In A Record Year, These Are The Most Active North American Startup Investors

As investors pour record sums into North American startups this year, a few firms are taking the lead.

Just three firms — Andreessen Horowitz, Tiger Global Management and Insight Partners — have led or participated in 257 funding rounds in the first half of 2021, according to an analysis of Crunchbase data. Rounds the firms led or co-led collectively came in at around $16.8 billion.

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The three firms top the list of the 18 most active North American startup investors for the first half of this year. We list the full cohort below, looking at deals in which they participated and highlighting rounds they led or co-led.

The usual suspects, but spendier

This list of firms putting the most money into the highest number of startup deals doesn’t contain new or surprising names. What is different this time, however, is how much capital these already spendy investors appear to be putting into the startups they back.

To offer a sense of the scope of investment, we tallied the sum total of rounds led by each of the most active investors. Even if the firm isn’t a sole investor in these lead rounds, it’s safe to assume they contributed a significant chunk of the money. We lay out the tallies below:

A few dealmakers stand out. 

Let’s start with Tiger Global. The voracious startup hunter led or co-led 57 North American startup rounds worth a whopping $8.6 billion in the first half of 2021. Its largest lead venture rounds this year include home services software platform ServiceTitan ($500 million Series F), company card provider Brex ($425 million Series D), and crypto-backed loan provider BlockFi ($350 million Series D).

Then there’s Insight Partners. The growth equity-focused investor led or co-led rounds valued at $5.3 billion. The recipients of its largest lead venture rounds this year include authentication security provider Transmit Security ($543 million Series A), product design platform Quantum Metric ($200 million Series B), and cloud backup provider OwnBackup ($167.5M Series D).

Or look at Andreessen Horowitz. The firm has also substantially increased its investment pace this year, our analysis shows, leading or co-leading funding rounds worth $2.9 billion. The largest funding rounds it led this year include online conference platform Hopin’s ($400 million Series C), debit card provider Greenlight ($260 million Series D) and payment platform Current ($220 million Series D).

Up, up and more up

Active investors are stepping up their game as the overall level of North American startup investment continues to surge. For the first half of 2021, investors put a record $155 billion to work across all stages, more than double the $72 billion invested in the year-ago period, per Crunchbase data.

Recent quarters aside, it’s not always the case that investment just goes up. But with public markets trading around all-time highs, leading tech stocks on fire, and more investment dollars filling the coffers of big-name venture investors, it’s easy to see why at least for the first half of this year, the startup scene looks pretty bullish.

Illustration: Dom Guzman