Venture capital, due to the very nature of the area, can provide you with astronomical financial returns. This comes at a cost, however. This cost is due to the risk profile of these companies. It is also due to one of the fundamental rules of finance wherein risk and return are inversely proportional. As a result, if you want to invest in any venture capital company, you need to be aware of this. You cannot buy shares in absolutely any one. I will go over some of the world’s top venture capital funds.

Sequoia Capital

Sequoia Capital is at the top. This is thanks to one of the geniuses who is partner at the first. Jim Goetz has made some very good calls lately. This is in part due to his participation in WhatsApp, which was recently acquired by Facebook. Thanks to this stake, he has made over USD 3 billion for the fund. To give you a sense of scale, this is six times the entire valuation of the fund in 2010 which was USD 434 million at the time. This is only one in many similarly successful deals. They include Sequoia’s stakes in HubSpot, Numble Storage, and Barracuda Networks, as well as Ruckus Wireless, and Palo Also Networks. Such a string of successes is not coincidental.

GGV Capital

This is a unique entry. The primary reason is the fact that its partner, Jenny Lee is the first female investor to come near the top. Thanks to her influence, GGV Capital has made some very good deals. They got involved in such companies as Xiaomi, Yodo1, Chukong Technologies, and YY a social platform. Given the unique challenges that women face in the industry, we need to watch this space.

Benchmark Partners

This firm’s success is due to Peter Fenton, and Bill Gurley. They have also made very good calls. They include their stakes in New Relic, Hortonworks, Uber, and NextDoor. The name of the fund is pretty apt, as if you want to be successful, you should probably use Benchmark Partners as a benchmark for your investment decisions.