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CB Insights has released its annual Smart Money list for the world's 25 best-performing venture capital investors over the past decade. These 25 VC firms, including Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, and Lightspeed, are at the forefront of funding the artificial intelligence wave.
Over the past 18 months, agent-related categories have led deal activity in AI, with coding agents and copilots securing 28 deals. Infrastructure remains active in AI, with 17 deals involving large language model (LLM) developers over the same period. These 25 VC firms are the most active in the fintech sector.
CB Insights highlights cybersecurity as the likeliest near-term exit opportunity for these VCs' portfolios. Notable cybersecurity companies in their portfolios include Cato Networks, a network security company based in Israel, and Torq, an Israeli firm specializing in autonomous security operations. Google has acquired Wiz, an Israeli-American cloud security company, for US$32 billion in March 2025.
The 25 VCs on CB Insights' Smart Money 2025 list achieve 2.2 times more exits per firm, whether through M&A or IPOs. Since 2015, these VCs have backed 80 companies that exited at US$10 billion+. Among their most widely backed companies are Chainguard, Figma, and Wiz, each with seven of these top VC firms.
In 2024, these VC investors backed 73% of new AI unicorns. This trend continued in 2025 year-to-date (YTD), with the VCs backing 77% of new AI unicorns. General Catalyst led the fintech space with 19 rounds, and Tines, an AI orchestration platform for security and IT teams based in Ireland, is also part of their portfolio.
Accel, General Catalyst, and Lightspeed are the most active VC investors outside the US by deal count since January 2024, with 84, 64, and 55 deals respectively. The 25 best-performing VC firms in Switzerland on CB Insights' 2025 Smart Money list include top venture capital investors shaping AI, cybersecurity, and fintech, but the exact names of these Swiss VCs and the specific fintech startups they funded in the first half of 2025 are not detailed in the available search results.
The 25 VCs on CB Insights' Smart Money 2025 list are 6.5 times more likely than the average VC to back a future unicorn. Some of the most promising startups in their portfolios include Zepto, Bilt, and Glean. These firms are shaping the future of various industries, making them exciting investments for these top venture capital firms.
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