500 Startups (now operating as 500 Global) is an early-stage venture capital firm and global accelerator founded in 2010 by Dave McClure and Christine Tsai in Mountain View, California, formally rebranded to 500 Global in 2022 while retaining the 500 Startups name in references to its early portfolio and accelerator batches.
The firm operates a multi-week startup accelerator program, an evergreen seed fund investing in several hundred companies per year, and a portfolio of country- and theme-specific funds across more than seventy markets. 500 has historically been one of the most prolific early-stage investors by check count, with thousands of companies and founders backed across its programs; notable portfolio companies include Canva, Credit Karma, Talkdesk, Twilio, and Grab. Christine Tsai became sole CEO in 2018, after which she oversaw the firm's rebrand and the broadening of its strategy toward later-stage growth capital alongside its seed programs.