The mind-boggling wealth accumulated by giant venture capital firms has never been more relevant to your life. With their investment tactics, they’ve grown portfolios with total values that put many countries’ gross domestic products (GDPs) to shame. 

You contribute to their mountain of wealth daily, and now you have an opportunity to invest in businesses before they explode in value.

SoftBank Vision Fund, Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital are the world’s three biggest venture capital firms. Combined, they manage over $229 billion. To put that into perspective, the GDP of Greece, a developed country of almost 11 million, is less than that at $214.9 billion.

SoftBank owns stakes in TikTok parent company ByteDance Ltd., Alibaba Group and Nvidia Corp. Andreessen Horowitz owns shares of Meta Platforms Inc., Airbnb Inc. and Pinterest, while Sequoia owns Apple Inc., 23andMe and Stripe Inc. These are the firms’ more notable investments made. Their portfolios include dozens of other companies whose shares they acquired during funding rounds.

Many of those startups never get to a successful exit, but those that do win so much money that the losses hardly matter. Investing $1,000 in Microsoft Corp. at its initial public offering (IPO) would be worth around $5.1 million today. The same amount invested in Apple when it was listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market would be worth $1.9 million now. 

Venture capital firms made even more since they secured their stakes before IPOs. Before the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, only institutional investors could own shares of pre-IPO companies. But now, so can you. You can start putting together your portfolio with as little as $1,000.

While venture capital firms are a great source of knowledge and resources for young companies, some startups choose to go their own way. The perfect way for them to retain freedom while securing funds is to create a crowdfunding campaign. It gives them the necessary funds, while nonaccredited and accredited investors can add shares of early-stage startups to their portfolios — sometimes for as little as $150.

You can browse Benzinga’s selection of startups that you can partially own. Before doing so, make sure that you’re comfortable with high-risk angel investing. Because the minimum investment is low for most startups, consider mitigating the risk by investing in more than one. 

Click here to become an angel investor.

Want to get in on the action yourself?

Check out Benzinga's favorite options for investing in early-stage companies with potential for massive growth.

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