Bessemer Venture Partners
Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP) is an American venture capital and private equity firm headquartered in San Francisco, California. The firm traces its origins to 1911, making it among the oldest institutional venture capital organizations in the United States. It manages approximately $20 billion in assets as of 2022 and maintains offices in the United States, India, Israel, Hong Kong, and the United Kingdom.1 Its portfolio includes LinkedIn, Pinterest, Shopify, Twilio, Yelp, Skype, Box, Wix, SendGrid, and Fiverr. In 2024, Venture Capital Journal ranked BVP third among all venture firms by total fundraising over the prior five-year period.8
Origins
In 1911, Henry Phipps Jr., a co-founder of Carnegie Steel Company alongside Andrew Carnegie, established Bessemer Trust in New York to manage his family's wealth following Carnegie Steel's sale to J.P. Morgan and the formation of U.S. Steel in 1901.15 At the same time, Phipps spun out Bessemer Securities as a separate entity with $20 million in initial assets under management, investing across venture capital deals, publicly traded securities, and real estate.1
In 1974, Bessemer Trust began accepting outside investors. Bessemer Securities continued managing exclusively the Phipps family's capital, a structure that allowed it to pursue riskier private investments in technology and medical companies without the constraints of a traditional outside-investor fund.13
In 1975, Bessemer Securities opened a Silicon Valley office, positioning itself early in the geography that would become the center of the American technology industry.1
By 1986, Bessemer Securities had grown to $950 million in assets under management and had expanded its team with specialized venture capital professionals.3 The venture capital investment operation was eventually spun out separately as Bessemer Venture Partners, with Bessemer Securities remaining as the parent company and capital provider.1
Fund history
For the majority of its existence, Bessemer Venture Partners deployed capital exclusively from the Phipps family fortune via Bessemer Securities. It was not until 2007 that BVP closed its seventh fund — the first fund in which it accepted capital from outside investors beyond the Phipps family.1
In April 2011, BVP closed a $1.6 billion fund, its eighth, allocating approximately 25% to investments in India.7 In September 2022, the firm announced its twelfth early-stage fund at $3.85 billion, alongside the launch of BVP Forge, a private equity buyout vehicle that closed its first fund at $780 million.61
Portfolio
Bessemer Venture Partners has backed more than 420 portfolio companies and supported over 150 IPOs and deSPACs across its history.1 Notable investments include:
- LinkedIn — professional networking platform; acquired by Microsoft for $26.2 billion in 2016
- Pinterest — image-sharing and discovery platform; IPO'd in April 2019
- Shopify — e-commerce platform; IPO'd in May 2015
- Twilio — cloud communications platform; IPO'd in June 2016
- Yelp — local business review platform; IPO'd in March 2012
- Skype — internet calling service; acquired by eBay in 2005 for $2.6 billion, later sold to Microsoft
- Box — cloud content management; IPO'd in January 2015
- Wix — website builder platform; IPO'd in November 2011
- SendGrid — email delivery service; IPO'd in 2017, acquired by Twilio for $3 billion in 2019
- Fiverr — freelance services marketplace; IPO'd in June 2019
- Mindbody — wellness business software
- Canva — Australian design platform (co-investor)1
The anti-portfolio
Bessemer Venture Partners maintains a publicly accessible page on its website titled "The Anti-Portfolio," listing companies the firm had the opportunity to invest in but declined.2 The page is notable for its candor: each entry includes the specific reasoning — or lack thereof — that led to the pass.
- Google (1999–2000): Partner David Cowan's college friend rented her garage to Sergey Brin and Larry Page during Google's first year. She repeatedly tried to introduce Cowan to "these two really smart Stanford students writing a search engine." Cowan wrote: "Students? A new search engine? In the most important moment ever for Bessemer's anti-portfolio, Cowan asked her, 'How can I get out of this house without going anywhere near your garage?'"2
- Apple: Bessemer had the opportunity to invest in pre-IPO Apple secondary stock at a $60 million valuation. Partner Neill Brownstein called it "outrageously expensive."2
- Facebook (2004): Partner Jeremy Levine spent a weekend at a corporate retreat "dodging persistent Harvard undergrad Eduardo Saverin's rabid pitch," and told him: "Kid, haven't you heard of Friendster? Move on. It's over!"2
- FedEx: Bessemer passed on Federal Express seven times.2
- Intel: Pete Bancroft never settled on terms with Bob Noyce, who then took financing from Arthur Rock.2
- Airbnb (2010): Partner Jeremy Levine met Brian Chesky in January 2010, the first $100,000 revenue month. He found Chesky's $40 million valuation ask excessive and planned to reconnect in May. By April, Airbnb had raised at 1.5 times that price. Airbnb went public in December 2020 at a $47 billion valuation.2
- Tesla (2006): Partner Byron Deeter met the team, test-drove a Roadster, and put a deposit on the car. He passed on the investment, citing negative margins. Tesla's market capitalization exceeded $30 billion in 2014.2
- Zoom: Partner Alex Ferrara found Zoom impressive after evaluating it but passed on the Series B in 2014, citing a crowded video conferencing market. BVP later invested at Zoom's IPO at a $9 billion valuation.2
The anti-portfolio page was one of the first public instances of a venture firm formally acknowledging and publishing its misses. BVP has noted the page also includes investments in a wig company, a french-fry company, and the Lahaina, Ka'anapali & Pacific Railroad.2
International operations
BVP began investing outside the United States in 2000, extending to India, Israel, Latin America, and Europe.1 The firm opened offices in India and Israel, which became significant investment hubs. It briefly operated a China office before closing it in 2006.1 The firm's India office has backed companies including Naukri.com (Info Edge), Policybazaar, and Swiggy. Its Israel office has backed companies including Wix, Fiverr, and Monday.com.
BVP Forge
In 2021, Bessemer Venture Partners established a private equity team as an extension of its operations. In September 2022, that team — operating under the name BVP Forge — closed its first buyout fund at $780 million. The launch marked BVP's entry into control-oriented private equity alongside its longstanding minority venture activity.61