At seed stage, venture is still artisanal. But at later stages, it starts to resemble public markets.Rob Hodgkinson · on where data takes over from judgement
Rob Hodgkinson, MD at SignalRank, isn't just another venture person. He's part of a quiet revolution, one that's rewriting how we pick winners in venture capital.
Instead of betting on founders or decks, they bet on investor track records. Instead of chasing hype, they eliminate zeros through an algorithm that mimics the logic of hedge funds.
And just like that, a radically new approach to venture capital reveals itself: high precision, low recall investing at Series B.
- LPs get index-like exposure with vintage diversification.
- Seed investors get pro-rata access they otherwise couldn't afford.
- The SignalRank Index may one day be listed like a public ETF.
It's a new paradigm. An entirely different way to be in venture. The age of artisanal investing is giving way to systematic precision.
And they have gained ground rapidly. SignalRank sees 60% of the Series B market and invests in the top 5%. In two short years, they've become the second most active Series B investor globally, right behind a16z.
Ask yourself: if 50%+ of public assets are indexed, why is venture still hand-crafted?
FIRMS & FUNDS
An index of the top 5% of Series B deals, accessed through the pro rata rights of existing seed investors; a network of around 300 seed partners feeds it roughly 100 Series B term sheets a month.
Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia, YC, Lightspeed
The top co-investors alongside SignalRank at Series B; in 2025 they had already invested in five Sequoia-backed Series Bs.
Named as others doing a good job in the pro rata space.
Europe's biggest hedge fund; about half its AUM runs through the TOPS program, which ranks sell-side broker recommendations.
PEOPLE
Rob Hodgkinson
Managing Director at SignalRank; a VC in London 10 to 15 years ago, then led a video startup acquired in 2019, and moved to the US in 2020.
Keith Teare
Co-founded Europe's first internet service provider and, in 2005, TechCrunch; built the data-led strategy for identifying the top 5% of Series Bs that Rob joined in 2020.
Alfred Winslow Jones
Creator of the first hedge fund, who scored brokers on the performance of their recommendations.
Mark Andreessen, Andre Retterath
Andreessen on VC being one of the last professions to be automated; Retterath's data-driven VC community on pushing the tooling space forward.
Investments thought leader, Big Book of VC.
CONCEPTS & DATA
High precision, low recall
Sector and geography agnostic; the model says no to many great companies because they don't fit the pattern, and misses some unicorns as a result.
20% deal-by-deal carry
Invest $1M, the company 10x's, and the seed partner gets a cheque for $1.8M; deals can close within a week on light diligence of term sheets and cap tables.
Instacart
Used as the case for Series B insulation from post-IPO downside: the last round to make money at the IPO was the Series B.
PitchBook on network effects
Well-networked investors don't just raise the upside, they drastically reduce failure rates.
The full written snapshot of this interview on the Rethink site.