Welcome to Venture Capital Journal’s VCJ 50 ranking, showcasing the world’s leading VC firms.
VCJ 50 | OVERVIEW
The downturn in fundraising has been difficult on smaller and less established firms, and the biggest venture capital fundraisers have faced this challenge. It’s a noteworthy takeaway from 2024’s VCJ 50, Venture Capital Journal’s list of the 50 largest VC fundraisers based on the amount of direct investment capital raised during the last five years (January 1, 2019, to December 31, 2023). This fifth annual ranking is just our second to focus on capital raised for seed-, early- and multi-stage deals and doesn’t include capital raised for growth deals.
The 2024 participants raised a combined $186.7 billion, which is a 2 percent increase from the $183.1 billion raised during the period that preceded it (January 1, 2018, to March 31, 2023). Even so, a close look at 2024’s VCJ 50 shows over half of the firms reported that their five-year totals decreased or were about the same as the totals for the preceding period.
INSIDE THE VCJ 50
TOP 10 VENTURE CAPITAL FIRMS
| Rank | Firm | Headquarters | Capital raised ($bn) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Andreessen Horowitz | Menlo Park | 17.41 |
| 2 | General Catalyst Partners | Cambridge | 8.21 |
| 3 | Bessemer Venture Partners | Redwood City | 7.87 |
| 4 | Qiming Venture Partners | Shanghai | 6.90 |
| 5 | New Enterprise Associates | Menlo Park | 6.80 |
| 6 | ARCH Ventures Partners | Chicago | 6.38 |
| 7 | Index Ventures | Geneva | 5.40 |
| 8 | Flagship Pioneering | Cambridge | 5.29 |
| 9 | B Capital Group | Manhattan Beach | 5.19 |
| 10 | Sapphire Ventures | Austin | 4.87 |
VCJ 50 | AN INTERACTIVE LOOK
LATEST HEADLINES
VCJ 50 | METHODOLOGY
The 2024 VCJ 50 is based on the amount of direct investment capital raised by firms for the purpose of investing in seed-, early- and multi-stage deals (but excluding growth deals). The capital must be used for investment in companies that are unprofitable at the time of investment. For this fifth annual tabulation, we counted capital raised for funds that closed between January 1, 2019, and December 31, 2023. This is a departure from our previous ranking, when the counting period ran from January 1, 2018 to March 31, 2023.
Limited partnerships, co-investment funds, separate accounts, capital raised by VC firms that are publicly traded, and seed capital for GP commitment across seed, early-, late- and multi-stage strategies, but excluding growth funds.
Definitions
“Venture capital” is defined as capital raised for a dedicated program of investing directly into private businesses. Capital raised definitively means capital committed to a venture capital direct investment program. “Fundraising” means a fund has had a final or official interim close between January 1, 2019 and December 31, 2023, as well as capital raised for funds that were in market at the end of the counting period, even if no official interim close was held but actual commitments by LPs were made. Capital raised through co-investment vehicles and separate accounts are also included.
Expected capital commitments, public funds, capital raised from retail investors, contributions from sponsoring entities, capital raised for funds of funds, secondaries vehicles, real assets funds, debt funds (including mezzanine funds), hedge funds, capital raised on a deal-by-deal basis, leverage and PIPEs.
The VCJ 50 is not a performance ranking. It calculates VC fund managers’ success in attracting LP capital for dedicated venture capital funds, but it does not measure how successful GPs are in generating returns for their LPs.
The R&A department of Venture Capital Journal conducted extensive primary and secondary research to obtain the data. Where it was unable to obtain primary information relevant to the ranking, R&A confirmed information via publicly available sources, such as SEC filings, LP documents and press releases.
Firms do not pay to be included in the VCJ 50, and participation in the ranking does not increase the likelihood of a higher placement on the list.
VCJ 50 | PREVIOUS RANKINGS
OTHER RANKINGS
In addition to the VCJ 50, our sister titles also produce their own industry rankings covering private equity, infrastructure investing and private debt.
To view the latest rankings from PERE, Private Equity International, Infrastructure Investor and Private Debt Investor, simply navigate through the sections below:
