For the fourth year in a row, CB Insights partnered with The New York Times to provide an algorithmically-driven view into the question of who are the top VCs. Not swayed by narrative or a storied history in venture capital, the NYT-CBI rankings provide a current view into the best venture capitalists in the world at an individual and firm level.
The rankings were based on CB Insights data which is gathered via our machine learning technology (dubbed The Cruncher) and complemented by thousands of submissions that we received from VC partners and firms via The Editor.
Some of the top movers in 2019 include:
- JP Gan, who moved up 39 spots to #16
- Hans Tung (+41) to #18
- Jan Hammer (+43) to #43
- Ryan Sweeney (+42) to #46
19 investors made their first appearances this year. Included for the first time were Par-Jorgen Parson (#29), Shailendra Singh (#46), and Ajay Royan (#68).
The Top VC Firms
These firms have the most partners featured in our ranking of the top 100 venture capitalists:
Below is our comprehensive list of the Top 100 Venture Capital Partners in addition to our Selection Methodology:
- Top 100 Venture Capital Partners of 2019
- Top 100 Venture Capital Partners of 2018
- Top 100 Venture Capital Partners of 2017
- Top 100 Venture Capital Partners of 2016
- Selection Methodology
Check out our related venture capital content:
- What is Venture Capital?
- How to Get a Job in Venture Capital: 45 VCs Offer Advice On Getting Into The Game
- From Alibaba to Zynga: 40 Of The Best VC Bets Of All Time And What We Can Learn From Them
- The United States Of Venture Capital: The Most Active VC In Each State
- Here Are The Top 5 Most Active VC Investors
- How the Traditional Venture Capital Pipeline is Changing
| Rank | Portrait | Name | Firm |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  |
Neil Shen | Sequoia Capital China |
| 2 |  |
Lee Fixel | Tiger Global Management |
| 3 |  |
Bill Gurley | Benchmark |
| 4 |  |
Alfred Lin | Sequoia Capital |
| 5 |  |
Jeffrey Jordan | Andreessen Horowitz |
| 6 |  |
Peter Fenton | Benchmark |
| 7 |  |
Brian Singerman | Founders Fund |
| 8 |  |
Mary Meeker | Bond |
| 9 |  |
Matt Cohler | Benchmark |
| 10 |  |
Ravi Mhatre | Lightspeed Venture Partners |
| 11 |  |
Joshua Kopelman | First Round Capital |
| 12 |  |
Bryan Schreier | Sequoia Capital |
| 13 |  |
Allen Zhu | GSR Ventures |
| 14 |  |
Mike Volpi | Index Ventures |
| 15 |  |
Sameer Gandhi | Accel |
| 16 |  |
JP Gan | Qiming Venture Partners |
| 17 |  |
Ann Miura-Ko | Floodgate |
| 18 |  |
Hans Tung | GGV Capital |
| 19 |  |
Aydin Senkut | Felicis Ventures |
| 20 |  |
Ben Horowitz | Andreessen Horowitz |
| 21 |  |
Asheem Chandna | Greylock Partners |
| 22 |  |
Kirsten Green | Forerunner Ventures |
| 23 |  |
Robert Nelsen | ARCH Venture Partners |
| 24 |  |
Steve Anderson | Baseline |
| 25 |  |
Michael Moritz | Sequoia Capital |
| 26 |  |
Jeremy Liew | Lightspeed Venture Partners |
| 27 |  |
Jeremy Levine | Bessemer Venture Partners |
| 28 |  |
Peter Levine | Andreessen Horowitz |
| 29 |  |
Par-Jorgen Parson | Northzone |
| 30 |  |
Hemant Taneja | General Catalyst |
| 31 |  |
Danny Rimer | Index Ventures |
| 32 |  |
Roelof Botha | Sequoia Capital |
| 33 |  |
Keith Rabois | Founders Fund |
| 34 |  |
Shawn Carolan | Menlo Ventures |
| 35 |  |
Andrew Braccia | Accel |
| 36 |  |
Byron Deeter | Bessemer Venture Partners |
| 37 |  |
Neeraj Agrawal | Battery Ventures |
| 38 |  |
Reid Hoffman | Greylock Partners |
| 39 |  |
Richard Liu | Morningside Ventures |
| 40 |  |
Scott Sandell | New Enterprise Associates |
| 41 |  |
Jon Callaghan | True Ventures |
| 42 |  |
Mamoon Hamid | Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers |
| 43 |  |
Jan Hammer | Index Ventures |
| 44 |  |
Randy Glein | DFJ |
| 45 |  |
Shailendra Singh | Sequoia Capital India |
| 46 |  |
Ryan Sweeney | Accel |
| 47 |  |
Yuri Milner | DST Global |
| 48 |  |
Marc Andreessen | Andreessen Horowitz |
| 49 |  |
Mitch Lasky | Benchmark |
| 50 |  |
Joel Cutler | General Catalyst |
| 51 |  |
Rick Heitzmann | FirstMark Capital |
| 52 |  |
Bryan Roberts | Venrock |
| 53 |  |
Navin Chaddha | Mayfield Fund |
| 54 |  |
Satish Dharmaraj | Redpoint Ventures |
| 55 |  |
Jenny Lee | GGV Capital |
| 56 |  |
Joe Lonsdale | 8VC |
| 57 |  |
Fred Wilson | Union Square Ventures |
| 58 |  |
David Chao | DCM |
| 59 |  |
Micky Malka | Ribbit Capital |
| 60 |  |
Jixun Foo | GGV Capital |
| 61 |  |
Beth Seidenberg | Westlake Village BioPartners |
| 62 |  |
Neil Rimer | Index Ventures |
| 63 |  |
Todd Chaffee | IVP |
| 64 |  |
Jeff Crowe | Norwest Venture Partners |
| 65 |  |
Albert Wenger | Union Square Ventures |
| 66 |  |
Joshua Kushner | Thrive Capital |
| 67 |  |
Theresia Gouw | Aspect Ventures |
| 68 |  |
Ajay Royan | Mithril Capital |
| 69 |  |
Roger Ehrenberg | IA Ventures |
| 70 |  |
David Frankel | Founder Collective |
| 71 |  |
Xiaojun Li | IDG Capital |
| 72 |  |
Jeff Clavier | Uncork Capital |
| 73 |  |
Hurst Lin | DCM |
| 74 |  |
Tom Stafford | DST Global |
| 75 |  |
Nabeel Hyatt | Spark Capital |
| 76 |  |
Peter Thiel | Founders Fund |
| 77 |  |
Deven Parekh | Insight Venture Partners |
| 78 |  |
Scott Friend | Bain Capital Ventures |
| 79 |  |
Yi Cao | Source Code Capital |
| 80 |  |
Somesh Dash | IVP |
| 81 |  |
Jim Breyer | Breyer Capital |
| 82 |  |
Erhai Liu | Joy Capital |
| 83 |  |
Woody Marshall | TCV |
| 84 |  |
Adam D’Augelli | True Ventures |
| 85 |  |
Chen Xiaohong | H Capital |
| 86 |  |
Bijan Sabet | Spark Capital |
| 87 |  |
Bill Trenchard | First Round Capital |
| 88 |  |
Rich Wong | Accel |
| 89 |  |
Geoff Lewis | Bedrock Capital |
| 90 |  |
Manu Kumar | K9 Ventures |
| 91 |  |
Nigel Morris | QED Investors |
| 92 |  |
Richard Peng | Genesis Capital |
| 93 |  |
Tony Florence | New Enterprise Associates |
| 94 |  |
Amish Jani | FirstMark Capital |
| 95 |  |
Saar Gur | CRV |
| 96 |  |
Jeffrey Lieberman | Insight Venture Partners |
| 97 |  |
Aileen Lee | Cowboy Ventures |
| 98 |  |
David Cowan | Bessemer Venture Partners |
| 99 |  |
Eric Liaw | IVP |
| 100 |  |
Justin Niu | IDG Capital |
TRACK ALL THE UNICORN STARTUPS IN THIS BRIEF AND MORE ON OUR PLATFORM
Startups valued at $1B+. Look for Unicorns - Billion Dollar Startups in the Collections tab.
