Europe’s Most Prominent Investors (2018 edition) is coming soon. Here’s all you need to know

In April last year, Dealroom introduced Europe’s Most Prominent Venture Capital Investors. It’s a transparent ranking of venture capital investors, based on quantitative criteria only. Last year the ranking got plenty of media attention and the list became a top result in Google Search. More importantly, the ranking determines results inside the Dealroom database as well.

You can see the full 2017 ranking in action here (pro tip: use keywords to filter):

In May this year we will publish the 2018 edition. Here’s all you need to know.

How is the ranking calculated?

Simply put, the ranking measures both how active and how successful an investor is. The ranking is based on nine different indicators which look at: investment activity, current portfolio size and quality and investment performance (by measuring exits). The bottom of this blog post provides more details.

What is the goal of this ranking?

The Dealroom database counts over 22,000 active tech investors. Which are the ones to pick under various circumstances? The ranking makes it easier to navigate them in combination with searches & queries, for everyday use cases such as:
– A founder making a short-list of investors for an investment round
– A corporate investor looking for VCs to meet or follow
– An fund investor (LP) comparing different funds
– An investor looking for other investors to meet in a specific location

The objective of the ranking is not to identify the “best performing” fund per se, although that is one of the criteria. Nor is the goal to celebrate the big well-known investors. Instead, the goal is really to make every day searches & queries on the Dealroom database easier to do.

How can I improve my ranking?

Firstly, we need to make sure all data is up to date (check online here). You can contact us or you can register for free, claim your account and add data directly yourself or ask us to update.

How can I provide feedback on the methodology?

We welcome feedback on methodology and will consider it carefully. You can write us here or reach out via Twitter.

Why did you include corporate funds and rankings?

We deliberately made the ranking as inclusive as possible, because the lines between investor types are blurring. If anything, angels and corporates are at a disadvantage. The list enables you to filter any way you like: to show investment funds only use this filter.

Our fund is still new, so we are at a disadvantage

Track-record is a key attribute for any investor’s standing in the world. The ranking wouldn’t be complete without measuring it. New funds are inherently at a disadvantage in this respect. However, Dealroom is contemplating another future ranking of first-time funds.

Is the ranking based on Europe only?

Emphasis is placed on European investments, activity and performance (see full methodology at the bottom). The location of the investor was not a factor, so the ranking includes many U.S. based investors.

Our fund is top performing. Why is it not ranked higher?

The ranking is not a purely performance-based (although performance is an important criteria). Firstly, information on investment returns is highly imperfect. Secondly, while performance is the most important measure for LPs, it is not the only thing that counts for many other stakeholders. For example, Scottish Equity Partners is a fund with an exceptional track-record, but happens to have been less active during the last year and therefore isn’t ranked as prominently as one might expect.

Ranking methodology

Last year’s ranking was based on the following nine indicators, each with equal weighting:

  1. Portfolio size in Europe = number of portfolio companies in Europe (incl. Israel), all time
  2. Number of rounds in last 12 months = number of rounds which investor participated in during last 12 months
  3. Deal size in last 12 months (€ millions) = total aggregate size of rounds which investor participated in during last 12 months
  4. Exit score = number of exits relative to total portfolio, all time
  5. Exits number = number of exits, global
  6. Number of exits > €100 millions (total firm value, all time)
  7. Number of exits > €500 millions (total firm value, all time)
  8. Number of portfolio companies valued over €500 millions, all time
  9. Capital efficiency = total € amount of all exits relative to the € amount of capital invested (total of rounds which investor participated in, all time)

This year we may make small adjustments to the methodology but the broad strokes will be the same. If you have any questions at all, please contact us via the customer contact tool in the bottom right of this screen.