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10 Venture Capital Investors That Every Entrepreneur Should Be Pitching Right Now

Alejandro Cremades

The most important factor in a successful funding round and a prosperous investor relationship is knowing who to present your pitch deck to and when. In this regard, I recently covered the pitch deck template that was created by Silicon Valley legend and VC, Peter Thiel (see it here), where the most critical slides are highlighted. Moreover, I also provided a commentary on a pitch deck from an Uber competitor that has raised over $400M (see it here)

New data reveals who the active VCs are now, and who might be the best investors to pitch with your deck. The data shows that deals funded in the first half of 2018 have already blown through the entire annual investment volumes of 2002 to 2016. $175B in global VC deals were inked in the first two quarters of this year, suggesting 2018’s total volume will easily exceed the $212B funded last year. That suggests there is plenty of money out there, from plenty of hungry investors.

The most dollars are going into late stage startups, followed by early stage funding, then funding for technology growth and angel or seed series rounds.

Now find out who is handing out the cash…

Active Lead Investors

You don’t need to know or pitch all your potential investors for a round upfront. Once you’ve landed a key lead investor, others will be sure to want to follow suit.

According to data from Crunchbase on investments made in Q2 2018, here are the 10 most active lead investors. 

  1. Start-Up Chile
  2. Insight Venture Partners
  3. Tencent Holdings
  4. New Enterprise Associates
  5. Sequoia Capital China
  6. Accel
  7. Sequoia Capital
  8. Higher Ground Labs
  9. Quake Capital Partners
  10. Goldman Sachs

Most Active Seed Stage Investors

As described in my book, The Art of Startup Fundraising, whenever you are pitching, you want to be sure you are reaching those who are most likely to fund your type of round. According to Crunchbase, these were the most active investors in seed rounds during the past 3 months. 

  1. Startup-Chile
  2. Hiventures
  3. Crowdcube
  4. Plug and Play
  5. Innovation Works
  6. 500 Startups
  7. Innova Memphis
  8. Entrepreneurs Roundtable
  9. Berkeley SkyDeck Fund
  10. Quake Capital Partners

Top Early Stage Investors

If you are raising an early stage round, consider these active players: 

  1. IDG Capital
  2. New Enterprise Associates
  3. Sequoia Capital China
  4. Accel
  5. Y Combinator
  6. ZhenFund
  7. Sequoia Capital
  8. Matrix Partners China
  9. Intel Capital
  10. Index Ventures

Most Active Late Stage Investors in 2018 

If you are looking to raise a Series B or anything above for a growth stage round you may want to tap into the following firms:

  1. Sequoia Capital
  2. Tencent Holdings
  3. Insight Venture Partners
  4. Bpifrance
  5. Goldman Sachs
  6. Bessemer Venture Partners
  7. New Enterprise Associates
  8. Khosla Ventures
  9. Andreessen Horowitz
  10. Sequoia Capital China


Who Has the Money Now?

When strategizing who you will pitch, it is not only worth looking at who has recently been active in putting money into deals, but who is achieving successful exits, and may now be flush with capital and bullish on reinvesting some of those gains.

Recent notable acquisitions include Walmart’s buy of Flipkart for $16B, Microfost’s purchase of GitHub, PayPal’s acquisition of iZettle and Amazon’s PillPack buy. Spotify and Docusign went IPO in Q2 2018. Expect even more IPOs ahead.

Factors to Consider in Choosing Who to Pitch

Connecting with potential investors, presenting and attending meetings takes up precious time that could be used to work on and push your business forward. Getting funded can help to make big leaps in growth, but it is still a task that should be approached efficiently. As an entrepreneur, your biggest resource is time.

The data above may reveal the willingness of different venture capital firms to get involved at different series of funding, and at different positions within each of those fundraising rounds. Data on exits and fundraising by these firms can also be useful for gauging who has the liquidity and sense of urgency to act quickly in the months ahead as well.

It is smart to know which potential angel and venture capital firm investors are most likely to place capital into your industry. Have they shown interest in your type of business, product category, or size of deal you are offering? Have they been successful in it? Was it a good experience for them? Could your venture help compliment other recent investments they’ve made?

Knowing if they are likely to stay in the game and follow up with more capital in your next fundraising round can be valuable too. That could dramatically reduce the time and effort you have to make next time.

Perhaps even more importantly, are they a good fit for you? Remember that money is just one reason to venture down this path. It’s only one of the benefits of these relationships. Ask yourself how they can help beyond the money. What is their history of relationships with the startups and CEOs they’ve funded in the past? Is there alignment in goals, values, timelines and the terms they likely to offer?


Funding for startups is plentiful in the current economy. New record amounts of investment are being made, and by a diverse range of investors. Knowing who these active investors are may help shorten the time it takes to get funded, while providing more efficiency in the process. Do your homework, learn who your ideal investors are, and design a powerful pitch deck that gets their attention, and closes the deal faster.

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