Unicorn Investors: Who’s Backed The Most Billion-Dollar Companies

According to CB Insights, every investor wants to back a unicorn. We look at who has the most unicorns in their portfolios and the investors best at placing early-stage bets on companies now worth $1B+.

There are currently 650+ private unicorn companies valued at $1B+ — all featured on CB Insights’ real-time global unicorn tracker.

Over the years, some 1,300 investors have backed these unicorns. While 56% of unicorn investors have only invested in one unicorn company, there are some investors who have pulled away from the group, backing 10, 20, and even 100+ unicorn companies.

Using CB Insights data, we look at which investors have backed the most unicorns — and which are in the best position to see big returns from an exit.

In this report, we cover:

• The top unicorn investors and their most highly-valued portfolio companies
• Geographic trends
• The early-stage investors getting in on the ground floor
• The most efficient unicorn investors

Note: Data is as of Q1’21.

The world’s top unicorn investors

The top 10 unicorn investors, based on the total number of current unicorns they’ve invested in, are:

1. Tiger Global Management
2. SoftBank Group
3. Tencent Holdings
4. Sequoia Capital China
5. Coatue Management
6. Sequoia Capital
7. DST Global
8. Accel
9. Andreessen Horowitz
10. Goldman Sachs

New York-based Tiger Global Management has the most current unicorn companies in its portfolio, with more than 100 unicorns backed. It also leads in the total number of deals to unicorns, at 180.

Japan-based SoftBank Group comes in second place, backing 69 unicorns, followed by China-based Tencent Holdings, with 58.

Over 200 institutional investors boast at least 5 unicorns in their portfolios.

Among unicorn portfolio companies, Instacart and UiPath have been backed by the most top 10 unicorn investors, with 5 investors each.

Instacart has been backed by Tiger Global Management, Coatue Management, Sequoia Capital, DST Global, and Andreessen Horowitz, while UiPath has been backed by Tiger Global Management, Tencent, Coatue Management, Sequoia Capital, and Accel.

Grocery delivery app Instacart joined the unicorn club with a $2B valuation in 2014, and most recently was valued at $39B in March 2021. Robotic process automation (RPA) company UiPath was valued at $35B just a month prior, after first becoming a unicorn with a $1.1B valuation in 2018.

TikTok owner Bytedance (valued at $140B, making it the world’s most valuable unicorn) and fintech unicorns Nubank and Stripe have all been backed by 4 of the top 10 unicorn investors.

For more on top unicorn investor trends, download the full report Here.