#1
David Morin
23 unicorns
SeedSeries A
Path founder, ex-Apple/Facebook, prolific Bay Area angel.
Notable bets
Airbnb, Lyft, Twitter
Top series a investors
The angels and venture firms most active at series a, drawn from Stanford GSB's unicorn research. See who's leading rounds right now via live news per investor.
Latest activity refreshed hourly via Google News. Last refresh: May 13, 2026, 3:40 PM.
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Top angel investors
25 shown#2
Peter Thiel
21 unicorns
Pre-SeedSeedSeries A
PayPal co-founder, Founders Fund GP, first Facebook outside investor.
Notable bets
Facebook, Palantir, SpaceX, Stripe
#3
Lee Linden
21 unicorns
SeedSeries A
Tapjoy co-founder, Quiet Capital GP.
Notable bets
Coinbase, Roblox, Faire
#4
David Sacks
20 unicorns
SeedSeries A
PayPal COO, Yammer founder, Craft Ventures GP.
Notable bets
Facebook, Airbnb, Palantir, SpaceX
#5
Marc Benioff
19 unicorns
Series AGrowth
Salesforce founder & CEO, longtime SaaS angel.
Notable bets
Dropbox, Snowflake, Twitter
#6
Kevin Moore
19 unicorns
SeedSeries A
Veteran angel, frequent co-investor with PayPal mafia.
#7
Felix Shpilman
19 unicorns
SeedSeries A
Emergence Capital partner, SaaS specialist.
#14
Kevin Hartz
15 unicorns
SeedSeries A
Eventbrite co-founder, A* Capital GP.
Notable bets
Airbnb, Pinterest, PayPal
#15
Max Levchin
15 unicorns
SeedSeries A
PayPal co-founder, Affirm CEO.
Notable bets
Yelp, Slide, Affirm
#16
Shervin Pishevar
14 unicorns
SeedSeries A
Sherpa Capital co-founder.
Notable bets
Uber, Airbnb, Warby Parker
#18
Benjamin Ling
14 unicorns
SeedSeries A
Bling Capital founder, ex-Khosla, ex-Google.
#21
Alexis Ohanian
13 unicorns
SeedSeries A
Reddit co-founder, Seven Seven Six founder.
Notable bets
Coinbase, Instacart, Patreon
#23
Jared Leto
12 unicorns
SeedSeries A
Actor and prolific consumer-tech angel.
Notable bets
Uber, Airbnb, Spotify
#25
Keith Rabois
12 unicorns
SeedSeries A
Khosla Ventures GP, ex-PayPal/Square/LinkedIn.
Notable bets
LinkedIn, Lyft, Stripe
#26
Nat Friedman
11 unicorns
SeedSeries A
Ex-GitHub CEO, AI Grant co-founder.
Notable bets
GitHub, Cruise
#28
Gokul Rajaram
11 unicorns
SeedSeries A
DoorDash exec, ex-Square, ex-Google.
#29
Ilya Sukhar
11 unicorns
SeedSeries A
Matrix Partners GP, ex-Parse founder.
#31
Charles Songhurst
11 unicorns
SeedSeries A
Ex-Microsoft head of corp strategy.
#33
Timothy Draper
11 unicorns
SeedSeries A
DFJ founder, Draper Associates, Bitcoin maximalist.
Notable bets
Tesla, SpaceX, Skype
#37
Mark Cuban
10 unicorns
SeedSeries A
Broadcast.com founder, Mavs owner, Shark Tank.
Notable bets
Magnolia Pictures, Cyber Dust
#40
Fabrice Grinda
10 unicorns
SeedSeries A
FJ Labs founder, OLX/Aucland founder.
Notable bets
Alibaba, Airbnb, Coupang
#44
Jeffrey Bezos
9 unicorns
SeedSeries AGrowth
Amazon founder, Bezos Expeditions.
Notable bets
Google, Twitter, Airbnb, Uber
#46
Jeffrey Weiner
9 unicorns
SeedSeries A
Ex-LinkedIn CEO, Next Play Ventures.
#48
Matthew Ocko
9 unicorns
SeedSeries A
DCVC co-managing partner, deep-tech specialist.