Track Unicorn startups| Rank | Name | Firm |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bill Gurley | Benchmark |
| 2 | Steve Anderson | Baseline Ventures |
| 3 | Joshua Kopelman | First Round Capital |
| 4 | Alfred Lin | Sequoia Capital |
| 5 | Brian Singerman | Founders Fund |
| 6 | Jeffrey Jordan | Andreessen Horowitz |
| 7 | Rob Hayes | First Round Capital |
| 8 | Ravi Mhatre | Lightspeed Venture Partners |
| 9 | Mary Meeker | Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers |
| 10 | Jeremy Liew | Lightspeed Venture Partners |
| 11 | Neil Shen | Sequoia Capital China |
| 12 | Mitch Lasky | Benchmark |
| 13 | Asheem Chandna | Greylock Partners |
| 14 | Kirsten Green | Forerunner Ventures |
| 15 | Aydin Senkut | Felicis Ventures |
| 16 | Peter Fenton | Benchmark |
| 17 | Danny Rimer | Index Ventures |
| 18 | Robert Nelsen | ARCH Venture Partners |
| 19 | Frederick Wilson | Union Square Ventures |
| 20 | Neeraj Agrawal | Battery Ventures |
| 21 | Michael Moritz | Sequoia Capital |
| 22 | Bryan Schreier | Sequoia Capital |
| 23 | Sameer Gandhi | Accel |
| 24 | Benjamin Horowitz | Andreessen Horowitz |
| 25 | Bijan Sabet | Spark Capital |
| 26 | Bryan Roberts | Venrock |
| 27 | Matt Cohler | Benchmark |
| 28 | Hemant Taneja | General Catalyst |
| 29 | Bradley Feld | Foundry Group |
| 30 | Roelof Botha | Sequoia Capital |
| 31 | Michael Maples Jr. | Floodgate |
| 32 | Scott Sandell | New Enterprise Associates |
| 33 | Ping Li | Accel |
| 34 | Mike Volpi | Index Ventures |
| 35 | Eric Paley | Founder Collective |
| 36 | Byron Deeter | Bessemer Venture Partners |
| 37 | Rich Wong | Accel |
| 38 | Randy Glein | DFJ |
| 39 | Keith Rabois | Khosla Ventures |
| 40 | Andrew Braccia | Accel |
| 41 | Shawn Carolan | Menlo Ventures |
| 42 | Joel Cutler | General Catalyst |
| 43 | Jeffrey Crowe | Norwest Venture Partners |
| 44 | Reid Hoffman | Greylock Partners |
| 45 | Jeremy Levine | Bessemer Venture Partners |
| 46 | Marc Andreessen | Andreessen Horowitz |
| 47 | Allen Zhu | GSR Ventures |
| 48 | Jon Callaghan | True Ventures |
| 49 | Carl Gordon | OrbiMed Advisors |
| 50 | Ann Miura-ko | Floodgate |
| 51 | Mamoon Hamid | Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers |
| 52 | Yuri Milner | DST Global |
| 53 | Jenny Lee | GGV Capital |
| 54 | David Chao | DCM Ventures |
| 55 | JP Gan | Qiming Venture Partners |
| 56 | Theresia Gouw | Aspect Ventures |
| 57 | Stuart Peterson | ARTIS Ventures |
| 58 | Woody Marshall | Technology Crossover Ventures |
| 59 | Hans Tung | GGV Capital |
| 60 | Chris Dixon | Andreessen Horowitz |
| 61 | Satish Dharmaraj | Redpoint Ventures |
| 62 | Rebecca Lynn | Canvas Ventures |
| 63 | Tony Florence | New Enterprise Associates |
| 64 | Jim Breyer | Breyer Capital |
| 65 | Beth Seidenberg | Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers |
| 66 | Todd Chaffee | Institutional Venture Partners |
| 67 | Kevin Comolli | Accel |
| 68 | Jeff Clavier | Uncork Capital |
| 69 | Hurst Lin | DCM Ventures |
| 70 | Joe Lonsdale | 8VC |
| 71 | Neil Rimer | Index Ventures |
| 72 | Peter Thiel | Founders Fund |
| 73 | Deven Parekh | Insight Venture Partners |
