For the first quarter of this year, and ranked at the top of our list of the most active and spendiest lead venture investors. However, their leading roles come at a time when the cast of deep-pocketed startup backers is shrinking some.

In particular, the investors who used to reliably top the list — and — are taking a breather. The two didn’t even crack the Top 20 in Q1.

It’s the latest indication that times have changed in the VC world. We’re seeing muted activity at seed and early stage, and fewer big late-stage rounds amid a lackluster IPO market.

Even so, deal flow hasn’t dried up. While many of the busiest investors in Q1 are mostly backing fewer rounds than they did a year ago, several have actually picked up the pace. Below, we look at the 10 most active lead or co-lead venture investors in Q1:

Notably, about half the active lead investors have slowed dealmaking compared to bubblier days a year ago. This includes Andreessen, and .

Others are actually leading more deals than they did a year ago. This group includes General Catalyst, and .

Table of Contents

• Spendiest investors
• Most active seed investors
• Down, but not out
• Further reading

Spendiest investors

Next, we tallied up the largest rounds and their lead backers to get a sense 1 of which investors put the most capital to work in the first quarter.

As it turns out, our findings were highly skewed because there were two unusual and enormous financings that dwarfed every other Q1 deal in size. These were the reported $10 billion investment into — largely from — and a $6.5 billion round for payments giant .

All of the seven top investors in our list of those who led or co-led the most capital-intensive batch of financings last quarter, shown below, were Microsoft or Stripe backers:

Co-lead investors for the $6.5 billion Stripe financing announced in March include Andreessen, General Catalyst, , , and . Microsoft, meanwhile, is the only listed investor for OpenAI’s mega-financing.

As you can see from the chart above, there’s a huge gap between the Microsoft and Stripe backers and everyone else. The next-highest names on the priciest lead round list — and — led rounds valued in aggregate at less than a fifth that of the Stripe backers.

Most active seed investors

While we saw some dramatic shifts in the ranks of most active and highest-spending venture investors, seed stage was a bit more stable.

Last year’s two most prolific seed investors — and — still topped the list in Q1. We also saw mostly familiar names round out the ranks of the top eight most active seed-stage investors, shown below:

It’s not surprising to see seed investors staying active even as overall funding contracts. For investors at this stage, the state of the IPO market or public tech valuations aren’t an immediate concern, as their portfolio companies are likely a long way from exit.

Still, a majority of the most active seed investors for Q1 reported lower deal counts compared to a year ago. The pullback is part of a broader reduction in global seed-stage investment, which fell 44% year over year in Q1, per Crunchbase data.

Down, but not out

The broad takeaway from our latest most active investor data dive is that overall venture and seed firms are putting less capital to work in fewer deals.

It’s also probably prudent not to put an overly optimistic spin on the two giant rounds of the quarter for Stripe and OpenAI. The Stripe investment, after all, was at a down valuation, and OpenAI, a capped profit company governed by a nonprofit, was not a traditional venture round.

The more measured take on Q1 is that this looks like a continued pullback, but not a collapse. Big rounds are still closing, and while some big names have dropped from the ranks of high-spending investors, other startup backers are keeping active.

Further reading

• Global VC Funding Falls Dramatically Across All Stages In Rocky Q1, Despite Massive OpenAI And Stripe Deals
• North American Startup Funding Weakens Further In Q1
• Asia Venture Funding Drops 57% Year Over Year, With Late Stage Posting Largest Decline

Illustration: Dom Guzman

Much of that hype has died down a year later, but the biggest investors in the space have remained very active.

While overall funding in Web3 was down last year from 2021, several top investors in the space such as , and saw their numbers tick up in 2022, according to Crunchbase data.

In fact, about a dozen investors made 40 or more deals in the Web3 space last year — and for most that was an increase from 2021.

Leading the way

Those numbers are similar when also looking at firms that led or co-led the most rounds last year. led the way last year with 30 rounds led or co-led — per Crunchbase — just a slight drop from the 32 rounds the firm did in 2021. Others such and Animoca Brands actually upped their numbers from 2021, both leading or co-leading more than 20 rounds.

In terms of dollars, led the way. The firm — with a heavy interest in crypto — led or co-led more than two dozen rounds worth nearly $1.6 billion, according to Crunchbase. That topped the 29 rounds it led or co-led worth about $1.4 billion in 2021.

Other firms including , , and all led or co-led rounds that totaled more than $1 billion last year. Out of that group, only Tiger saw the value of the rounds it led or co-led drop from 2021.

