Charles Birnbaum is a partner in Bessemer’s New York office, where he invests in early stage and promising financial services, consumer, and education companies in the U.S. and Europe. He has a strong interest in fintech infrastructure, embedded financial services, and the entrepreneurs that are solving the hardest problems facing both consumers and businesses in our current financial system.
Before joining Bessemer in 2013, Charles was one of the earliest team members at Foursquare, the location-based mobile application and social network, where he helped to bring forth the company’s first merchant-facing tools. During the company’s growth phase, Charles became the director of mobile and international business development and built strategic partnerships with media companies, carriers, and OEMs in key growth markets.
Prior to Foursquare, Charles spent six years in investment banking and equity capital markets focusing on the technology, media, and telecom sectors.
He earned his MBA from the Wharton School, Master of Arts in international studies from the Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania, and a Bachelor of Arts in history from Northwestern University.
“Disruptive fintech companies come in many different flavors – some emphasize the F, some the T. No matter what, they all have to build trust with their consumers, find an innovative hook for distribution, and differentiate around customer experience.”
Alloy helps top banks and fintechs make better decisions using a single API and dashboard to manage Know Your customer (KYC), Anti-Money Laundering (AML), fraud, and more.
Designed for developers, Lithic makes it simple to create payment cards to enable and control spending.
Melio Payments is a B2B payments experience, offering small businesses an easy-to-use tool for paying suppliers and controlling cash flow.
Shift Technology delivers the only AI-native fraud detection and claims automation solutions built specifically for the global insurance industry.
Upvest is an investment API that empowers financial institutions to offer investment products in their app with a modular, scalable, and accessible alternative.
