25 Top Seed-Stage Investors: Forbes 2026 Midas Seed List
Seed investing looks like a numbers game. It isn't. It's a conviction game โ and the 2026 edition of Forbes' Midas Seed List makes the case better than any argument could.
Published in partnership with TrueBridge, this is the list's fifth annual run: a ranking of the twenty-five people on earth who are best at writing the first check into companies that don't yet look like anything. Not the biggest funds. Not the loudest brands. The earliest believers.
Two deals set the tone
This year, the top of the list was decided by two outcomes. Google's roughly $32B acquisition of the cloud-security company ๐ช๐ถ๐ carried Gili Raanan (Cyberstarts) to the number one spot. And the meteoric rise of ๐๐๐ฟ๐๐ผ๐ฟ lifted Ali Partovi (Neo) to number two. Both men wrote their checks years before the market decided these companies mattered โ which is the whole point of the exercise.
The full ranking
- Gili Raanan โ Cyberstarts ยท ๐ช๐ถ๐ ยท Israel
- Ali Partovi โ Neo ยท ๐๐๐ฟ๐๐ผ๐ฟ ยท Piedmont
- Anna Fang โ ZhenFund ยท ๐ซ๐ถ๐ฎ๐ผ๐๐ผ๐ป๐ด๐ฆ๐ต๐ ยท China
- David Tisch โ BoxGroup ยท ๐ฅ๐ฎ๐บ๐ฝ ยท New York
- Topher Conway โ SV Angel ยท ๐ฆ๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐ฝ๐ฒ ยท SF
- Kirsten Green โ Forerunner ยท ๐๐ต๐ถ๐บ๐ฒ ยท SF
- David Frankel โ Founder Collective ยท ๐๐ผ๐๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ป๐ด ยท Boston
- Ross Fubini โ XYZ VC ยท ๐๐ป๐ฑ๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐น ยท SF
- Pawel Chudzinski โ Point Nine ยท ๐ฅ๐ฒ๐๐ผ๐น๐๐ ยท Berlin
- Aneel Ranadive โ Soma Capital ยท ๐๐ฒ๐ฒ๐น ยท Miami
- Kevin Hartz โ A* ยท ๐๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ด๐ผ๐ป ยท SF
- Satya Patel โ Homebrew ยท ๐ฆ๐ต๐ถ๐ฒ๐น๐ฑ ๐๐ ยท Bay Area
- Semil Shah โ Haystack ยท ๐๐ถ๐ด๐บ๐ฎ ยท SF
- Sarah Guo โ Conviction ยท ๐ฆ๐ถ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฟ๐ฎ ยท SF
- Salil Deshpande โ Uncorrelated ยท ๐๐ฟ๐๐๐ผ๐ฒ ๐๐ป๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ด๐ ยท Palo Alto
- Christian Lawless โ Conversion ยท ๐ฅ๐ฎ๐บ๐ฝ ยท NY
- Greg Castle โ Anorak ยท ๐๐ป๐ฑ๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐น ยท Los Angeles
- Ben Sun โ Primary ยท ๐๐ผ๐๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ป๐ด ยท NY
- Jesse Beyroutey โ IA Ventures ยท ๐๐ผ๐บ๐ผ๐ฑ๐ผ ๐๐ฒ๐ฎ๐น๐๐ต ยท NY
- Anne Dwane โ Village Global ยท ๐๐ฎ๐น.๐ฎ๐ถ ยท SF
- Nikhil Basu Trivedi โ Footwork ยท ๐๐ฎ๐ป๐๐ฎ ยท SF
- Firat Ileri โ Hummingbird ยท ๐๐ผ๐๐ฎ๐ฏ๐น๐ฒ ยท London
- Sabrina Hahn โ Absolute Partners ยท ๐๐ฎ๐น.๐ฎ๐ถ ยท NY
- Ramtin Naimi โ Abstract Ventures ยท ๐ ๐๐ ยท SF
- Reshma Sohoni โ Seedcamp ยท ๐ฆ๐๐ป๐๐ต๐ฒ๐๐ถ๐ฎ ยท Miami
What the list is really telling you
Read it top to bottom and three things surface.
The first is sector. Cybersecurity, AI, and frontier tech run through nearly every line โ Wiz, Cursor, Anduril, Shield AI, Decagon, Sierra, xAI. These weren't consensus bets when the checks were written. They were early convictions in categories the rest of the market hadn't priced yet.
The second is geography. Silicon Valley still anchors the list, but it no longer owns it. The earliest checks now come out of Israel, China, Berlin, London, and Miami as readily as San Francisco. The map of where great seed investing happens has quietly widened.
The third is the quieter lesson underneath both. Every name here shares a single habit: they moved before the category was obvious. Being early isn't one advantage among many for a seed investor. It's the entire job.
That's the bar. Twenty-five people cleared it this year.
Take the data with you
We've built out the full directory behind this list โ all 25 investors with their firms, signature deals, locations, and direct LinkedIn profiles, structured so you can sort, filter, and actually use it. Download the complete database here.