Of course, not everyone saw their numbers jump in a space where funding dipped. led or co-led nine rounds in 2021 that totaled $2 billion. Its numbers fell to only three rounds worth $469 million last year.

Similarly, saw its numbers dip from leading or co-leading seven rounds worth $2.8 billion in 2021 to only one round worth $135 million last year.

A slow decline

While those numbers do paint a rather robust picture of the Web3 industry, it is important to note almost all those firms saw their investment cadence tick down as last year progressed.

That is not surprising, as Web3 as a whole saw its numbers decline throughout 2022.

Through the first 10 weeks of this year, no firm had yet announced 10 deals in the space and the current quarter is on pace to be the sector’s worst in years.

However, the sector has proven somewhat resilient as investors seem fearful of missing out on the promise of Web3 and decentralized financing. 

That is especially true for crypto. While Web3 has sputtered at times, Bitcoin just had its best week since 2019 in terms of price gain — increasing more than 25%. That’s despite massive bank-related upheaval, including crypto-focused being taken over by the .

With funding down across almost all sectors and the fallout from the failure still being sorted out, it’ll be interesting to see if Web3’s top investors continue their pace from previous years — or if the current gradual slowdown becomes a full stop.

Methodology

For Web3 funding numbers we analyze investments made into VC-backed startups in both cryptocurrency and blockchain.

Illustration:

In 2022, they took a breather. Per Crunchbase, virtually all of the most prolific venture and seed investors did fewer deals last year than the year before. The value of rounds they led shrunk too, with particularly steep declines for and , which pulled back in the wake of heavy losses in their existing portfolios.

But while their pace was slower, the usual busiest dealmakers continued doing deals. And since no one else stepped up to dethrone them, they continue to top the lists for most active and spendiest global startup investors.

To get a sense of who’s topping the ranks and how much they’ve pulled back, we’ve aggregated a series of charts using Crunchbase data. We looked at the most extravagant investors, most prolific venture dealmakers, and busiest seed backers.

Spendiest lead investors (still Tiger and SoftBank)

We’ll start by ranking the startup investors who appear 1 to have put the most capital to work in 2022, based on the dollar value of rounds they led or co-led.

Notably, Tiger Global remains on top for 2022 despite the aggregate value of rounds it led — $22.3 billion — being 60% lower than in 2021. SoftBank Vision Fund took its oft-held No. 2 spot, followed by another usual suspect, , at No. 3, despite these two firms also being far less active year over year.

Also striking is the extent to which some names on the big spender list have pulled back. The values of lead rounds for , and , for instance, are all down 75% or more year over year. The paucity of large public tech offerings in 2022 was likely a factor, as it meant big pre-IPO rounds weren’t happening either.

We also broke down activity by quarter, with an eye toward who might have started the year at a much different pace than where they ended. As it turns out, all of our spendiest lead investors put up far more in the first half of the year than the second. 

We saw a particularly dramatic slowdown from , which led or co-led $2.7 billion worth of rounds in Q1 and just $100 million in Q4. Tiger and SoftBank pulled back to a similar degree, going from billions of dollars in Q1 to hundreds of millions in Q4.

Most active lead venture investors (Tiger and Insight)

Besides spending less, active investors also participated in fewer deals in 2022, slowing their pace as the year progressed.

Below, we look at the most active lead venture investors by deal count, and how they compare quarter by quarter in 2022:

Once again we see familiar names topping the ranks. Tiger, Insight, , and SoftBank pulled back, but they obviously still kept busy. Temasek Holdings, meanwhile, has bucked the trend, with investment counts holding relatively steady for each quarter last year.

One investor we didn’t include in the rankings but which also numbered among the most active was , the trading firm tied to bankrupt crypto platform . Although Alameda is known to have a , with many investments made last year, the exact timing of deals has been difficult to pin down.

Most active seed investors

Seed investors are typically the last group to get spooked by a market downturn. After all, they’re investing smallish sums in companies that are probably many years away from a potential exit.

Even so, backers of these newest startups did curtail spending as 2022 progressed, with global seed investment in the fourth quarter down 35% year over year, per Crunchbase data. The most active seed investors also mostly cut back on deal count in Q4, as the chart below illustrates:

For 2022, still ranked as the most active seed investor, by a long shot. Next up were , and .

Illustration:

Correction: Due to an editing error, incorrect data for investor FJ Labs was previously included.

and —the two firms that used to regularly top our most active and spendiest venture investor rankings—cut back sharply in the third quarter. Both firms face well-publicized woes, with Tiger reeling from declines in its public tech portfolio and SoftBank cutting staff in the face of steep losses.