#50
Marc Andreessen
9 unicorns
SeedSeries AGrowth
Netscape founder, a16z co-founder.
Notable bets
Facebook, Twitter, Skype
Tier-1 venture firms & accelerators
7 shownSequoia Capital
AI · SaaS · Fintech · Consumer
SeedSeries AGrowth
The Tier-1 venture firm. Apple, Google, WhatsApp, Stripe, Airbnb.
Notable bets
Apple, Google, WhatsApp, Stripe, Airbnb, OpenAI
Andreessen Horowitz
AI · Crypto · Fintech · Bio
SeedSeries AGrowth
a16z. Heavy thesis-driven investing across crypto, AI, infra, marketplaces.
Notable bets
Facebook, Coinbase, GitHub, Roblox, Airbnb
Benchmark
Marketplaces · SaaS · Consumer
Series A
Equal-partner firm. Concentrated bets, single-GP-led deals.
Notable bets
Uber, Twitter, eBay, Snap, Discord
Accel
SaaS · Fintech · Consumer
SeedSeries AGrowth
Early-stage SaaS specialist with global presence.
Notable bets
Facebook, Slack, Atlassian, Dropbox
Greylock Partners
AI · SaaS · Consumer · Bio
SeedSeries AGrowth
55+ year history. LinkedIn, Airbnb, Workday, Discord.
Notable bets
LinkedIn, Airbnb, Workday, Discord, Roblox
Thrive Capital
AI · SaaS · Consumer · Fintech
Series AGrowth
Josh Kushner. Early Instagram, Stripe, OpenAI, GitHub.
Notable bets
Instagram, Stripe, OpenAI, GitHub
Founders Fund
Defense · Bio · Crypto · AI
SeedSeries AGrowth
Peter Thiel's firm. Strong contrarian bets.
Notable bets
SpaceX, Palantir, Stripe, Anduril, Airbnb
How this list was built
The angels are ranked by their count of pre-unicorn investments, per the Stanford GSB research published in September 2025. Pattern recognition matters here: most of the top angels were operators or executives at large tech companies first (PayPal, Google, Facebook, Stripe). Many co-invested together repeatedly. The PayPal mafia alone (Thiel, Sacks, Levchin, Banister) shows up across Facebook, Airbnb, Palantir, and SpaceX.
Funds and accelerators are curated separately. Y Combinator and Techstars sit earliest in the funnel. Sequoia, a16z, Benchmark, and Accel are where most category-defining companies scale. NFX is the network-effects specialist. Tiger Global and SoftBank Vision Fund sit at the growth end, where their participation confirms a trend is real rather than predicting it.
Latest activity for each investor is pulled from Google News RSS, refreshed hourly, with query-level disambiguation and a post-filter that drops obituaries and unrelated stories. Coverage skew is real (high-profile names get more news) and the page prefers the most recent items regardless of sentiment.
Frequently asked
Who is the most prolific angel investor?
David Morin tops the Stanford list with 23 pre-unicorn investments. Peter Thiel and Lee Linden are tied for second at 21 each. David Sacks (20) and Marc Benioff (19) round out the top 5.
Are there any women in the top 50?
The Stanford list as published does not include any women in the top 50, which has drawn fair criticism. Notable angels missing from the methodology include Cyan Banister (Uber, SpaceX, Postmates, Niantic), who multiple commenters flagged as a likely top-ten figure if included.
What stages does each investor write at?
Each filtered view is a separate URL: pre-seed, seed, series A, growth. Most top angels lead at seed; YC and Techstars are pre-seed; Tiger and SoftBank are growth-only.
How is "latest activity" sourced?
Google News RSS, queried per investor name, refreshed hourly. Each query carries disambiguating context (e.g. Dave Morin / Slow Ventures) and we drop obituary, funeral, and crime headlines as a safety net.
How can I get in front of these investors?
Upload your pitch deck for free AI feedback and an investor match preview. Most warm intros happen via operators these investors trust, so increasing your score on the things they actually care about (clear problem, credible team, real traction) is the best use of your time today.
Ben Wiggins
7x Founder · 1 Exit · Experienced Angel Investor · CIO Family Office
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