21 Top Venture Capital Firms in the World (2024 Updated)

A large majority of successful startups have been backed by venture capital firms.

1000s of businesses looking to raise capital, as well as top-tier VC firms around the world trust and use FirmRoom to efficiently manage and collaborate on sensitive company information.

And speaking of top-tier VC firms, in this article, we'll be highlighting the top 21 firms in the industry, so you can find the perfect partner to help take your business to the next level.

What is Venture Capital?

Venture capital is funding provided to startup companies, small businesses, and entrepreneurs that are believed to have growth potential. Funding can be provided at any stage of company development, but commonly involves early and seed round funding. Venture capital is pooled from individual investors into a venture fund and then invested based on the fund’s strategy.  

How Venture Capital Works

Raising venture capital starts with submitting a business plan to an investor or a venture capital firm. If interested, the venture capital firm must perform due diligence on the company. After completing due diligence, the firm will give the company capital, and receive equity in return. 

This is why whoever is receiving the funds must ensure that there is a steady plan for growth. These funds may be provided all at once, but are generally provided in rounds. The firm then takes an active role in the funded company, advising and monitoring its progress before releasing additional funds.

These funds are provided typically by large investment institutions such as superannuation funds or investment banks. After a period of time, generally four to six years, the investor exits the company by initiating a merger, acquisition, or IPO. 

1. Andreessen Horowitz

Andreessen Horowitz is a venture capital firm founded and located in Silicon Valley, CA by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. It is also known as “a16z.”

They specialize in technology companies including biotechnology, healthcare, consumer, crypto, enterprise, fintech, games, and more. This firm is led by general partners who have experience as either founders or CEOs of successful technology companies across those fields.

They also have a network of experts including technical and executive talent, media and marketing resources, Fortune 500 companies, and other key opinion leaders.

AUM: $35B

Location (HQ): Menlo Park, CA 

Notable Deals: Okta; Lyft; PagerDuty; Pinterest; Slack; Accolade; DigitalOcean; Coinbase. 

Company Stages Specialized In: Seed; Venture; Late-Stage 

2. Sequoia Capital 

Sequoia Capital is made up of a small team based in Menlo Park, CA. They started five decades ago, and have created a name for themselves by starting their work with companies before they exist, from only the idea phase. One thing that sets them apart is that they do not participate in the exit strategy like other venture capital firms; they stay on as partners for the long term. They specialize in working with nonprofits, such as hospitals and charity organizations, as well as technology companies. Their limited partner base allows them to spend individualized time with each company they work with.   

AUM: $28B

Location (HQ): Menlo Park, CA 

Notable Deals: Apple; Atari; Cisco; Google; Instagram; Airbnb; Stripe; Ford Foundation; Boston Children’s Hospital.

Company Stages Specialized In: Seed; Early; Growth 

3. Dragoneer Investment Group

Dragoneer Investment Group is a growth-oriented investment firm backed by global endowments, foundations, sovereign wealth funds, and family offices. They focus on technology-enabled, generational growth businesses and supporting them throughout the growth stages of their journeys. Their specialties are working with businesses on the verge of IPO and getting them to that next stage in the public market. Dragoneer has an expansive network and a great deal of experience working in the technology sphere. In the private market, they utilize methods such as secondary stock sales or convertible debt notes rather than using the traditional fundraising method. 

AUM: $24B

Location (HQ): San Francisco, CA

Notable Deals: Alibaba; Appfolio; Atlassian; Datadog; Slack; Spotify; Uber; Strava; Klarna; Chime; Databricks; Glassdoor; Discord; DoorDash 

Company Stages Specialized In: Growth; IPO

4. New Enterprise Associates 

New Enterprise Associates is headquartered in Chevy Chase, MD with offices also located in San Francisco and New York. They are a global venture capital firm, meaning that they focus on companies that are looking to expand globally or are looking for global innovation solutions.

Their team of Venture Partners is made up of successful business leaders in the technology industry, creating a wide network of partners. The industries that they focus on are technology, including enterprise and consumer technology, software, security, fintech, e-commerce, and media, as well as healthcare, including life sciences and digital health.

Companies that they have worked with have worked towards medical innovations such as balloon angioplasty and laparoscopic surgery. 

AUM: $17B

Location (HQ): Chevy Chase, MD 

Notable Deals: Databricks; Genies; Strive Health; Black Diamond Therapeutics; Robinhood; Aetion; Cloudflare; Trillium Therapeutics; Instabase 

Company Stages Specialized In: Seed; Early Stage; Market Growth 

5. Deerfield Management 

Deerfield Management is a venture capital firm headquartered in New York, NY that works primarily within the healthcare ecosystem. They provide a variety of funding models, including growth capital, venture capital, R&D Financing, start-up capital, drug discovery and development, corporate acquisition, product acquisition, R&D Capital, and refinancing. They also operate the Deerfield Foundation, a New York City based nonprofit that works in improving health by forming partnerships invested in the advancement of children’s health globally. As partners, they work with companies in research and teaching as well. 

