The Midas Seed List 2023: Ed + boldstart #9 in annual ranking of top 25 seed investors worldwide

The best seed investors can pick the winners of tomorrow among founders with big ideas but little track record, traction or data. That mission has gotten harder with multi-billion funds starting to invest at earlier stages and capital markets facing a downturn that has singed many venture funds, and their backers. Amid the challenges of the last year, the investors making up this year’s Midas Seed List continue to sort the wheat from the chaff from the earliest stage of investing.

In partnership with TrueBridge, Forbes is proud to unveil its second annual ranking of the top 25 seed investors worldwide. Silicon Valley veteran Pejman Nozad displaces ZhenFund’s Anna Fang at the top of the list this year thanks to the Pear Fund founding managing partner’s early bets, and large IPO exits from the likes of DoorDash, AppLovin and DropBox.

This year’s Midas Seed List also marks the debut of five new investors including — Amino Capital’s Larry Li, Aneel Ranadive of Soma Capital, and Chris Howard of Fuel Capital along with Tel Aviv, Israel-based cybersecurity specialist Gili Raanan of Cyberstarts. Seed specialists like Bling Capital’s Benjamin Ling, Reshma Sohoni of Seedcamp and David Frankel of Founder Collective return to the list for the second year running.

To qualify, investors are measured by their portfolio companies that have gone public or been acquired for at least $50 million, or have a private valuation that is more than $100 million. In addition, for a deal to be Midas Seed eligible, it must currently hold a valuation that has tripled since the VC’s original investment. Only investors from true seed firms are considered for Midas Seed, meaning multistage players or angel investors are not eligible.

The list is also capped at one individual investor per fund. Midas Seed is a data-driven list compiled through a combination of public data sources and firm submissions.Note: Investors who have been fired or resigned from their firms for misconduct are subject to removal from Midas Seed eligibility.

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