500 Global was founded in 2010 as 500 Startups by Dave McClure and Christine Tsai in Mountain View, building an early-stage venture fund and seed accelerator around a genuinely global thesis when most Silicon Valley firms invested almost exclusively in US-based founders. That international focus, combined with a structured accelerator curriculum and a first cohort of just 12 startups in 2011, grew the firm into one of the most geographically diversified venture platforms in the world. Christine Tsai became CEO in 2017 after McClure resigned following multiple allegations of inappropriate conduct toward female entrepreneurs, and she rebranded the firm to 500 Global in 2021 to reflect its expanded international footprint. The firm has since backed more than 2,600 companies across 80-plus countries, producing 35-plus unicorns including Canva, Credit Karma, Grab, and Twilio, with $2.7 billion currently under management.
Twilio's NYSE IPO under ticker TWLO - one of 500 Global's earliest and most consequential bets, backed years before it became a category-defining cloud communications company