AUM: $16B

Location (HQ): New York, NY 

Notable Deals: Akari Therapeutics; ZymoGenetics; Stelexis Therapeutics; ISTA Pharmaceuticals; Exelixis; Children’s Health Fund

Company Stages Specialized In: Early; Growth; Late 

6. Khosla Ventures 

Khosla Ventures, based in Menlo Park, CA, focuses on technology solutions and business model innovations that they deem to be unusual, different, or filling a space that is lacking in the global market. They seek out proprietary and protected technological advances, as well as ones that exceed expectations in terms of impact and predictability. The investments that they choose to invest in are ones that can change the dynamics of large markets operating on a rapid innovation cycle. However, they do not invest in companies that are high risk and attempt to remove both technology and business risks before moving forward. Their due diligence process is intense for this reason. 

AUM: $14B

Location (HQ): Menlo Park, CA 

Notable Deals: Academia.edu; Berkshire Grey; DoorDash; Faire; Hermes; Impossible Foods; Instacart; Opendoor; Square; Stripe; Vectra Networks Inc.; Velo3d 

7. Lightspeed Venture Partners 

Industry Ventures is headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, and has locations in Silicon Valley, Israel, China, India, Europe, and Southeast Asia. They pride themselves on their global experience and the international growth opportunities that they have been able to create. They focus on consumer technologies and focus on demographics that they believe adopt these technologies early. As a result, over one third of their consumer portfolio is made up of female-fronted organizations. They also provide a CIO Forum, where founders have access to executive insights and networking opportunities, as well as a Talent team offering recruiting services and matchmaking experience. Above all, they support founders and their teams on marketing and communications strategies, helping to create their image in the market, forming their brand, and planning their IPO. 

AUM: $7B

Location (HQ): Montreal, Quebec 

Notable Deals: Udaan; Rubrik; CATO Networks; Navan; Faire; ThoughtSpot; BetterUp; Carta; SnapChat; EPIC Games; Nest; GrubHub; Giphy 

Company Stages Specialized In: IPOs; Acquisitions

8. Industry Ventures 

Industry Ventures, based in San Francisco, CA, works primarily in the private tech ecosystem, managing institutional capital and using their funds to invest directly and secondarily into venture capital partnerships. They have been established for over 20 years, with 3 global office locations. They work with companies from the pre-seed stage to the pre-IPO stage. In the seed stage, they support small and emerging venture capital managers investing in other companies; i.e. a secondary investment. In the late stage, they provide liquidity directly for company shareholders and fund investors. Post venture, they sponsor small tech buyout managers with concentrated exposure through direct investments. Overall, they provide differentiated access to investments that lower the risk of the venture asset class while maintaining upside potential. 

AUM: $6B

Location (HQ): San Francisco, CA 

Notable Deals: Coupang; Facebook; Uber; DocuSign; DoorDash; Twitter; Roblox; Anaplan; DataDog; Alibaba 

Company Stages Specialized In: Pre-Seed; Early Stage; Mid Stage; Late Stage; Post Venture 

9. Kleiner Perkins 

Kleiner Perkins is a global venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley that was founded in 1972 and has since backed entrepreneurs in over 900 ventures. Since that time, they have expanded globally. They focus their efforts on the industries of computer technology and biotechnology and have made powerful investments in the early stages of the internet, including with the iPhone and with AOL. While they went through a period of expansion, in the changing climate they decided to cut back and return to more boutique roots, with a team of individuals from backgrounds in technology, operating, and investing. 

AUM: $9B

Location (HQ): Menlo Park, CA 

Notable Deals: America Online; Amazon; Tandem Computers; Compaq; JD.com; Square; Google; Netscape; Nest; Palo Alto Networks; Synack; Snap; Twitter. 

Company Stages Specialized In: Seed Stage; Early Stage; Growth 

10. Battery Ventures 

Battery Ventures is a Boston based venture capital firm founded in 1983 by Rick Frisbie, Howard Anderson, and Bob Barrett. They focus on the technology industry, specifically application software, infrastructure software, consumer technology, industrial tech, and life sciences. They provide services in business development, talent and recruiting for executive talent, marketing and communications, and growth and leadership, with ex-operators who act as mentors to CEOs. Also, they have supported the community in recent years with the Battery Foundation, focusing on innovative grants to provide for nonprofit organizations in the areas of technology education, health and wellness, jobs and economic development, and local grassroots causes. 

AUM: $3.8B

Location (HQ): Boston, MA 

Notable Deals: Groupon; GlassDoor; Guidewire; JFrog; Skullcandy; RiskIQ; Wayfair; AppDynamics; Angie’s List; Coinbase; Confluent. 

