Web Summit with all the details

Forbes Announces First-Ever 2017 Midas List Europe

LISBON, PORTUGAL  (November 6, 2017) – Forbes today announced at Venture, an investor-focused gathering in Lisbon held in advance of the 2017 Web Summit technology conference, its  first-ever 2017 Midas List Europe.  The launch of the list marks the expansion of Forbes’ Midas List franchise, which highlights many of the world’s top tech investors.  The honorees of Forbes’ 2017 Midas List Europe are making their mark in Europe’s growing tech ecosystem.

Forbes’ Midas List is the new definitive ranking that acknowledges a vastly underrepresented market, featuring the elite investors who have backed some of technology’s most transformative companies, such as Spotify and Supercell.

Co-founder and Partner at Index Ventures, Neil Rimer, earns the top spot on the Forbes 2017 Midas List Europe. Notable investments by Rimer include Betfair (LSE: BET) and Skype (acquired by eBay for $2.6 billion and later by Microsoft for $8.5 billion).  Rimer is followed by Kevin Comolli (No. 2), founding partner of Accel’s London-based team, known most recently for his investment in SimpliVity (acquired by HP Enterprise for $650 million in February 2017). Klaus Hommels, founder and CEO of Lakestar and an early investor in multi-billion dollar companies including Skype, Facebook and Spotify, makes the list at No. 3. He is followed by Jan Hammer (No. 4), partner at Index Ventures. Some of his investments include Adyen, BitPay, Novus, Robinhood, Futurelytics, Zendesk and Zuora.  Sonali De Rycker, Partner at Accel Partners, and one of three women on the list, rounds out the top five, following investments in Avito (acquired by Naspers), Lyst and Spotify, among others.

The 25 investors on the list, representing 5 different countries, are a prominent group of men and women who are hedging their bets on Europe’s top talent and investing heavily in the burgeoning tech sector.  The United Kingdom is represented by 18 of the crème de la crème on the list, with Israel represented by 3, Switzerland 2, and 1 each from Sweden and France.

Top 10 of Forbes’ 2017 Midas List Europe

Declan Kelly, Director of Venture, said “Forbes’ Midas List is the definitive ranking of VC investors. Similarly, Web Summit and Venture are the premier events for startups and tech investors, and it is an honour to work with Forbes to create a dedicated Midas List for the European technology ecosystem. We’re delighted that so many of our long-term investor attendees are featured, and excited to continue to help them invest in Europe’s best breakout technology companies.”

Venture is an invite-only symposium of focused talks and curated roundtable discussions, providing a chance for attendees to engage with the people driving change in investment. At the event, Forbes staff writer, Alex Konrad, will be hosting a fireside chat with Jim Breyer, Founder & CEO Breyer Capital.

For the complete ranking, methodology, videos and more, visit Forbes Midas List

Methodology

Forbes’ Midas List Europe receives submissions from dozens of Europe’s and Israel’s leading venture capital firms.  Forbes and data partner TrueBridge Capital Partners run that data through a proprietary model that evaluates investors by their portfolio companies valued at $200 million or more or that exited at $100 million or more, factoring in the stage, size and returns of such deals. Spanning early and later stage investments, Forbes’ Midas List Europe recognizes bolder and bigger bets.