Every investor wants to back a unicorn. We look at who has the most unicorns in their portfolios and the investors best at placing early-stage bets on companies now worth $1B+.
There are currently 750+ private unicorn companies valued at $1B+ — all featured on CB Insights’ real-time global unicorn tracker.
Over the years, some 3,600+ investors have backed these unicorns. While the vast majority (67%) of unicorn investors have only invested in one unicorn company, there are some investors who have pulled away from the group, backing 10, 20, and even 100+ unicorn companies.
Using CB Insights data, we look at which investors have backed the most unicorns — and which are in the best position to see big returns from an exit.
In this report, we cover:
- The top unicorn investors and their most highly valued portfolio companies
- Geographic trends
- The early-stage investors getting in on the ground floor
- The most efficient unicorn investors
Note: Data is as of Q2’21.
The world’s top unicorn investors
The top unicorn investors, based on the total number of current unicorns they’ve invested in, are:
- Tiger Global Management
- SoftBank Group
- Coatue Management
- Tencent Holdings
- Sequoia Capital China
- Accel
- Sequoia Capital
- Andreessen Horowitz
- DST Global
- Insight Partners
- Fidelity Investments
US-based Tiger Global Management has the most current unicorn companies in its portfolio, with more than 120 current unicorns backed.
Japan-based SoftBank Group comes in second place, backing 77 unicorns, followed by Coatue Management, with 61.
Over 350 institutional investors boast at least 5 unicorns in their portfolios.
Among unicorn portfolio companies, Instacart has been backed by the most top 10 unicorn investors, with 6 investing in the company: Tiger Global Management, Coatue Management, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, DST Global, and Fidelity Investments.
The grocery delivery app joined the unicorn club with a $2B valuation in 2014 and was most recently valued at $39B in March 2021.
Stripe has been backed by 5 of these top investors, while ByteDance (valued at $140B, making it the world’s most valuable unicorn), Checkout.com, Chehaoduo, Databricks, Fanatics, and Nubank have all attracted investment from 4.
For more on top unicorn investor trends, download the full report.
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