Most Active US Investors: Andreessen Horowitz, SOSV Top September List

This is a monthly feature that runs down some of the most active investors in U.S.-based companies, looks at some of their most interesting investments, and includes some odds and ends of who spent what. Read last month’s entry here.

September saw a familiar name top the list of most active U.S. investors as Andreessen Horowitz took the mantle.

However, once again no single investor really dominated the list. Only a16z made more than a dozen investments, and human and planetary health investor SOSV was the only other firm to hit double digits.

The numbers are not that different from September 2022. At that time, the venture market was well into its lull and only about a half-dozen firms announced 10 or more deals apiece.

Let’s take a look at which firms did the most in fall’s first month:

Andreessen Horowitz, 14 deals

Andreessen Horowitz last month posted its biggest investment month since March. After a slow July and August where the noted firm took part in only eight deals total in two months, it jumped back above double digits.

Not surprisingly, some of the rounds the firm took part in were quite large, AI-related raises. Those included participating in the massive $500 million Series I raise for AI-enhanced data analytics provider Databricks, as well as co-leading — along with Nvidia‘s NVentures — Palo Alto, California-based biotech startup Inceptive’s $100 million round. Inceptive aims to use artificial intelligence to discover vaccines and therapeutics.

SOSV, 11 deals

Similar to Andreessen Horowitz, SOSV had its biggest investment month also since March.

However, that’s where the similarities end. SOSV does not lead large rounds the way Andreessen Horowitz does. Instead, most of the rounds SOSV took part in were seed rounds and convertible notes of undisclosed amounts.

That’s not to say the firm doesn’t invest in interesting startups. Its deals include New York-based Calder Biosciences, which is creating next-generation vaccines to protect against infection, and Rantoul, Illinois-based Earnest Agriculture, which creates microbial products for better plant yields.

Khosla Ventures and Gaingels, 8 deals

Khosla Ventures and Vermont-based Gaingels seem to be headed in different directions of late.

The eight deals announced last week were the most deals Menlo Park, California-based Khosla has done with U.S.-based startups since May 2022. However, the firm did announce six deals in July and seven deals in August (and made this list), so it seems to be doing more in the U.S.

Last month, that included taking part in a $52 million round for Oakland, California-based 3D printing construction startup Mighty Buildings.

Gaingels, on the other hand, used to be a regular on this list but has slowed its investment pace of late. After doing between eight and 11 deals a month involving U.S.-based startups, it did only nine total deals in July and August.

However, it quickened its pace a little in September, including taking part in a $10 million Series A for New York-based travel site Point.me.

Alumni Ventures, 7 deals

After leading this list in both July and August, Alumni Ventures — which caters to individual investors who typically don’t have a pathway to the VC market — just made it in September.

While its deal flow dipped slightly, it may have made up for that in terms of deal size.

The firm took part in both EV battery recycling startup Ascend Elements’ $200 million Series C and the $125 million Series B for Enfabrica, which designs networking chips to handle AI workloads.

Also notable:

• General Catalyst was next on the list with six announced deals.
• Andreessen Horowitz topped all firms in rounds led or co-led with four deals.
• SoftBank Group topped the list for rounds led or co-led with the highest dollar amounts for the month, in large part due to leading a $1 billion investment in Pittsburgh-based self-driving, commercial trucking startup Stack AV, as reported by Bloomberg.
• The top investing incubators and accelerators in September were Techstars with 13 deals and Inclusive Ventures Lab with 12 deals.

Methodology

This is a list of investors which took part in the most rounds involving U.S.-based startups. It does not include incubators or accelerators due to the fluctuations their investment numbers can have.

Illustration: Dom Guzman