Strategy

BVP's interest in more-efficient production methods dates to its founder's application of the Bessemer process to steel making, which reduced the time required to refine iron into steel from days to minutes. In the Cleantech practice, BVP's investors combine their backgrounds in process engineering, waste recycling, semiconductors and consulting to help young companies deliver the innovative technologies essential to meet the world's growing need for environmentally friendly products and services. The portfolio now includes companies from around the globe providing a diverse set of solutions; from creating high-performance and environmentally green batteries to generating power from rice by-products.

In addition to Bessemer's long history of successful enterprise software investing, we have been particularly focused on the emergence of Cloud Computing. We believe Cloud Computing is the most important trend in the software industry of the decade. We have been fortunate to work with many of the early pioneers in this high growth market segment, and continue to invest actively to grow our current portfolio. We define Cloud Computing as the umbrella encompassing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Platforms-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS). Historically, we have been very active in the SaaS space and will continue to do so.  However, as cloud computing has expanded beyond just providing applications as a service, so has our practice.

BVP has a long history of investment in the financial services. The 1970s saw it investing in bank services roll-ups; thereafter it moved into areas as diverse as investment services (Quadriserve, LifeHarbor, Gerson Lehrman, Motilal Oswal and Soleil) and personal banking (Truaxis, Shriram City Financial, and Zopa). Blending technology and financial expertise and experience, the partners at BVP can understand and anticipate the changes occur in this rapidly evolving sector.

BVP has invested in healthcare-related companies for more than two decades. Drawing on our investors’ experience in medicine, science, information technology, and management, BVP has backed developers of innovative therapeutics - Isis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ISIP) and Sirtris (NASDAQ:SIRT); providers of healthcare service - VistaCare (NASDAQ:VSTA) and U.S. Behavioral Health (acquired by United Healthcare, NYSE:UBH); and suppliers of healthcare information technology - GMIS (NASDAQ:GMIS) and Allscripts (NASDAQ:MDRX). As the world's healthcare needs increase, we relish the opportunity to support entrepreneurs who will create the innovations of tomorrow.

India's vibrant economy offers huge potential in fulfilling demand for both domestic and export consumption. Just as BVP saw the long term opportunity when it entered Silicon Valley in the 1970s, the firm sees a similar opportunity in India driven by the growth in middle class prosperity and innovation. BVP's investment advisory team combines local knowledge and technical expertise with a global platform to help guide portfolio copmaines to global success. Since 2004, BVP has invested in 21 companies and established a 14-person Mumbai-based advisory team.

BVP has been investing in Israel since 1992 and opened an office in Herzliya in 2007. The partners consider companies at many stages, from seed to growth, and across a number of sectors - Software, Internet, Semiconductors, Storage, Communications, and Cleantech.

Bessemer’s history in communications spans more than three decades, dating back to companies like Ungermann-Bass, which pioneered local area networking (the term “LAN” was actually coined in the living room of BVP’s Neill Brownstein).  Our investments have followed the rapid evolution of the communications landscape with many of our recent investments focused on the mobile space around the themes of mobile device penetration, the consumer experiences they enable, and the challenges these devices bring to operators.

BVP has participated in each successive wave of innovation in retail since the mid-1980s, starting with our investments in big box retailers, Staples and The Sports Authority. In the late 1990s, we funded several first generation Internet retailers such as Blue Nile and eToys. Today, we are looking to invest in Internet retailers targeting segments large enough to sustain a meaningful new consumer brand. Our portfolio company Diapers.com is a leading example of an emerging category killer. We also believe there are opportunities to help existing off-line brands leverage the Internet as a powerful distribution channel. Our investments in Delivery Agent and OneStop Internet are consistent with this theme.

Bessemer’s Internet Trust investment practice ranks among our most successful, and we’re proud to have funded more leading innovators in data security and trust than any other venture capital firm (as far as we know). At last count we’ve made 22 investments that have led to five IPOs and ten acquisitions by public companies. At the time we exited these investments, they accounted for over thirty billion dollars of enterprise value and nearly 20,000 jobs.