Yahoo Finance They have the Midas touch when it comes to tech. Which Miami investors made the list?
Who has the golden touch? New rankings released this week put three South Florida tech investors on the Midas List.
Two people from Miami-Dade and one from Palm Beach County are in this year’s rankings, the much-anticipated annual ordering of top venture capitalists based on their performance. It’s a sign that the Magic City continues to be a relevant global tech hub.
South Florida people on Midas List
▪ Keith Rabois, a managing director at Khosla Ventures, ranked 26th.
▪ Reshma Sohoni, managing partner of European seed fund Seedcamp, came in at 89th.
Both are recent arrivals to the 305, and Sohoni notably lives in Jimmy Butler’s former Pinecrest mansion, which she bought in 2021.
▪ Scott Sandell, who lives in Palm Beach County and is executive chairman and chief information officer at Silicon Valley-based New Enterprise Associates, came in 64th.
Information about the rankings
▪ The Top 100 rankings, in their 23rd year, are developed by Forbes magazine and True Bridge Capital Partners, a large investor in venture capital funds.
▪ Alfred Lin, a partner with Sequoia Capital in Silicon Valley, topped the list; Ribbit Capital founder Micky Malka, also in Silicon Valley, was No. 2 and Neil Shen, with Hong Kong’s HongShan, was No. 3.
▪ The Bay Area continued to have the most investors on the list, taking 54 of the 100 spots. That’s three times more than second-place China and six times more than third-place New York.
Consecutive years of representation
Miami tech enthusiasts have reason to be optimistic. The region didn’t have a single representative on the list until 2021, when Keith Rabois moved to the 305.
He was a partner at Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund at the time but this January he rejoined Khosla Ventures while remaining in Miami. A member of the “Paypal Mafia” he was cited in the new Forbes rankings for his investment in fintech startup Ramp.
Rabois, a longtime member of the Midas list, has now made it each of the four years he has lived in Miami, a sign that he isn’t here just for the tropical drinks.
Ahead of Boston and Northern Virginia
Since 2022, South Florida has ranked fifth as a region in the number of venture capitalists on the Midas List. New York and London comes after the Bay area and China. But since 2022, the region has also surpassed Boston and Northern Virginia, two far better known tech hubs.
Given Miami’s history of boom and bust, steadiness may be something to celebrate.
But that’s not all. The Midas Seed List 2024, which Forbes and TrueBridge started in 2022 and ranks Top 25 seed stage investors globally, had three of its Top 10 residing in Miami-Dade County: Benjamin Ling with Bling Capital rnked 5th; Aneel Ranadive of Soma Capital, 8th; and Ed Sim with Boldstart ventures, 10th.
Seed is typically the earliest stage of investing, done when a company is barely an idea.
How the Midas List is made
▪ The Midas List: It’s produced from a a mix of public data and the submissions of hundreds of investment partners across dozens of firms. To qualify, investors are ranked by companies they have backed that went public or were acquired for at least $200 million in the past five years, or that have at least doubled their private valuation to $400 million or more in the same period.
▪ Midas Seed List: Investors must have backed a series of companies that went public or were acquired for at least $50 million, or have a private valuation that is more than $100 million. Eligible deals must have valuations that have tripled since the venture capitalist’s original investment.