| 74 | Navin Chaddha | Mayfield Fund |
| 75 | David Pakman | Venrock |
| 76 | Jules Maltz | Institutional Venture Partners |
| 77 | Salil Deshpande | Bain Capital Ventures |
| 78 | Peter Levine | Andreessen Horowitz |
| 79 | Albert Wenger | Union Square Ventures |
| 80 | Meyer Malka | Ribbit Capital |
| 81 | Rick Heitzmann | FirstMark Capital |
| 82 | David Cowan | Bessemer Venture Partners |
| 83 | David Weiden | Khosla Ventures |
| 84 | Gaurav Garg | Wing Venture Capital |
| 85 | Tony Conrad | True Ventures |
| 86 | Jan Hammer | Index Ventures |
| 87 | Michael Dearing | Harrison Metal |
| 88 | Ryan Sweeney | Accel |
| 89 | Ann Winblad | Hummer Winblad |
| 90 | Scott Friend | Bain Capital Ventures |
| 91 | Roger Ehrenberg | IA Ventures |
| 92 | Young Guo | IDG Capital Partners |
| 93 | John Vrionis | Unusual Ventures |
| 94 | Matt McIlwain | Madrona Venture Group |
| 95 | Jixun Foo | GGV Capital |
| 96 | Aileen Lee | Cowboy Ventures |
| 97 | Rory O’Driscoll | Scale Venture Partners |
| 98 | Jonathan Silverstein | OrbiMed Advisors |
| 99 | Joshua Kushner | Thrive Capital |
| 100 | Jeffrey Lieberman | Insight Venture Partners |
| Rank | Name | Firm |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bill Gurley | Benchmark |
| 2 | Chris Sacca | Lowercase Capital |
| 3 | Jeffrey Jordan | Andreessen Horowitz |
| 4 | Alfred Lin | Sequoia Capital |
| 5 | Brian Singerman | Founders Fund |
| 6 | Ravi Mhatre | Lightspeed Venture Partners |
| 7 | Josh Kopelman | First Round Capital |
| 8 | Peter Fenton | Benchmark |
| 9 | Nanpeng (Neil) Shen | Sequoia Capital (China) |
| 10 | Steve Anderson | Baseline Ventures |
| 11 | Fred Wilson | Union Square Ventures |
| 12 | Kirsten Green | Forerunner Ventures |
| 13 | Jeremy Liew | Lightspeed Venture Partners |
| 14 | Neeraj Agrawal | Battery Ventures |
| 15 | Michael Moritz | Sequoia Capital |
| 16 | Danny Rimer | Index Ventures |
| 17 | Aydin Senkut | Felicis Ventures |
| 18 | Asheem Chandna | Greylock Partners |
| 19 | Mitch Lasky | Benchmark |
| 20 | Mary Meeker | Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers |
| 21 | Roelof Botha | Sequoia Capital |
| 22 | Peter Thiel | Founders Fund |
| 23 | Michael Maples Jr. | Floodgate |
| 24 | Nabeel Hyatt | Spark Capital |
| 25 | Rebecca Lynn | Canvas Ventures |
| 26 | Marc Andreessen | Andreessen Horowitz |
| 27 | Matt Cohler | Benchmark |
| 28 | Ping Li | Accel |
| 29 | Scott Sandell | New Enterprise Associates |
| 30 | Salil Deshpande | Bain Capital Ventures |
| 31 | David Sze | Greylock Partners |
| 32 | Ben Horowitz | Andreessen Horowitz |
| 33 | Bijan Sabet | Spark Capital |
| 34 | Jenny Lee | GGV Capital |
| 35 | Bradley Feld | Foundry Group |
| 36 | Sameer Gandhi | Accel |
| 37 | Bryan Roberts | Venrock |
| 38 | Douglas Leone | Sequoia Capital |
| 39 | Promod Haque | Norwest Venture Partners |
| 40 | Josh Stein | DFJ |
| 41 | Sandy Miller | Institutional Venture Partners |
| 42 | Carl Gordon | OrbiMed Advisors |
| 43 | Ted Schlein | Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers |
| 44 | Randy Glein | DFJ |
| 45 | Ryan Sweeney | Accel |