Company Stages Specialized In: Full Life Cycle 

11. Lux Capital Management 

Lux Capital Management is a New York based venture capital firm that focuses on investments in emerging technologies such as Space; Data and AI; Manufacturing; Neuroscience; Biology; Sensing; and Defense. Their team is made up of 30 professionals with technical backgrounds and a large amount of financial capital. They look for innovative ideas that may fit a need that has not yet been defined. Their background in science and experience in areas like 3D printing, machine learning, robots, and AI which are so prevalent in modern society explains their success. 

AUM: $4B 

Location (HQ): New York, NY 

Notable Deals: Runway; Anduril Industries; Tldraw; Cajal Neuroscience; Paradigm; Osmo; Thatch; Aera Therapeutics. 

Company Stages Specialized In: Seed Stage; Early Stage 

12. Greylock Partners 

Greylock Partners, founded in 1956 and located in Silicon Valley, is one of the oldest venture capital firms. It was founded in Cambridge, MA by Bill Elfers, Dan Gregory, and Charlie Waite, two of whom had experience at the American Research and Development Corporation. They focus on companies in the industries of consumer and enterprise software, such as finance; healthcare; internet; mobile; retail; systems integration; computer data; management; networking; security; storage; applications; SaaS; and wireless. They have also created a series of networking events called Communities focused on design, big data, infrastructure engineering, user growth, data science, and network security. These communities are made up of project managers, engineers, and technologists from quickly growing companies, and meet once a quarter. 

AUM: $3.5B 

Location (HQ): Silicon Valley, CA 

Notable Deals: AirBnB; AppDynamics; Coinbase; Discord; Facebook; Figma; Nextdoor; Rubrik; Workday; Roblox. 

Company Stages Specialized In: Early Stage 

13. Fifth Wall Ventures Management, LLC 

Fifth Wall is the world’s largest venture capital firm specializing in real estate technology. Based in LA, the name of the firm refers to a fifth wall of technology that it provides in addition to the four physical walls of a building. It is backed by large real estate industry companies that agree to be matched with the products and services of the firm’s portfolio of start-up companies. The firm has separate funds for investments in emerging retail brands and climate technology to help real-estate companies reduce carbon emissions from their buildings. Their goals in the future are getting carbon emissions to net zero in the real estate industry, as well as continuing to invest in technology companies that aim to solve the problems of climate change, aging buildings and infrastructure, inaccessible housing markets, unreliable supply chains, and the future of work. 

AUM: $3.2B

Location (HQ): Los Angeles, CA 

Notable Deals: Blend; ClassPass; Clutter; Doma; Hippo; Homebound; Industrious; Lime; Opendoor; SmartRent; Allbirds; Carbon38; Heyday; Madison Reed; Taft; Untuckit; Brimstone; Clarity AI; ICON; SPAN. 

Company Stages Specialized In: Early Stage; Late Stage (Post Venture) 

14. Draper Fisher Jurvetson Management 

Draper Fisher Jurvetson, based in Silicon Valley and founded in 1985, focuses its venture capital on enterprise, consumer, and innovative technologies. Starting as one firm, it has now branched into two; DFJ and Threshold Ventures. DFJ is one of the largest and most active investors in the space sector. It is made up of a few teams; investments, deal flow and startup services, and operations and finance. This provides specialized insight for companies that may need more help in one area than another. They also have separate teams for early-stage and late-stage startups, providing even more specialized advice. 

AUM: $5B

Location (HQ): Menlo Park, CA 

Notable Deals: Anaplan; Coinbase; Cylance; Ring; Sisense; SpaceX; Tesla; Twitter; Unity; Yammer; Skype. 

Company Stages Specialized In: Early Stage; Late Stage 

15. Weathergage Capital, LLC 

The name Weathergage is a sailing term referring to a favorable position relative to the wind; a ship that “has the weather gauge” has the initiative and an advantage over others. This firm is based in Austin, TX, and works closely with established venture capital fund managers with strong industry relationships; they leverage those to create a network in the venture industry and provide that for new companies. One of their strengths is their due diligence process based on investment experience and proprietary analytical tools to inform their investment decisions. They also pride themselves on their communication and transparency with investors, keeping communication open even after exit. They focus on micro-VCs, capital efficient investment opportunities with a small number of funds. 

AUM: $2B

Location (HQ): Austin, TX 

Notable Deals: Casper; Origins; Both Sides; CataWiki; SpaceX; theTradeDesk; Uber; Strictly VC

Company Stages Specialized In: Seed Stage; Early Stage 

16. Blockchain Capital 

Blockchain Capital, based in San Francisco, is a venture capital firm formed in part by the chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation. They are one of the most active and oldest investors in blockchain technology, pioneering the world’s first tokenized investment fund and the blockchain industry’s first security token. In an industry that can be turbulent, they take a risk-adjusted approach and invest across stages, geographies, and asset types. They also take part in the venture model itself, working with over 160 companies and entrepreneurs in the blockchain sector. 

