It was a busy year for Sequoia Capital: The firm, said to be raising perhaps $9 billion or more for worldwide and U.S.-focused funds, participated in the most venture deals in 2018 and deployed the most capital.
The multistage investor put more than $5 billion to work in 173 companies worldwide in the year, according to VCJ‘s analysis of preliminary data from Thomson Reuters.
The investments include several large deals in China, where Sequoia is active. The firm’s large U.S. deals include the $1.25 billion investment with SoftBank in Uber at the start of the year and the $785 million investment in DoorDash, again with SoftBank as well as Coatue Management, Mail.ru and others.
The Thomson Reuters data shows that SoftBank Group and its Investment Advisers arm, which often invest separately from each other (although the latter is often associated with its Vision Fund), combined to invest $8.1 billion in 18 deals during the year.
Sequoia’s 2018 investment activity ranked it ahead of New Enterprise Associates, which invested $950 million in 109 companies, and Matrix Partners, which put nearly $640 million to work in 103 companies.
The same three firms were in the top three in 2017. But NEA ranked on top in that year with 135 investments totaling more than $1 billion, followed by Sequoia with 105 deals and $2.3 billion deployed and Matrix having invested in 95 companies in 2017 with $563 million.
To download the full version of the spreadsheet below with additional data, click here: Top Most Active VCs (2018)
Most active VCs (2018)
| Firm | No. of Deals | Total amount invested in year ($M) |
| Sequoia Capital | 173 | $5,075.38 |
| New Enterprise Associates | 109 | $950.68 |
| Matrix Partners | 103 | $638.76 |
| GGV Capital | 87 | $1,302.78 |
| Y Combinator | 87 | $351.55 |
| IDG Capital Partners | 84 | $761.96 |
| Zhen Fund | 74 | $191.46 |
| Accel Partners | 70 | $791.44 |
| Bessemer Venture Partners | 64 | $528.04 |
| Connecticut Innovations | 64 | $53.15 |
| Goldman Sachs | 64 | $1,519.01 |
| GV | 64 | $473.03 |
| Lightspeed Venture Partners | 61 | $1,059.23 |
| Andreessen Horowitz | 58 | $699.94 |
| Shunwei Capital | 51 | $364.96 |
| Kleiner Perkins | 51 | $751.33 |
| Greycroft Partners | 51 | $262.81 |
| Insight Venture Partners | 50 | $672.42 |
| Khosla Ventures | 50 | $314.22 |
| Index Ventures SA | 49 | $457.81 |
| Real Investment Management | 48 | $67.08 |
| Desjardins Capital | 47 | $30.59 |
| Redpoint Ventures | 46 | $382.79 |
| Qiming Venture Partners | 45 | $404.86 |
| Ben Franklin Technology Partners Southeastern PA | 45 | $11.38 |
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