That leaves and in first and second place, respectively, for most active global lead venture investor in Q3. While both those firms also cut back dealmaking activity in the quarter, they did so at a less dramatic pace.

To see how firms and recent quarters compare, below we lay out the ranking for the most active venture and growth lead investors in 2022, comparingfor Q1, Q2 and Q3 of 2022:

Notably, there wasn’t a single firm on the list above that increased its lead deal pace in Q3. That’s not too surprising, given the general investment environment. Global venture funding for the third quarter, which totaled $81 billion, was down 53% year over year and 33% quarter over quarter, according to a Crunchbase News analysis.

Most active participating investors

While some firms are known for leading rounds, other venture investors more frequently take a smaller stake. Below, we tally up the most active venture investors across all rounds, including those they led and those in which they participated.

For an idea of who spent the most money, we tallied up the total dollars invested in each investor’s rounds. (This offers a general idea of how much is spent, but not a specific one, given that rounds with multiple investors rarely specify how much each backer contributed.)

Here, Andreessen Horowitz is once again in the lead, followed by BlackRock and Sequoia Capital. Once again, everyone on the list participated in deals that collectively raised less in Q3 than in Q2.

Seed slows too

Seed investment has shown more modest declines than other stages. But still, funding is down and the most active firms are doing fewer deals.

To get a clearer idea, we look at the most active seed-stage investors for the past three quarters below:

As you can see, the most active seed investor remained , which has topped the ranks for every quarter this year. In second place was , a U.S. angel network with a diversity focus. 

No one was scaling up. Rather, every seed investor in our most active list did fewer deals in Q3 than in Q2. 

Is this the bottom?

There’s a case to be made that the current dealmaking slowdown will likely be temporary. As investors held back on consummating rounds, it’s likely less about disinterest in the current crop of startups and more about valuations.

With the slump in public tech and biotech stocks, investors are having to lower valuations for their private portfolios. As a result, startups with the means to do so largely prefer delaying their next financing rather than doing a down round. Moreover, during a period of resetting valuations, it’s harder for investors and startup teams to reach consensus on terms.

Still, there is some broader slowing going on too. For initial seed deals, for instance, down rounds aren’t a concern, and yet we’re still seeing a pullback. 

Nonetheless, the most active check writers are still writing a lot of checks. While they may be scaling back, none of the top startup investors appear to be abandoning the asset class.

Illustration:

missed the boat on , a WiFi-connected doorbell company. But 21 individuals and groups did not. And now that , those folks made out pretty well.

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But too often we don’t really spend much time looking at the folks behind the deal. So in that vein—and bearing in mind the usual Crunchbase News disclosures given that some of these people might own part of our parent company—here’s the list, first of rounds, and then investors, that Ring picked up before it exited to one of Seattle’s giants.

How Much

• Seed:
• Series A: +
• Series B:
• Series C:
• Series D:

For reference, that sums to $209.2 million, giving Ring a roughly 5x multiple on invested capital. For how that fits into the greater constellation of exits, check here.

Who Came Out Ahead

And here’s of who put capital into the company, in paragraph form, as bulleted lists get long in the tooth after the fifth entry. From top to bottom: Kleiner, First Round, Goldman, CRV, True, Felicis, Qualcomm Ventures, Upfront, VTF Capital, QueensBridge Ventures, Cherubic Ventures, DFJ Growth, Shea Ventures, Virgin Group, Amazon Alexa Fund, Grishin Robotics, Sidekick Fund, American Family Insurance, Konstantin Othmer, and Stephen Russell.

Look at all those people smarter than a stupid television show.

Post updated to remove an individual incorrectly included in the investor list.

From The :

• Amazon will acquire , the heavily-funded maker of video and connected doorbell products, in a deal reportedly valued at slightly over $1 billion. Santa Monica, Calif.-based Ring, founded in 2012, previously raised more than $200 million in venture funding.

VCs funding for blockchain surges

• ICOs may get all the attention. But traditional venture funding rounds for blockchain-related companies are on a tear as well. So far this year, VCs have pumped close to $400 million into companies in the space, on pace to surpass last year’s record-setting totals, a Crunchbase News analysis finds.

• China-based video content provider  is seeking to raise up to $1.5 billion in an IPO on the Nasdaq exchange. The filing follows years of steep losses for the business, which is majority-owned by Chinese search giant Baidu.

• , a Silicon Valley-based developer of self-driving car technology, has raised $90 million in a Series A funding round backed by Greylock Partners and Index Ventures.