Blackbird tops spicy anonymous VC ranking list, Square Peg respond to missing top 10

An eyebrow-raising ‘VC Leaderboard’ list has revealed the top 25 VCs in Australia and New Zealand, according to startup founders.

Blackbird Ventures has topped the list and says it is pleased to see newer firms also ranking. Square Peg Capital, which was ranked at 11, says its numbers were likely skewed due to its international investments.

“Supporting founders is core to who we are,” a Square Peg representative told SmartCompany.

“We didn’t participate in the list because we’re one of the only Aussie VCs that invests globally so most of our portfolio can’t respond — which means it’s hard to get an accurate ranking for us. We also hesitate to ask founders to take time on things like this.”

“We appreciate the Aussie founders who took the time to respond.”

The list has been developed by Astral Ventures, which says its motivation was to be a “source of truth” when it comes to the “best VCs in the eyes of founders.”

The list is supposed to reflect the most “founder-friendly” investors in Australia and New Zealand, beyond the dollar amounts provided.

Astral asked founders to anonymously submit feedback about VCs they have worked with. It only accepted submissions from founders who raised money with investors listed on Crunchbase.

According to Astral, it verified both the founder and their companies through both, Crunchbase and LinkedIn, to ensure validity.

“A lot of what founders hear about VCs is based on rumour and hearsay…. we’re democratising this information so that founders are more empowered to make decisions regarding their investors,” Astral says on its website.

Astral initially planned to publish its findings after receiving 300 submissions, but it ended up with over 700.

Topping the list was Australian powerhouse Blackbird Ventures, followed by EVP and OIF.

Surprisingly, two other major Australian VC players are missing from the top 10. Square Peg came in at 11 and Airtree was ranked 25.

Airtree did not respond to SmartCompany‘s request for comment.

Blackbird welcomed the news, as well as lists such as this that shed a light on the overall startup ecosystem.

“The ‘hospitality mindset’ has always been at the heart of Blackbird — we work for our founders, they don’t work for us,” Tom Humphrey, partner at Blackbird told SmartCompany.

Humphrey was awarded this new title just this week, having previously been a principal at the firm.

“We appreciate initiatives like this as they help to demystify VC for the ecosystem and give us direct feedback on how we are performing. There’s always more work to be done.”

Humphrey also expressed appreciation for seeing some lesser-known names on the list.

“We’re excited to see some younger and newer firms getting acknowledged, as well as more specialist firms. The diversity of the funds on this list and the unique ways they each support their portfolio founders is a reflection of how much our ecosystem has blossomed,” he said.

“Hopefully community resources like this will continue to grow and help Aussie founders feel more empowered.”