500 Global

All funds roll up under the US-based 500 Global management company, but deployment is executed through regional vehicles such as 500 Southeast Asia, 500 LatAm, 500 MENA, and 500 Japan. Each region has dedicated general partners who live in-market and lead local investment committees. The firm uses this architecture to maintain a unified brand and single back-office while giving regional teams latitude on deal selection and portfolio support.

500 Startups rebranded to 500 Global in 2021. The name change distanced the firm from the accelerator-only reputation it built from 2010 to 2020 and reflected a strategy that had grown to include growth-stage checks, regional funds on five continents, and a portfolio services arm. The accelerator still runs, but it is now one component of a larger multi-stage platform.

Christine Tsai has been CEO since 2017 and is the controlling partner. She joined as a co-founder in 2010 and previously held product and platform roles at Google and PayPal. Bedy Yang serves as Managing Partner overseeing the venture ecosystem, Khailee Ng runs the Southeast Asia strategy, and Courtney Powell is COO. The management team does not include any of the firm's original PayPal Mafia affiliates.

The firm invests globally but since the mid-2010s has tilted its accelerator cohorts and direct allocations toward markets where institutional venture capital is scarcer — particularly Southeast Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and North Africa. It still writes US checks through its San Francisco accelerator and the Flagship fund series, but proprietary deal flow increasingly comes from outside the US.

Seed-stage accelerator checks typically start at $50,000 to $250,000. Follow-on and growth-stage investments range from $500,000 to $10 million, depending on the vehicle and region. The Growth Fund II closed in September 2024 targets B-stage and C-stage rounds primarily in emerging markets with check sizes in the mid-to-high single-digit millions.

The firm raises from a mix of sovereign wealth funds, development finance institutions, corporate ventures, and family offices. Known LPs include the International Finance Corporation, Temasek, and several Middle Eastern sovereign entities, though the full LP roster is not publicly disclosed. The LP base is intentionally global, matching the geographic distribution of the portfolio.

500 Global runs multiple concurrent accelerator cohorts per year across hubs in San Francisco, Mexico City, Cairo, Tokyo, and other cities, whereas Y Combinator centralizes in San Francisco. 500's program emphasizes go-to-market execution and growth marketing alongside fundraising, and it maintains region-specific deal terms that vary by market. The accelerator is also a direct sourcing engine for the firm's regional growth-stage funds.