Key Takeaways
- • Parkway Venture Capital ranked first among emerging U.S. venture firms (those that raised their first fund in 2016 or later) on the 2026 Strebulaev-Jackson ranking, scoring 3,221 points ahead of Factorial Funds (2,958) and Future Ventures (2,875).
- • Parkway also placed in the top 20 of the companion ranking of the 100 leading U.S. venture firms, a notable result for a firm founded in 2019 against peers that have been investing for more than 30 years.
- • The ranking is built from more than 230,000 investments by nearly 13,000 venture capitalists, covering 2016 through June 30, 2026, and scores realized value rather than unicorn counts, reputation or self-reported returns.
- • Parkway's portfolio company Pasqal began trading on Nasdaq as PSQL on August 28, 2026, after a business combination with Bleichroeder Acquisition Corp. II valued at roughly $2 billion and bringing about $360 million of cash.
Summary
Parkway Venture Capital, a New York and Winter Park, Fla.-based venture firm focused on fundamentally disruptive and AI deep-tech companies, announced on October 13, 2026 that it ranked first on the 2026 Strebulaev-Jackson ranking of the top 100 emerging U.S. venture capital firms, according to a GlobeNewswire release issued by the firm. The ranking was created by Stanford Graduate School of Business professor Ilya Strebulaev and researcher Blake Jackson. It draws on more than 230,000 investments made by nearly 13,000 venture capitalists and discounts private valuations, tracks ownership through dilution, measures net profit against capital deployed, and gives additional credit to investors who led rounds and took board seats. Parkway scored 3,221 points, followed by Factorial Funds at 2,958 and Future Ventures at 2,875, with Paradigm, Craft Ventures and Bedrock completing the top six.
In the companion ranking of the 100 leading U.S. venture firms, Parkway placed in the top 20. Eight of those top 20 firms were founded before 2000, and many peers have invested for more than three decades, so Parkway is one of the few firms founded after 2015 to reach the upper ranks. Managing partner Gregg Hill said the ranking "puts a number on" conviction, noting it counted who wrote the first check, who took the board seat and who stayed through difficult rounds.
The announcement coincided with the public listing of Pasqal, the French neutral-atom quantum computing company that Parkway backed before its listing. Pasqal completed its business combination with Bleichroeder Acquisition Corp. II on August 27, 2026, and began trading on Nasdaq under PSQL on August 28. Shares rose as much as 73% on the first day. The transaction valued Pasqal at roughly $2 billion and placed approximately $360 million of cash on its balance sheet, and the company plans a subsequent Euronext listing. Pasqal has seven quantum processors deployed at national supercomputing centers in France, Germany, Italy and Canada, with three more in production, and counts Saudi Aramco, Crédit Agricole CIB and LG Electronics among its customers. Co-founder Alain Aspect won the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Parkway cited other portfolio positions as evidence of its approach. It led the $70 million Series A in Figure AI in 2023 and the multi-billion-dollar Series C in 2025, and remains among the humanoid-robotics company's largest shareholders. It was the first venture backer of SandboxAQ after the company spun out of Google in 2022, backed xAI's $6 billion Series B in 2024, and led a $2 billion Series A in AI lab Hark in 2026. Co-founder and managing partner Jesse Coors-Blankenship said the firm runs a concentrated book, stating that "you cannot be that involved in 200 companies." The firm also cites TAE Technologies and OXOS Medical among companies on growth trajectories, and says it expects to defend its top ranking in the years ahead.
In the companion ranking of the 100 leading U.S. venture firms, Parkway placed in the top 20. Eight of those top 20 firms were founded before 2000, and many peers have invested for more than three decades, so Parkway is one of the few firms founded after 2015 to reach the upper ranks. Managing partner Gregg Hill said the ranking "puts a number on" conviction, noting it counted who wrote the first check, who took the board seat and who stayed through difficult rounds.
The announcement coincided with the public listing of Pasqal, the French neutral-atom quantum computing company that Parkway backed before its listing. Pasqal completed its business combination with Bleichroeder Acquisition Corp. II on August 27, 2026, and began trading on Nasdaq under PSQL on August 28. Shares rose as much as 73% on the first day. The transaction valued Pasqal at roughly $2 billion and placed approximately $360 million of cash on its balance sheet, and the company plans a subsequent Euronext listing. Pasqal has seven quantum processors deployed at national supercomputing centers in France, Germany, Italy and Canada, with three more in production, and counts Saudi Aramco, Crédit Agricole CIB and LG Electronics among its customers. Co-founder Alain Aspect won the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Parkway cited other portfolio positions as evidence of its approach. It led the $70 million Series A in Figure AI in 2023 and the multi-billion-dollar Series C in 2025, and remains among the humanoid-robotics company's largest shareholders. It was the first venture backer of SandboxAQ after the company spun out of Google in 2022, backed xAI's $6 billion Series B in 2024, and led a $2 billion Series A in AI lab Hark in 2026. Co-founder and managing partner Jesse Coors-Blankenship said the firm runs a concentrated book, stating that "you cannot be that involved in 200 companies." The firm also cites TAE Technologies and OXOS Medical among companies on growth trajectories, and says it expects to defend its top ranking in the years ahead.
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