island Emerging Technologies Fund |
| Khosla Ventures | Connecticut Innovations | Cowboy Ventures | Scout Ventures |
| First Round Capital | CIT GAP Funds | Hyde Park Venture Partners | Neu Venture Capital |
| VegasTech Fund | Accel Partners | Formation 8 | Softbank Capital |
| RRE Ventures | ff Venture Capital | Amicus Capital | Quotidian Ventures |
| Kapor Capital | XG Ventures | Deep Fork Capital | Tallwave Capital |
| ENIAC Ventures | NextView Ventures | Kickstart Seed Fund | Red Sea Ventures |
| CrunchFund | Crosslink Capital | Social Leverage | Vaizra Investments |
| Metamorphic Ventures | FirstMark Capital | True Ventures | Resolute.vc |
| Atlas Venture | Draper Associates | Promus Ventures | Silverton Partners |
| Great Oaks Venture Capital | Cultivation Capital | Maveron | CRV |
| SparkLabs Global Ventures | Freestyle Capital | TEEC Angel Fund | Foundation Capital |
| Kima Ventures | Upfront Ventures | Lux Capital | K9 Ventures |
| Lowercase Capital | Homebrew | Tekton Ventures | Dorm Room Fund |
| General Catalyst Partners | Fuel Capital | Redpoint Ventures | Founders Fund |
| Felicis Ventures | Drummond Road Capital | Index Ventures | Contour Venture Partners |
| SoftTech VC | Menlo Ventures | Galvanize | Cue Ball Capital |
| LaunchCapital | Mercury Fund | Azure Capital Partners | Correlation Ventures |
| Structure Capital | QueensBridge Venture Partners | Chicago Ventures | CincyTech |
| Forerunner Ventures | |||
| Expansion VC |
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