Top Unicorn Investors: Firms Backing the Most $5B+ Startups
Private equity and venture firms are building major portfolios of ultra-valuable unicorns.
The Rise of Ultra-Unicorns
Startups valued at $5 billion or more—known as ultra-unicorns—are growing in number. In 2025 alone, 17 companies joined this exclusive group, which now totals 211.
Though they make up just 13% of the global unicorn landscape, these companies account for over $3.5 trillion in combined value—more than half of the total $6 trillion among all unicorns.
Both venture capital and private equity firms have played key roles in funding these high-value startups. In fact, private equity now makes up half of the most active unicorn investors.
Leading Unicorn Investors by Portfolio Size
When looking at the firms with the largest number of $5B+ investments, five names stand out:
- Andreessen Horowitz
- Sequoia Capital
- Tiger Global Management
- Lightspeed Venture Partners
- Accel
Even though Tiger Global has reduced its private market activity since late 2022, it remains a major player. It has backed major ultra-unicorns like Databricks, Scale AI, and Shein.
Private equity firms dominate late-stage investments and have amassed large portfolios by backing more mature companies. By contrast, venture capital firms tend to invest earlier and stay with their strongest bets.
Among the largest portfolios:
- Tiger Global: 19% of ultra-unicorns
- Coatue: 18%
- SoftBank Vision Fund and GIC also rank highly
- Andreessen Horowitz is the top-ranking venture investor on this list
Early-Stage Unicorn Investors
At the early stages (Series A and B), the top unicorn investors are:
- Andreessen Horowitz (16 companies)
- Accel (14 companies)
- Sequoia Capital (14 companies)
These firms have backed well-known startups like Stripe, Klarna, Scale AI, and Databricks. Most of these early-stage investments come from U.S.-based firms.
In China, leading early-stage unicorn investors include:
- IDG Capital (Beijing)
- HSG (Hong Kong)
- Tencent (Shenzhen)
Private equity firms are generally absent at this stage, as they focus more on later rounds.
Other notable early-stage backers include Index Ventures, which has invested in unicorns like Figma, Revolut, and Discord.
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Seed-Stage Leaders
At the seed level, Y Combinator leads by a wide margin. The accelerator has backed 10% of ultra-unicorns at this stage, including Rippling, Deel, and Scale AI.
Other top seed-stage unicorn investors:
- SV Angel — backed Harvey and Notion
- Initialized Capital — closely tied to YC startups
- Soma Capital
- Homebrew
Private Equity Leads in Dollar Amounts
When it comes to the largest total investment rounds, private equity dominates.
SoftBank and SoftBank Vision Fund led the biggest funding rounds in this category. These rankings reflect total round sizes, not the specific amount each firm contributed.
Big Tech players like Meta and Microsoft have also joined in, with Meta backing Scale AI and Microsoft investing in OpenAI.
Venture firms Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital also appear among the top dollar-amount investors in deals above $8 billion.
Are More Unicorn Exits Coming?
So far in 2025, six companies valued at $5 billion or more have exited, down slightly from nine in 2024.
Several ultra-unicorns are preparing to go public, including:
- Figma ($12.5 billion)
- Navan ($9.2 billion)
- Klarna ($6.7 billion)
All have filed confidentially for IPOs.
Since the early 2000s, $482 billion has been invested into these 211 ultra-valuable startups. More public listings in 2025 could help ease the ongoing pressure on venture capital liquidity.