Bessemer Venture Partners

About

Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP) traces its origins to 1911, when Henry Phipps Jr., a co-founder of Carnegie Steel, established Bessemer Trust in New York to manage his family’s assets ¹². Phipps spun out Bessemer Securities as a separate entity to pursue venture capital, publicly traded securities, and real estate investments ¹. In 1986, the venture capital arm formally became Bessemer Venture Partners, operating independently while still receiving funding from Bessemer Securities ¹². In 2007, BVP raised its first fund from outside investors (Bessemer Venture Partners VII), marking the firm’s transition to an institutional venture capital model ¹.

The firm is headquartered in Redwood City, California, with offices in San Francisco, New York, Boston, London, Tel Aviv, Bangalore, and Hong Kong ³⁴. BVP manages over $9 billion in assets and has made more than 1,339 investments across 13 funds ⁵⁶. In 2024, Venture Capital Journal ranked BVP as the third-largest venture capital firm by total fundraising over the prior five-year period ⁵.

In 2025, BVP closed two new funds: BVP Forge II at $1 billion and India Fund II at $350 million ⁷. The firm also operates the Century II growth fund at $825 million, targeting companies with potential to reach $10 billion valuations ⁸.

BVP has backed companies through more than 150 IPOs, including Shopify, Twilio, LinkedIn, Pinterest, PagerDuty, DocuSign, Wix, Fiverr, and Toast ²⁹. The firm is also famous for its “anti-portfolio” — a candid public list of companies BVP passed on investing in, including Google, Apple, Facebook, PayPal, Tesla, Airbnb, and FedEx (which it passed on seven times) ¹⁰.

BVP operates with an autonomous partner model — there is no CEO or central investment committee, and each partner has independent decision-making authority ¹¹.

Stated Thesis

BVP publicly describes its mission as partnering with “audacious entrepreneurs building enduring businesses” ². The firm champions “conviction, not consensus” in its investment approach, with each partner developing deep “roadmaps” in specific sectors rather than chasing trends ¹¹.

Jeremy Levine has described the firm’s operating model: “We work in a highly disaggregated, empowered manner where any partner who puts in the time, effort, and capital can make investments” ¹¹. Brian Feinstein has stated: “It’s not about chasing momentum. It’s not about pursuing the consensus opportunities. It’s about developing a thesis and pursuing ideas that might be off the beaten path” ¹¹.

The firm publicly commits $1 billion specifically to AI investments and maintains dedicated practices in cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, fintech, healthcare, vertical software, deep tech, and crypto/Web3 (with $250 million in dedicated crypto funding) ²¹².

Kent Bennett has articulated the firm’s culture: “Our most long-standing tradition is actually rethinking traditions” ¹¹.

Inferred Thesis

Based on BVP’s publicly verified portfolio and recent activity, the following patterns emerge. Note: BVP has 1,339 total investments across 13 funds ⁵, but detailed stage and sector data is available for a subset; percentages below are based on the portfolio companies visible on the BVP website and recent reporting.

Sector distribution (based on companies listed on bvp.com/companies ⁹): BVP’s portfolio is heavily weighted toward enterprise software and cloud (the largest category), followed by AI/ML, consumer, healthcare, fintech, cybersecurity, vertical software, developer tools, deep tech, and marketplaces. Cloud and AI together represent the dominant investment focus.

Stage distribution: BVP invests across the full venture spectrum from seed through growth. The firm operates separate early-stage (flagship fund), growth (Century II), and specialized (Forge, India) vehicles ⁷⁸. Recent IPOs and portfolio data suggest a significant emphasis on Series A/B investments with growth follow-ons.

Geographic distribution: BVP maintains a global footprint with dedicated India and Israel teams ³⁴. Recent investments and IPOs include companies from the US (Hinge Health, StubHub), India (Urban Company, NephroPlus), and Israel (multiple cybersecurity companies) ⁷.

Co-investor patterns: BVP frequently co-invests with other top-tier firms including Sequoia, Accel, and Andreessen Horowitz across its portfolio.

Notable behavioral patterns: - The firm publishes extensive thought leadership including the annual State of the Cloud report, Cloud 100 (with Forbes), and BVP Nasdaq Emerging Cloud Index ¹³. - BVP’s anti-portfolio suggests a historical pattern of occasionally passing on consumer internet companies (Google, Facebook, Airbnb) while excelling at enterprise and infrastructure bets ¹⁰. - The firm launched Founders Garage (with Twilio founder Jeff Lawson) and Bessemer Beam (a pre-incubator for academics transitioning to AI startups) in 2025 ⁷.

Portfolio

This table represents a small subset of BVP’s 1,339 total investments ⁵. A comprehensive portfolio list is available at bvp.com/companies ⁹.

In Their Own Words

“We work in a highly disaggregated, empowered manner where any partner who puts in the time, effort, and capital can make investments.” — Jeremy Levine, Partner, BVP website ¹¹

“We don’t need to ask anyone permission. Instead, we ask each other for feedback on investment decisions that we have the authority to make.” — Jeremy Levine, Partner, BVP website ¹¹

“Autonomy is so important to us. We like to think we’ve cracked the code on scaling by enabling each partner to pursue investment areas as they see fit.” — Brian Feinstein, Partner, BVP website ¹¹

“It’s not about chasing momentum. It’s not about pursuing the consensus opportunities. It’s about developing a thesis and pursuing ideas that might be off the beaten path.” — Brian Feinstein, Partner, BVP website ¹¹

“The thing I fall hardest for is wild capital efficiency.” — Jeremy Levine, Partner, BVP website ¹¹

“The investments that succeeded had products that were clearly superior to the existing alternatives.” — Kent Bennett, Partner, BVP website ¹¹

“People just say what they are thinking. There’s no politics or salesmanship because there’s no founder of the corner office that you have to worry about offending.” — Kent Bennett, Partner, on BVP’s culture, BVP website ¹¹

What Founders Say

A portfolio founder strongly recommends Bessemer to entrepreneurs, noting that partner Jeremy Levine “was able to understand the strength and weakness of the business fast and gave direct candid feedback” ¹⁴.

Another founder reported being connected with an in-house industry expert, noting that BVP asked good questions and provided upfront communication about fit ¹⁴.

A founder described Rob Stavis as “an excellent board member” ¹⁴.

However, founder experiences are not universally positive. One founder reported having three different Associates contact them while the firm was soliciting them, with Associates being late to or missing calls and two Associates calling simultaneously without coordination ¹⁴.

Sources