The Midas List Europe 2023

The Midas List is the annual ranking by Forbes magazine, in partnership with TrueBridge Capital Partners, of the most influential and best-performing venture capital investors. The Midas List is compiled based on criteria that encompass the market capitalisation at IPO debut and the insights from a panel of expert evaluators.

So, who made the cut this year?

Based on the rankings of the Midas List, here are the top 25 venture capital investors:

Aviv Eyal, Entrée Capital

2023 marks the second year that Eyal has appeared on the international Midas List. His most notable deal has been the site Monday.com, but other successful exits include Coupang and Cazoo.

Danny Rimer, Index Ventures

Rimer has championed creative ventures through investments in companies like Etsy, Patreon, and particularly Figma, which is targeted for a $20 billion acquisition by Adobe. His portfolio also includes significant investments in firms such as Dropbox, Discord, Farfetch, and Glossier.

Phillipe Botteri, Accel

Key investments in Botteri’s portfolio feature DocuSign, which went public in 2018; fintech company Melio, currently valued at $4 billion; developer security firm Snyk, with a valuation of $7.4 billion; and Chainalysis, valued at $8.6 billion.

Jan Hammer, Index Ventures

Hammer notably invested early in Robinhood as a seed investor, stepping in after the company faced rejection from over 70 investors. His investment portfolio includes Wise, an international money transfer provider that had a direct listing in 2021, SafetyCulture, an operations management application, and Capitolis, an app aimed at streamlining capital markets.

Tom Stafford, DST Global

This is Stafford’s sixth appearance on the European Midas List. The investor spearheaded the Series D funding round for Nubank in 2016, which subsequently went public in 2021 with a valuation of $41 billion. He also led the 2016 investment in fintech Klarna, recently valued at $6.7 billion, and co-led the Series A funding for Checkout.com, a payments provider now valued at $9 billion. He was also an early investor in Facebook and Twitter.

Pawel Chudzinski, Point Nine

2023 marks Chudzinski’s fifth return to the Midas List Europe. Chudzinski, as the lead partner at Point Nine, oversees the majority of the firm's investments in crypto, financial services, and marketplaces. This includes Delivery Hero, which went public in 2017, and the digital bank Revolut, currently valued at $33 billion. He has also invested in Mambu, a banking technology provider, Chainalysis, a crypto investigation tool, and Tenderly, a Web3 development platform.

Laurel Bowden, 83North

The acquisition of Wolt by Doordash for $10 billion in 2021, PayPal's takeover of iZettle for $2.2 billion in 2018, and the $1 billion fundraising by German firm Celonis at an $11 billion valuation have all contributed to securing Bowden's prominent position on the list.

Neil Rimer, Index Ventures

In 1996, Neil Rimer co-founded Index Ventures with his brother David, and co-founder Giuseppe Zocco. Rimer's inclusion on the Midas List Europe was bolstered by investments in companies such as Roblox, which went public in 2021, Funding Circle with its 2018 IPO, and Stack Exchange, which was acquired in 2021.

Gili Raanan, Cyberstarts

Raanan’s most significant transaction comprises of Wiz, a cloud security application that grew its annual recurring revenue from $1 million to $100 million in just over a year and a half. Raanan has been a primary investor and mentor for more than 20 companies, such as Wiz, Fireblocks, Armis, Moovit, Island, and Noname.

Luciana Lixandru, Sequoia Capital

Lixandru led the Series A funding for UiPath, a software company based in Bucharest, which had its public debut in February 2021. At its IPO, UiPath reached a valuation of $35 billion, ranking it among the largest in Europe's history. Her other prominent investments include the food delivery service Deliveroo, the accounting platform Pennylane, and the digital whiteboard application Miro, valued at $17.5 billion.

Gil Dibner, Angular Ventures

Gil Dibner's rise on the Midas List Europe is credited to a series of successful investments, especially in JFrog, a developer-centric software firm that went public in September 2020 with a valuation of $6.3 billion. Dibner played a key role in the early investment rounds of Snyk, valued at $7.4 billion in 2022, Firebolt, a cloud data warehouse with a $1.4 billion valuation in 2022, and Aquant, a service intelligence provider.

