The distribution by batch is pretty interesting:

   S2011 10
   W2012 10
   S2012 9
   S2014 7
   W2013 7
   S2013 6
   W2016 6
   W2015 6
   S2016 5
   W2014 5
   S2010 4
   S2015 4
   W2011 4
   S2009 3
   W2008 2
   W2007 2
   W2017 2
   S2006 2
   W2009 1
   W2018 1
   W2010 1
   S2008 1
   S2005 1
   S2007 1

The top three batches were consecutive starting from summer 2011 through summer of 2012. That period happens to also be when the seed and venture capital ecosystem started its recovery from the 2008 crisis [0].

What I wonder is, which way does the arrow of causation point? Did the success of these companies lift the entire ecosystem? Or were macroeconomic factors the dominant driver of capital entering this market, and those three batches happened to benefit?

edit: There's another possibility here, which is that there are two curves that may have maximized for companies around that time period. The first is the batch size, which has increased from ~10 companies to ~100 over the years. And the other curve is that companies take something like 5-10 years to mature. Maybe it's just that the companies of that vintage are just old enough to be really valuable, and that there were enough companies in the batch to push them to the top of this ranking.

My money is on macro effects, though.

[0] https://medium.com/the-mission/state-of-seed-investing-in-20...