AUM: $2B

Location (HQ): San Francisco, CA 

Notable Deals: Ripple; Ethereum; Coinbase; Anchorage Digital; Kraken; OpenSea; TRM; AAVE

Company Stages Specialized In: Pre-Seed Stage; Late Stage 

17. Linse Capital 

Linse Capital is also based in Menlo Park, CA, and focuses on the technology industry, in sectors such as transportation, energy, logistics, and real estate. They work with only a few companies, but provide them with large capital commitments. Companies they seek to work with work in areas such as electric vehicles, autonomous vehicles, air mobility, robotics, warehouse automation, renewable energy, energy efficiency, and space. Their approach is tailored to what each company may need. Further, they work on the capital raising side as well and buy secondary shares to offer certain shareholders liquidity. 

AUM: $2B

Location (HQ): Menlo Park, CA 

Notable Deals: CharePoint; Redaptive; Skydio; Valens; Verkada. 

Company Stages Specialized In: Full Life Cycle 

18. Cendana Capital 

Cendana Capital is located in San Francisco, CA. They are a venture capital firm that invests in venture investments themselves. They have around 23 employees and maintain a small network with a large amount of capital invested in each. Cendana is split into three focus areas; seed stage managers, pre-seed managers; and international managers in cities where seed-stage startups can now reliably find follow-on financial support. 

AUM: $1.2B 

Location (HQ): San Francisco, CA 

Notable Deals: US Seed; Accelerator Ventures; Bowery Capital; Cake Ventures; Dynamo Ventures; L2 Ventures; Moxie Ventures; Neo; NextView Ventures; Uncork VC; Wave Capital; Bolt VC; Mucker Capital; Blackbird Ventures; ChinaRock Capital Management; Golden Ventures; Moonfire. 

Company Stages Specialized In: Seed Stage; Early Stage 

19. Base10 Partners 

Base10, based in San Francisco, CA, is a technology investment firm focusing their investments on companies who solve problems that affect the majority of people every day. They have a strong focus on charity, and donate 50% of their gain to create scholarships for underrepresented students. Their team is made up of founders who have raised collectively over $3B in returns. Base10 focuses on research, and has a great deal of market knowledge that leads to smarter investments and an efficient due diligence process. Their main goal is to automate the real economy, making technology accessible to the masses. 

AUM: $1.3B

Location (HQ): San Francisco, CA 

Notable Deals: Nu; Plaid; Brex; Popmenu; Instacard; All Day Kitchens; Olive; Pill Club; Figma; CircleCi 

Company Stages Specialized In: Early Stage; Seed; Venture 

20. Samsara BioCapital 

Samsara BioCapital is a Palo Alto based venture capital firm founded after years of working in the medical field and investment industry. They provide fundraising and networking guidance, as well as industry knowledge, to create success for the companies they work with. They focus their efforts on the medical and biotechnical industries, and work with a patient-focused approach to guide their decisions and the due diligence process. They include scientists and co-investors as a part of their team, which helps in the development of innovative technologies that will have an impact on unmet medical needs. 

AUM: $1.1B

Location (HQ): Palo Alto, CA 

Notable Deals: A2 Biotherapeutics; Abcuro; ArcellX; Autobahn and Autobahn Labs; Bionic Sight; Bolt Biotherapeutics; Delfi; eGenesis; Flame Biosciences; Forma Therapeutics; Intercept; Nalo Therapeutics; Neurogene; Omniox; Velicept Therapeutics 

Company Stages Specialized In: Full Risk Cycle 

21. Playground Global LLC 

Playground Global, based in Palo Alto, CA, is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in deep tech and assists startups with software, hardware, machine learning, marketing, talent, and design. They offer support with engineering, distribution, manufacturing, and financing in exchange for equity. Unlike other venture capital firms, they make riskier investments by putting money into startups focused on deep technologies that may take longer to reach their potential and become transformative. Their team is made up of engineers and scientists who evaluate the technologies during the due diligence process. They provide early and late stage capital when companies are getting off the ground. 

AUM: $850M

Location (HQ): Palo Alto, CA 

Notable Deals: Google; HP; Foxconn; Redpoint Ventures; Seagate Technology; Tencent; FarmWise; Relativity Space; RapidSOS; Owl Labs; Nervana Systems; Canvas; Fabric; Lacuna Technologies; MosaicML; Saltbox; Ultima Genomics 

Company Stages Specialized In: Early Stage 

Conclusion 

The 21 VC firms we've highlighted in this article are among the most successful and influential in the industry, and working with them can be a game-changing experience for any business.