Decoding Midas: The Data Behind Forbes' VC Power Rankings

Forbes

27-05-2025

The Midas List is compiled using data submissions from VC firms and publicly available deal information. The goal? To form the Midas model: a comprehensive, data-driven picture of top investors and their portfolios.
Decoding Midas: The Data Behind Forbes' VC Power Rankings
Fueled by advancements in AI, startups and the broader tech sector are a driving force behind today's market – with venture capital serving as its lifeblood. Every year, Forbes and TrueBridge collaborate to produce the Midas List, highlighting the top 100 venture capitalists whose savvy investments have delivered the strongest returns in the industry. Celebrating its 15th year in the current configuration, the Midas List spotlights the best-performing VCs by analyzing which investors have generated the strongest returns as measured by portfolio companies that have gone public, been acquired, or raised funding at higher valuations. It's a deeply data-driven process that pulls from both public information and thousands of investment deals submitted from hundreds of investors.
Although the methodology has remained largely unchanged since its launch, the team has continuously refined various aspects of the Midas model to improve its accuracy. To compile the list, the Midas team spends months each year gathering, verifying, and analyzing data to build a comprehensive view of top investors and their portfolios.
The process begins each year in January, when venture firms are invited to confidentially submit their information. The teams at Forbes and TrueBridge also conduct extensive outreach to identify additional standout investors and encourage them to participate. While many investors appear on the Midas List year after year, we're always seeking out fresh talent and aim to broaden the pool of submissions, especially from emerging groups, sectors and geographies.
Investors are evaluated based on deals from the past five years, including companies that have gone public or been acquired for at least $200 million, or private companies currently valued at $400 million or more. For the Midas Seed List, eligibility is based on companies that have exited at $50 million or higher, or have an unexited private valuation of at least $100 million within the five-year window. In addition to valuations, the confidential data submissions include information such as when a firm first invested in a company, the level of involvement an investor had in that company and to what extent the investment has been realized.
The five-year lookback period is designed to quantify recent success, giving more weight to VCs who've made strong, timely bets. For example, a successful IPO can increase an investor's chances of making the list, but only for a limited time. That investment remains eligible for consideration for five years after going public, with its impact gradually decreasing each year. After the fifth year, it's no longer factored in, making room for newer deals to shape the rankings.
Recent lists have certainly felt the impact of that five-year window. With IPO deals remaining at record lows for another year and down-rounds are on the rise, investors have felt the blow of certain deals aging out or gradually decreasing in impact, with fewer recent exits available to take their place. Since last year's Midas List, companies with standout exits like Uber, Slack, and Lyft have aged out. While top names like ByteDance and SpaceX continue to dominate the upper ranks, the five-year lookback window has created room for significant shifts throughout the list, which we expect to continue in the AI era.
TrueBridge receives confidential submissions from venture firms worldwide. Investors backing companies from personal balance sheets or for a single corporation don't qualify as they often have objectives outside of pure financial returns driving their investment strategy.
In addition, the Midas team collects publicly available data on financing rounds, public offerings, and M&A transactions. This information is used to validate and supplement firms' submissions, cross-referencing them with other submissions, past Midas data, public records, and expert insights on the deals and market trends. This comprehensive data set helps us identify which VCs are delivering the strongest performance and returns, ultimately shaping the Midas List.
Each year, more firms submit data for consideration, contributing to a growing pool of tens of thousands of data points. This year, the average investor on the list reported 12 qualifying deals. This reflects the rapid pace of investment activity in recent years. However, it's not just the quantity of deals that matters, it's the quality of the returns and the investor's active involvement in the companies they back.
By relying on verified quantitative factors from multiple data sources, we believe that the Midas List is the most data-driven ranking of its kind. Venture capital plays a pivotal role in global innovation and our goal is not only to highlight the investors backing the next generation of standout companies, but also to offer insight into the venture capital industry and how it operates. We look forward to recognizing the investors who aren't just funding innovation, but those who are actively working alongside founders to help bring bold ideas to life.
Additional details on the Midas model and the quantitative factors that influence the list can be found at the submission site: www.submitmidasdata.com. If you're interested in being notified when submissions open each year, please email [e-mail].