• Eight of the top ten global VC investors, by number of investments in 2020, were headquartered in the US
• Silicon Valley/California was the home to seven of these top ten investors

Several American venture capital (VC) investors managed to make sizeable number of investments, despite the challenges around COVID-19. US-based firms dominated the list of top ten VC investors by number of investments, with eight headquartered in the US, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Sequoia Capital participated in 275 VC funding rounds, which is the highest number of investments among all VC firms during 2020. The only non-US VC firms to make an appearance were China-based Tencent Holdings and the UK-based Seedrs.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Interestingly, Silicon Valley/California was the home to seven of these top investors. This shows that, despite tough market conditions, these firms have continued looking for opportunities in innovative start-ups in the US – albeit cautiously.”

The top ten global VC investors participated in 1,186 funding rounds in 2020, as compared to 1,385 funding rounds in 2019. Four of the top ten witnessed YoY decline in their number of investments, of which three registered double-digit decline.

The proportionate investment value of these firms declined from $13.3bn in 2019 to $11.2bn in 2020. The decline could be attributed to the lower proportionate investment value for the majority of these VC investors. Seven of the top ten witnessed YoY decline in the proportionate investment value in 2020, of which six reported double-digit decline.

Notably, Sequoia Capital, which topped the list, witnessed decline in its proportionate investment value by 9% compared to the previous year.