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.
Born and raised in New York City, Charles always had a strong desire to get out and explore the world. He ended up studying abroad during both college and business school and has since traveled to 47 countries — and counting. While he still considers himself a New Yorker, Charles’ global perspective has led him to invest in financial markets all over the world, including France, Germany, and Brazil.
Charles views investing in the financial services industry as an exercise in history — the subject he happened to majored in at Northwestern University. This historical perspective was informed by one of his favorite books, “The House of Morgan,” which chronicles the creation of the modern banking system. While emerging technologies in real-time payments and decentralized finance are novel, they’re also addressing age-old concepts in banking, insurance, lending, and capital markets that have evolved over several centuries.
Charles sees the importance of getting to know founders before jumping into a long-term partnership. Even though he initially passed on Alloy’s seed round, Charles kept in touch with the startup’s co-founders. Over the next few years, as he worked with more fintech companies, he gained a deeper understanding of the identity management problem Alloy was tackling. His conviction in Alloy grew steadily, but he had a real “aha” when he learned that one of his portfolio companies had signed up Alloy as a vendor. Charles immediately called Alloy co-founder Tommy Nicholas and dropped by their office that same day. He had almost missed the chance to investing in Alloy’s Series A, but because their relationship had already been established, Charles moved fast to give Alloy a term sheet, and led Alloy’s Series A in 2019.
Running is more than just exercise for Charles — it’s his time to think, reflect, and often make important investment decisions. For the past decade, he logged over a thousand miles annually and completed seven marathons, including New York, Boston, Berlin, and Chicago. His next goal is to knock down the remaining two World Marathon Majors — London and Tokyo — with his family cheering him on.
Charles is always available for the entrepreneurs he works with and holds frequent check-ins to understand what’s going on with them, both in their personal lives and with the business. He’s not afraid to ask hard questions — whether things are going well or poorly — and tailors his advice to each company’s unique situation. Charles always tries to be a responsive, engaged partner who actively listens and jumps in to help when needed, whether that’s connecting CEOs with someone who’s faced similar challenges or recommending a specific vendor to solve a problem.
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.
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