| 46 | Byron Deeter | Bessemer Venture Partners |
| 47 | Navin Chaddha | Mayfield Fund |
| 48 | George Zachary | CRV |
| 49 | Mike Volpi | Index Ventures |
| 50 | Michael Dearing | Harrison Metal |
| 51 | Jeremy Levine | Bessemer Venture Partners |
| 52 | Reid Hoffman | Greylock Partners |
| 53 | Hemant Taneja | General Catalyst |
| 54 | Jim Breyer | Breyer Capital |
| 55 | David Pakman | Venrock |
| 56 | Satish Dharmaraj | Redpoint Ventures |
| 57 | Yuri Milner | DST Global |
| 58 | Rich Wong | Accel |
| 59 | Stuart Peterson | Artis Ventures |
| 60 | Robert Nelsen | ARCH Venture Partners |
| 61 | Mamoon Hamid | Social Capital |
| 62 | Shervin Pishevar | Sherpa Capital |
| 63 | David Weiden | Khosla Ventures |
| 64 | Aneel Bhusri | Greylock Partners |
| 65 | Andrew Braccia | Accel |
| 66 | Jeff Clavier | Uncork Capital |
| 67 | Gordon Ritter | Emergence Capital Partners |
| 68 | Keith Rabois | Khosla Ventures |
| 69 | Matt Murphy | Menlo Ventures |
| 70 | Ann Winblad | Hummer Winblad Venture Partners |
| 71 | Jai Das | Sapphire Ventures |
| 72 | Ann Lamont | Oak HC/FT |
| 73 | Matt McIlwain | Madrona Venture Group |
| 74 | Beth Seidenberg | Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers |
| 75 | David Cowan | Bessemer Venture Partners |
| 76 | Hans Tung | GGV Capital |
| 77 | Tony Florence | New Enterprise Associates |
| 78 | Daniel Ciporin | Canaan Partners |
| 79 | Young Guo | IDG Capital Partners |
| 80 | Charles Moldow | Foundation Capital |
| 81 | Jon Callaghan | True Ventures |
| 82 | Hurst Lin | DCM Ventures |
| 83 | Jeff Crowe | Norwest Venture Partners |
| 84 | John Doerr | Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers |
| 85 | Rob Hayes | First Round Capital |
| 86 | Joel Cutler | General Catalyst Partners |
| 87 | Scott Friend | Bain Capital Ventures |
| 88 | Amish Jani | FirstMark Capital |
| 89 | Rory O’Driscoll | Scale Venture Partners |
| 90 | Bryan Schreier | Sequoia Capital |
| 91 | Gaurav Garg | Wing Venture Capital |
| 92 | David Chao | DCM Ventures |
| 93 | Jonathan Silverstein | OrbiMed Advisors |
| 94 | Joe Lonsdale | 8VC |
| 95 | Amir Nashat | Polaris Partners |
| 96 | Venky Ganesan | Menlo Ventures |
| 97 | Todd Chaffee | Institutional Venture Partners |
| 98 | Kevin Comolli | Accel |
| 99 | Woody Marshall | TCV |
| 100 | Niklas Zennström | Atomico |
SELECTION METHODOLOGY
Below are the factors considered in ranking our list of top venture capital partners:
- An investor’s exits – the frequency/volume, size, and stage of entry
- Network centrality – connectivity to other investors. Think of it as akin to Google Pagerank.
- Consistency – stage, industry consistency of investments
- Illiquid portfolio company value – frequency, size and stage of entry in high value (but un-exited companies). Given relatively less weight as these are paper valuations
- Recency of performance – Our focus was on these metrics since 2010. As a result, we didn’t give a lot of credit to those who made glorious picks in the 80s, 90s, or early 2000s. This is a ranking of today’s best VCs — not the best VCs in history.
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