Summary
Venture capitalists enable entrepreneurs to drive global innovation across fields like software, financial technology, biotech, artificial intelligence, robotics, and more. These VC leaders are funding startups to transform every aspect of society, from healthcare and mobility to climate, food, education, and beyond.
At Kauffman Fellows, we strongly believe in venture capital's ability to enable entrepreneurs to tackle the world’s most pressing challenges — but how do you determine venture capital success?
The most obvious metric for VC success is net-realized multiples of investment capital (net MOIC), which uses an investment’s exit value to measure its overall return on investment. However, given that this information is private, we developed a proxy of net MOIC to determine success in VC: the number of startups that reach a valuation of at least $1 billion, the number of startups that reach an exit at a valuation of at least $1 billion, and the known exit valuation of those attributed exits (while exiting at $1 billion is good, exiting at $20 billion is much better).
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What You’ll Find Inside
While one out of every 140 VC-backed startups reaches unicorn status, only one out of roughly 800 reach an exit at a level that exceeds unicorn valuation.
There are 120 unicorns on average minted every year when 2021 and 2022 activity are eliminated (and 200 unicorns when those years are included). Yet the average number of unicorn exits has remained stable at 34 per year.
One out of four unicorns in the world call California home. But one in those four also hail from China, one from elsewhere in the US and one from elsewhere in the world.
Kauffman Fellows are at the forefront of VC success. We find that:
One out of five unicorns in the world have a Kauffman Fellow in the cap table. The same goes for unicorn exits.
One out of five Kauffman Fellows have invested in at least one startup that went on to become a unicorn, and one out of eleven Fellows have been part of a unicorn exit.
At Kauffman Fellows we define success in venture capital as consistency in finding, investing, supporting, and exiting category and firm-defining startups.
Total Unicorns & Unicorn Exits
250,000
distinct (unique) startups that raised a VC round from January 2016 to July 2024
1,828
startups “minted” as a unicorn, or 0.7% of all VC-funded startups (1 in 140)
Number of Unicorns by Year Minted,
% of Total, and Average Age of Startup
Total Unicorns by Founding Year, Current Status
Key Findings
1/5 Unicorns
and unicorn-exits in the world have at least one Kauffman Fellow in the cap table.
1/5 Fellows
have invested in a startup that went on to become a unicorn, and one out of 11 have had at least one successful unicorn exit.
Fund Returners Index - Top 30 Fellows
Excellence Investing in Category and Firm-Defining Entrepreneurs
Allen Taylor
- Endeavor Catalyst
- KF Class: 16
- United States
Koichiro Nakamura
- Sozo Ventures
- KF Class: 12
- United States
Yinglan Tan
- Insignia Venture Partners
- KF Class: 15
- Singapore
Justin Fishner-Wolfson
- 137 Ventures
- KF Class: 14
- United States
Fredrik Cassel
- Creandum
- KF Class: 12
- Sweden
Mamoon Hamid
- Kleiner Perkins
- KF Class: 11
- United States
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Shailendra Singh
- Peak XV Partners
- KF Class: 11
- India
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Miriam Rivera
- Ulu Ventures
- KF Class: 15
- United States
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Clint Korver
- Ulu Ventures
- KF Class: 14
- United States
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Vinnie Lauria
- Golden Gate Ventures
- KF Class: 17
- Singapore
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Eric Perez-Grovas
- Wollef
- KF Class: 22
- Mexico
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Rob Rueckert
- Sorenson Capital
- KF Class: 12
- United States
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Nathan Harroch
- Ergeny Investments
- KF Class: 27
- Monaco
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Phil Wickham
- Sozo Ventures
- KF Class: 1
- United States
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Patrick Chung
- Xfund
- KF Class: 9
- United States
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Hian Goh
- Openspace Ventures
- KF Class: 20
- Singapore
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Joon Sung Park
- Legend Capital
- KF Class: 27
- South Korea
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Santiago Subotovsky
- Emergence Capital
- KF Class: 15
- United States
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Arjun Sethi
- Tribe Capital
- KF Class: 23
- United States
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Cameron Teitelman
- StartX
- KF Class: 16
- United States
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Jon Rezneck
- Geodesic Capital
- KF Class: 24
- United States
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Alexandre Lazarow
- Fluent Ventures
- KF Class: 19
- United States
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Mike McCauley
- Garage Capital
- KF Class: 26
- Canada
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Ken Elefant
- Sorenson Ventures
- KF Class: 5
- United States
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Marlon Nichols
- MaC Venture Capital
- KF Class: 18
- United States
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Srini Ananth
- Intel Capital
- KF Class: 23
- United States
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Conrad Shang
- Ensemble VC
- KF Class: 27
- United States
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Helen Wong
- AC Ventures
- KF Class: 8
- Singapore
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Ralph Taylor-Smith
- ETS Strategic Capital
- KF Class: 9
- United States
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SC Moatti
- Mighty Capital
- KF Class: 25
- United States
“Kauffman Fellows is the source of innovation, community, and inspiration in venture capital globally. Fellows use the tools of venture capital to create differentiated business models, serve unmet needs of entrepreneurs, and, at their best, leave a legacy of enduring teams that will continue to build ecosystems, economies, and more inclusive prosperity in communities long into the future.”
Kauffman Fellows is a global network that gathers the best venture capitalists in the world.
Through our two-year education program and our vetted peer-to-peer network, Kauffman Fellows has accelerated the careers and the venture capital firms of hundreds of professionals in the field.
Since 1995, our network has grown to 940 Fellows (81% of them Partner-level and above) from 680+ VC firms.
Kauffman Fellows exists to support venture capitalists who invest in the entrepreneurs changing the world. Over the years, Kauffman Fellows have enabled and grown entrepreneurial ecosystems in 60+ countries represented in our network.