Entrepreneurs and emerging startups rely heavily on venture capitalists to obtain funding to pursue their goals in an ever-changing business environment. A venture capitalist can be described as a private equity investor who offers ‘funding’ to up-and-coming businesses showing excellent growth potential in exchange for an equity stake in the company. Venture capitalists fund startup ventures as well as small companies that do not have enough access to equities markets. The primary reason why venture capitalists risk investing in the unknown is because of the possibilities that come to the fore if these businesses turn out to be successful.
Entrepreneurs should be aware of what exactly venture capitalists look for when they choose to make an investment. For starters, venture capitalists look for a solid management team, a big potential market, and uniqueness in the product or service, which can also provide a mighty competitive advantage. Venture capitalists are also attracted to opportunities that allow them to acquire a large stake in a company early on so that they can manage its direction and growth in the market.
Venture capitalists surely have a keen eye for identifying high potential and capitalizing on it, which is why some of the top venture capitalists are extremely rich. Here are some of 2020’s top-most venture capitalists who have found success.
Top venture capitalists
1. Neil Shen
Neil Shen is currently the most valuable venture capitalist in the world, with a net worth of $1.6 Billion. He is best known as the founding and managing partner of Sequoia Capital China. His latest notable deal with TikTok parent company ByteDance brings him to the top of the list.
2. Andrew Braccia
Andrew Braccia has plenty of experience in the world of venture capital and has his name attached to well-known businesses like Anchor, Cornershop, HotelTonight, and PagerDuty. His latest win came due to the direct listing of Slack, which secured a market capitalization of $19.5 Billion when it went public in June 2019. Braccia, as a member of Slack’s board of directors, led the first investment round, and either led or co-led every following round.
3. Roelof Botha
Next on the list is Roelof Botha, Sequoia Capital’s U.S. practice lead. Botha has a lot of interest in Genetics, given his investments in 23andMe, Pendulum Therapeutics, and BridgeBio, the latter of which was named 2019’s biggest biotech IPO when it went public last year. He also has big investments in other ventures like Unity Technologies, a game development software maker, and Bird, a scooter startup.
4. Ben Horowitz
As the co-founder of Andreesen Horowitz, this venture capitalist made heavy profits last year when Lyft, the ride-sharing app, went public. Horowitz also has investments in other big names like Okta, Databricks, Foursquare, Medium, and TripActions. Recently, due to the outbreak of COVID-19, shares in Lyft and TripActions have plummeted, leaving Horowitz in a tough place.
5. Navin Chaddha
Navin Chaddha has been a well-known top venture capitalist for several years now, but his placing on this list comes after his profitable investments with Lyft and CloudSimple, both of which went public last year with an evaluation of $24.3 Billion and $350 Million respectively. Chaddha doesn’t have a specific field of interest and chooses to place his trust in the quality of a company’s team.
6. Richard Liu
This Shanghai-based venture capitalist has witnessed the most growth this year, thanks to his investment in Xiaomi, which has a $30 Billion market cap as of April 2020. Being General Partner at Morningside Venture Capital, his other investments include companies like Agora.io, Xpeng, Horizon Robotics, and several more.
7. Bill Gurley
Bill Gurley led a Series A in Uber, the ride-hailing app, way back in 2011. At the time, Gurley’s firm Benchmark had a massive $6 Billion stake in the company. A few years later, the company was privately valued at $76 Billion, and Gurley got his fair share of the deal. Other exits like Glassdoor and Sailthru, as well as acquisitions of Vessel, DogVacay, and Brighter, has brought him to this position on the list.
8. Mary Meeker
As General Partner at Bond Capital, Mary Meeker led the organization to raise $1.25 Billion in capital commitments in the year 2019. Meeker is known for placing smart bets on Instacart, Airbnb, Slack, Houzz, Square, Facebook, and Twitter. She is also the creator of a popular Internet Trends report, which receives several accolades from all of Silicon Valley when she releases it each spring. Her most notable deal in the recent past is with Spotify.
9. Eric Paley
As managing partner at Founder Collective, Eric Paley earned his name when his company gave in to a seed investment at Uber. His success can be attributed to exits from CoverWallet, Integral Ad Science, Hotel Tonight, Cruise Automation, and The Trade Desk. He has follow-on funding in a wide variety of companies, such as Airtable, Desktop Metal, ThredUp, and more.
10. Hans Tung
Hans Tung is Managing Partner at GGV Capital and is known for his rare international investments. His major investments include Slack, Peloton, and Xiaomi. A partial exit from the valuable ByteDance also adds to his portfolio. His organization has several other investments in several countries around the world and is currently placing bets on the food production and delivery industry.
To conclude
These venture capitalists have made it to the list of the top 10 investors as of early 2020, but due to the complications surrounding the COVID-19 outbreak, several shares have dropped in markets all over. The world has to wait and watch to see which businesses pick up during these unprecedented times and which have to be left behind.
