Year In Review

To our founders, leaders, partners, & friends

No great invention is ever built without a high degree of risk. But that’s exactly what makes the most audacious founders the very ones to shape the future. Now more than ever, grit, capital efficiency, and ingenuity are invaluable qualities to possess. Despite the challenging market and global uncertainty, we remain confident that tomorrow’s leaders are the ones building today.

Wish I Knew

Why risks lead to growth

In November, we launched a new podcast, Wish I Knew, that explores the lessons entrepreneurs learned from the risks they took in order to grow. In the spirit of one of Bessemer’s core values, intellectual honesty, leaders from Dreamworks, Dropbox, Twitter, StubHub, Zola, Chief, and Stanford University share their hardest and most impactful decisions. Tune in.

Jeffrey Katzenberg & Sujay Jaswa, Quibi

Carolyn Childers, Co-Founder & CEO of Chief

Eric Baker, Co-Founder & CEO, StubHub

Dr. Tina Seelig, Stanford professor and entrepreneur

Shan-Lyn Ma, Co-Founder & CEO of Zola

Dick Costolo, former CEO of Twitter

Supporting founders the way we do best

Two new funds. This year, we announced the closing of two funds, $3.85 billion for BVP XII, the firm’s twelfth flagship fund, and $780 million for the inaugural BVP Forge fund for growth-focused private equity. Fresh funds will allow us to continue our mission to back entrepreneurs and management teams at scale, across all stages of growth, from seed to IPO and beyond.

Living by our values. As our team grows, Bessemer continues to commit to six core values that help us support founders and do our best work: curiosity; learning and mentorship; innovation; intellectual honesty; empowerment; and collaboration.

Companies making an impact

Atomo, HiBob, Phantom Auto, and Sila make TIME’s Best Inventions of 2022

FOLX Health offers monkeypox vaccine appointments

Gloss Genius gives the beauty industry a makeover with $25M in funding

Guild raises Series F at a $4.4 billion valuation

Generative AI startup Jasper raises a $125M Series A to auto-generate blog posts

Lumachain raises a $19.5 million Series A to transform meat production

Melio and TRM Labs make Forbes Fintech 50 2022

Peptone raises $40 million Series A to revolutionize drug development

Rupa Health raised $20M to give patients the power of their own healthcare data

NFT trading platform Sorare announces partnership with NBA

Zenskar improves billing workflows

Zopper's $75 million Series C to automate insurance infrastructure in India

The rise of the Centaur

The Centaur is a business that reaches $100 million of annual recurring revenue (ARR)—a rare breed of cloud business, part of an elite subset of the growing unicorn herd.

State of the Cloud

We uncover the year’s top trends and insights in the global cloud economy.

The Centaur Report 2022

A look into the successful strategies that drove top private cloud companies to $100 million ARR.

Leading in an economic downturn

This year’s top Cloud 100 CEOs share their wisdom on how to focus on a business’s long-term mission.

Roadmaps

At Seed Summit, an annual event where we bring together the early stage investing community, Bessemer shares its deep thinking on a number of the firm’s roadmaps.

Vertical SaaS SMB

Kent Bennett, Hansae Catlett, and Caty Rea share the latest evolution of the vertical software roadmap, how embedded fintech solutions inspired new products and business models within the category, and where the Bessemer team is looking to invest next.

Growing health tech businesses

After studying the performance of 50 top healthcare technology businesses, Steve Kraus and Sofia Guerra reveal the fundamental trends and benchmarks leaders need to know about healthcare SaaS and tech-enabled services.

Generative AI

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) models are reinventing communication, content creation, and information access. In this roadmap, Talia Goldberg explores the technological advancements driving AI solutions and how these changes are opening up new promising areas for investment.

Consumer crypto

Despite the current "crypto winter," Ethan Kurzweil and Lindsey Li reflect on why they're still motivated to invest in this mega platform shift, where they're seeing the most promising investment opportunities, and how the consumer landscape could possibly evolve with the adoption and progress of web3 advancements.

Must-reads ICYMI

We are biased, of course, but we think this curated reading list of predictions, benchmarks and insights for the entrepreneurs who are building for tomorrow.

Is AI generation the next platform shift?

DeSci 101

The evolution of machine learning infrastructure

Eight lessons from the first climate tech boom and bust

The Rise of SaaS in India

Four CEOs leading in an economic downturn

Direct-to-clinician—How product-led growth is changing healthcare and life sciences

Benchmarks for growing health tech businesses

Five laws for community-led growth

Software for powering the PLG era

A brainstorming framework for aspiring founders

Scaling from $1 to $10 million ARR

Forge ahead to 2023

Markets may go through cyclical seasons, but with experimentation and persistence, businesses can strive for and achieve sustainable growth. Whether it’s a bull or bear market, it’s always the right time to innovate and build for a better future.