Forbes on 24 March 2015 released The Forbes 2015 Midas List. The list represents the world's 100 smartest technology investors with valuations greater than 1 billion US Dollar and a total of 766 deals. The list includes 11 influential Indian-American investors.
The list was topped by Jim Goetz of Sequoia Capital. He was on first spot for the second year in a row due to WhatsApp, the mobile messaging company acquired by Facebook for 22 billion US dollar.
Four new Vicw Chancellors (VCs) arrived on the List following a stellar year for China-based companies, which saw smartphone maker Xiaomi crowned as the world’s highest-valued private tech company and Alibaba as the largest-ever IPO.
The list included Indians as follows:
The lead on the list of Indian-Americans is 49-year old Aneel Bhusri, CEO and Co-founder of Workday, a cloud-based financials and human resources software firm.
Stanford business school graduate Mr Bhusri is ranked 17th on the list and has a net worth of 1.22 billion US dollars. He is the only venture capitalist to have co-founded and taken a multi-billion dollar company public while also working as a venture capitalist.
On the 24th spot is Salil Deshpande, Managing Director of Bain Capital Ventures. He has had two big exits in 2014 with technology company Dropcam that was sold to Google and the IPO of peer-to-peer lending company LendingClub, both early-stage bets made while at his prior firm Bay Partners.
Norwest Venture Partners Senior Managing Partner Promod Haque comes in at the 26th rank. The 66-year old's most notable deal has been cybersecurity company FireEye, which had the second-best performing IPO in the US in 2013. His investments in more than 60 companies have produced over 40 billion US dollar in exit values.
The other Indian-Americans on the list are Greylock partner Asheem Chandna, Accel partner Sameer Gandhi, Founding Partner at Wing Venture Partners Gaurav Garg, Managing Director of Mayfield Fund Navin Chaddha, Manging Director at Insight Venture Partners Deven Parekh, General Partner at Battery Ventures Neeraj Agrawal, Managing Director at Menlo Ventures Venky Ganesan and Managing Director at Redpoint Ventures Satish Dharmaraj.
About Forbes Midas list
The Forbes Midas list is the annual ranking by Forbes magazine of the best dealmakers in high-tech and life science venture capital. It uses parameters including the first-day market capitalization of IPOs, and the opinions of a panel of experts.
The name is an allusion to the mythological King Midas, renowned for his ability to turn anything he touched into gold. Forbes partnered with venture capital fund-of-funds TrueBridge Capital Partners to create the 2011, 2012, and 2013 Midas List.
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