Forbes Midas List Europe

A regional spin-off of the Midas List that ranks the top 25 venture investors based in Europe and the Middle East by the exits and valuations of their portfolio companies. It is the main individual-investor league table for European venture capital.

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Editions

Edition	Published	Top of the list	On record
2025	December 11, 2025	Danny Rimer	25
2024	December 12, 2024	Pawel Chudzinski	25
2023	November 29, 2023	Avi Eyal	25
2022	December 8, 2022	Danny Rimer	25
2021	December 2021	Jan Hammer	26 of 25
2020	December 2020	Jan Hammer	25
2019	December 2, 2019	Jan Hammer	25
2018	November 2018	Jan Hammer	25
2017	November 6, 2017	Neil Rimer	25

How the ranking works

Eligible investors must live in Europe or the Middle East, invest third-party limited partner capital, and hold portfolios that include European or Middle Eastern companies. A deal counts if the company exited within five years at $100 million or more, or is private at a valuation of $200 million or more (lower thresholds than the global list).

TrueBridge scores deal value and deal count with weights that favor recent deals, earlier-stage entry and higher multiples. Submissions and weights are confidential.

Ranked positions: Each item has a position (1, 2, 3), with ties allowed. Investors submit deal data free of charge through submitmidasdata.com (applications open in October); TrueBridge recommends a separate submission from the global list because thresholds differ. TrueBridge is a venture fund-of-funds.

Read the publisher’s methodology

How far to trust it

Superscout grades every ranking on six criteria, each scored 0 to 2. Forbes Midas List Europe scores 9 of 12, grade B.

Transparency 1/2: Thresholds published, weights not.
Independence 1/2: Free submissions; data partner has commercial ties to venture firms.
Evidence 2/2: Exits, valuations and deal counts.
Stability 2/2: No announced method break since 2017.
Coverage 1/2: Top 25 only.
Track record 2/2: Nine editions.

History

Forbes and TrueBridge launched Midas List Europe in November 2017 with Neil Rimer of Index Ventures at No. 1. Early editions covered Europe and Israel; recent editions describe the scope as Europe and the Middle East. Jan Hammer led four straight editions (2018 to 2021). Forbes' labeling shifted: the December 2024 release was promoted as the '2025 Midas List Europe', and the December 2025 release, billed as the ninth annual, also carries 2025 in its title.

How it is received

The list is widely publicized by European firms, and Forbes coverage frames it around London's weight in European venture and the rise of German and Israeli investors. No substantive published criticism specific to the European list was found in this research pass; the general Midas critiques about submissions, unrealized valuations and confidential weights apply.

Strengths

Regional list gives European investors a table sized to their market.
Deal-data based with published thresholds.
Free to submit.
Nine consecutive annual editions.

Weaknesses

Only 25 names.
Edition labels are inconsistent between Forbes press releases and list data.
Scope wording shifted from Europe and Israel to Europe and the Middle East.
Weights and submissions are confidential.

Open questions

Facts not verified yet. They stay visible so they are not mistaken for settled facts.

Exact publication days for the 2018, 2020 and 2021 editions are uncertain (API timestamps fall near midnight UTC); month precision used.
TrueBridge's site describes the list as covering Europe, the Middle East and Africa, while Forbes says Europe and the Middle East; the African scope was not confirmed.
Firm field for the joint Sohoni and Espinal entry in 2021 is blank in the API (both were at Seedcamp in 2020).

Superscout describes Forbes Midas List Europe independently from the publisher’s own pages and outside coverage, linked below. The rankings belong to Forbes.

Suggest a correction How the research works

Sources and known limits

Last reviewed Sep 23, 2026.