Bessemer Venture Partners welcomes Sameer Dholakia as partner and co-lead of the growth investment practice

We have always believed that strong relationships are the foundation of everything we do—from the people who make up our incredible Bessemer team to the longstanding partnerships with our entrepreneurs. In that spirit, we welcome a long time friend of the firm and a former key leader within our portfolio: Sameer Dholakia will be our newest partner of Bessemer’s growth investment practice. 

We are excited to welcome Sameer and his wealth of knowledge in building and scaling great companies to our partnership. Our relationship first began in 2014 when Sameer was appointed CEO of SendGrid, a Bessemer portfolio company acquired by Twilio in 2019, and continued through his tenure at Twilio SendGrid. Since then, Sameer has gone on to join the board of directors at several leading cloud companies within our portfolio, including Auth0, PagerDuty, and ServiceTitan.

“I have had the pleasure of working with Sameer since his earliest days at SendGrid, and know we are extremely fortunate to have such a well-respected business leader, person and operator join Bessemer,” said Partner Byron Deeter. "Sameer leads with integrity and is someone who has strong instincts for identifying growth opportunities which will make him a great partner for the best CEOs and founders."  

At Bessemer, Sameer will co-lead the growth practice and our Century fund alongside Partner Elliott Robinson, and will work closely with the entire growth team to further scale the practice. His investment focus will center on high-growth cloud businesses, where he will offer perspective grounded in experience as these companies navigate the unique challenges faced at this stage in their trajectory and as they march toward an IPO.

“I look forward to partnering with Sameer and leverage his expertise as we continue investing in industry-defining companies,” said Elliott Robinson. “Sameer has led software companies through pivotal moments of growth, expansion and transformation, and his deep knowledge will benefit the current and future founders who partner with Bessemer.”

“I am delighted to be joining the Bessemer team after continued admiration for the firm and its partners,” said Sameer Dholakia. “After working alongside the partnership, both as a CEO and board member, it was a clear fit for me to join the already impressive group at Bessemer. It’s invigorating to begin a new chapter as an investor and support and advise companies from a new lens.”

Sameer joins Bessemer on May 9 and will be based in our Redwood City office.