Filip Dames, Cherry Ventures

Filip Dames, a founder who turned to investing, makes a consecutive appearance on the Midas List Europe, driven by the achievements of Cherry Ventures. In January 2022, Cherry Ventures launched a new fund of $340 million, with plans to invest primarily in its existing portfolio that boasts nine unicorn companies. The standout in this portfolio is Auto1, which debuted on the Frankfurt stock exchange in February 2021 with a valuation of $2.2 billion. Recent additions to Dames' investment portfolio include startup Moss and the medical learning application Amboss.

Michael Eisenberg, Aleph

Eisenberg served as a general partner at Benchmark and is known for his investment in WeWork. His most significant successes include the payments startup Melio, which reached a valuation of $4 billion in September 2021, and Honeybook, a fintech solution for small and medium-sized businesses that achieved a valuation of $2.4 billion two months later.

Michiel Kotting, Northzone

Michiel Kotting's standout transaction involves the German HR software company Personio, which reached a valuation of $8.5 billion following a funding round in June 2022. He has also made successful investments in Germany, such as in the e-scooter startup Tier, valued at $2 billion in 2021, and the logistics company Forto, valued at $2.1 billion in 2022.

Eileen Burbidge, Passion Capital

Burbidge's most significant investment was a $2.5 million pre-seed funding in Monzo, which is currently valued at $4.6 billion. Burbidge also serves as the executive director of the fertility startup Fertifa.

Rahul Mehta, DST Global

One of Mehta's most prominent investments was in GoTo Group, a ride-share and delivery app that went public in Indonesia in 2022. This marked Mehta's eighth venture to achieve a valuation of over $10 billion. He fronted three successive funding rounds for DoorDash, which boasts a market capitalisation of $37.8 billion as of November 2023. In 2017, he invested in the investment app Robinhood, now valued at $7.35 billion.

Matt Miller, Sequoia Capital

Miller's most significant investment is in the cloud company Confluent, which debuted publicly in June 2021 with a valuation of $11 billion. His portfolio also features other noteworthy investments, such as data infrastructure firm Dbt Labs, and AI chip manufacturer Graphcore.

Carlos Eduardo Espinal, Seedcamp

Seedcamp has garnered recognition for its early-stage investments in European tech heavyweights like Wise (formerly TransferWise) and UiPath. In 2022, its portfolio companies Grover, and Viz.ai, both achieved unicorn status.

Sonali De Rycker, Accel

Sonali De Rycker has consistently featured on the Midas List Europe since 2017, primarily due to her 2011 investment in the music streaming giant Spotify. Her current investment portfolio boasts significant holdings, including the digital health platform Kry, valued at $2 billion, Monzo with a valuation of $4.5 billion, and the freight forwarder startup Sennder, valued at $1 billion.

Harry Nelis, Accel

Nelis continues to reap the rewards of Accel's first-round investment into business automation software Celonis. In 2022, he made investments in Gravity Sketch, a 3D design tool, and Super Payments, a fintech startup focused on online shopping.

Johan Brenner, Creandum

Brenner supported Trade Republic, a Berlin-based mobile-first trading platform, which has raised $1.2 billion to date and is currently valued at $5.3 billion. His other significant investments include the Swedish fintech Klarna, and iZettle, which was acquired by PayPal for $2.2 billion in 2018.

Hussein Kanji, Hoxton Ventures

Kanji has invested in roughly 40 startups, including three British unicorns: Darktrace, an AI cybersecurity startup valued at $2.9 billion, Deliveroo, a food delivery startup worth $2.6 billion, and Babylon Health. Additionally, he has led seed rounds for startups such as Really Clever, a mushroom leather company, Finesse, an AI fashion startup, and TourRadar, an online tour booking platform.

Klaus Hommels, Lakestar

Hommels has made early investments in major global players like Facebook, Airbnb, Zoom, Coinbase, and the card reader company SumUp. He has also invested in the digital bank Revolut, currently valued at $33 billion. His portfolio includes notable companies such as Skype and Spotify.

Christian Meermann, Cherry Ventures

Meerman's standout investment is in the bus booking platform Flixbus, now valued at $3 billion and the recent acquirer of Greyhound Lines. His portfolio also features prominent investments like the German drink delivery startup Flaschenpost, and Forto, a digital logistics company valued at $2.1 billion.

Christoph Janz, Point Nine

Janz’s most significant transaction involved a 2017 investment of around $1 million in the video recording tool Loom, which was acquired by the software company Atlassian for $975 million in 2023. The first deal of this German investor was an angel investment in Zendesk, which was later acquired by an investor group led by the private equity firms Hellman & Friedman and Permira for $10.2 billion.