The Midas List Europe 2023: The Methodology Behind The List

Midas List Europe is a metrics-driven list of the best venture investors in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. With this list, Forbes and TrueBridge recognize those investors who have earned the best returns for their limited partners – that is, their companies have gone public, had an M&A transaction, or raised rounds of financing at an increased valuation. So how do we determine who’s the best? Midas List Europe Methodology Venture capital is a high-risk, high-reward industry, and the nature of working with fast-growing startups is that there are many failures as well as huge successes.

The list is intended to measure those successful investments, overlay an investor’s relative role in each of those companies, and ultimately recognize those VCs that have been able to replicate investing achievements in multiple companies across periods of time. The number of firms, investing partners and deals submitted for consideration has increased significantly since the launch of the list seven years ago – this fall, we received about five times as much data as we did the first year. With the submission of thousands of deals for hundreds of partners, this results in a huge number of data points that are input for analysis.

While we regularly review the methodology for Midas, it is largely the same as it was in 2017 when the Midas List Europe was first launched, modeled off the global Midas List. TrueBridge receives confidential submissions from venture firms across the region. Investors are evaluated based on their portfolio companies that have gone public or been acquired for at least $100 million over the last five years or that are private and valued at $200 million or more, also over the last five years.

The five-year lookback period helps quantify the success of a VC by rewarding recent bets. So, a recently public company with a very successful offering could help propel an investor onto the list, but that investment is eligible for consideration for only five years after the IPO – and at a decreased rate each year during that five-year period. After the fifth year, it falls out of consideration and allows for newer investments to make an impact on the list.

This is particularly important in a year like 2023 – with the IPO window firmly closed and companies like Adyen and Spotify falling out of contention, private companies drove the rankings more on this year’s list than they have in past years. It also means that we have the opportunity to see which tech trends have staying power – investors who backed fintech, logistics and cybersecurity are now seeing returns from those investments propel them onto the list. Will the AI investments that are currently white-hot drive massive returns? We’ll know if we see them reflected on the Midas List Europe in the coming years.

In addition to valuations, the confidential data submissions include information such as when a firm first invested in a company, whether a partner held a board seat and to what extent the investment has been realized. The analysis team at TrueBridge also scours publicly available data on M&As, public offerings and fast-growing companies that have raised rounds of financing (both up and, more frequently as of late, down rounds). We work to validate firms’ submission data by cross-referencing and matching it against public sources, other submissions and experts’ knowledge of the companies in the market.

We also consider industry information and data from historical lists, combining everything into a comprehensive set of data points for the Midas model. To be considered for the list, VCs must invest on behalf of third-party limited partners – investors backing companies from personal balance sheets or for a single corporation don’t qualify as they often have different objectives driving their investment strategy. Investing partners also must be located in Europe, Africa or the Middle East and have significant investments in their geography.

We believe using quantitative factors that have been verified across multiple data sets results in the Midas List Europe being the most data-driven ranking of its kind. Venture capital has a significant impact on global innovation, and we hope that our analysis and Forbes’ reporting provides some insight into the venture industry, its inner workings, and the VCs that are funding the most impactful companies of tomorrow. As the European tech ecosystem continues to grow, we look forward to recognizing the best venture capital investors in the region each year.

Other details on the Midas model and the quantitative factors that influence the list can be found at the Midas List Europe submission site. If you’re interested in being notified when submissions open each year, please email midas@truebridgecapital. com.

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