- General
- July 7, 2019
- 5 minutes read
A Look At Bloomberg Beta
Bloomberg L.P. CEO Michael Bloomberg Photo by Ralph Alswang/Center for American Progress There are several blue-chip VCs. To name a…
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| Bloomberg L.P. CEO Michael Bloomberg
Photo by Ralph Alswang/Center for American Progress
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There are several blue-chip VCs. To name a few; Sequoia Capital, Formation8, Founders Fund, DST Global, Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures, Tiger Global, Bessemer Venture Partners, Alphabet’s GV, Benchmark, Coatue Management, Microsoft’s M12 and more. The aforementioned VCs have funded several of the world’s tech unicorns, some of which have debuted on the public markets.
In the midst of the many VC funds lies one which has significant presence but doesn’t get as much attention. It’s Bloomberg Beta, an early-stage venture firm funded solely by Bloomberg L.P., a privately held financial software, data, and media company founded and headed by Michael Bloomberg [an entrepreneur more recognized for his stints in politics]. Bloomberg previously served three terms as Mayor of New York City and is a well-known individual in the political field.
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| Bloomberg Beta head Roy Bahat
Photograph by Kevin Moloney/Fortune Brainstorm Tech
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Bloomberg Beta is a VC fund with more than $150 million under management that has backed several big startups. The fund kicked off with $75 million in 2013 and added another $75 million fund three years later. With offices in San Francisco and New York, Bloomberg Beta is in proximity with lots of startups to back as both cities count as two of the world’s biggest startup hubs.
Bloomberg Beta’s portfolio include; Flexport, Slack, goTenna, Codecademy, MasterClass, Slack, AppZen, InfluxData, Deep Genomics, Kaggle and more. The best known among these companies is likely Slack, which just went public in a debut that scored big wins for its investors, Bloomberg Beta included. For a hint, Slack — as of writing — has a roughly $18 billion market cap, more than double a last $7.1 billion [post-money] private valuation before going public.
Another of Bloomberg Beta’s investments, Flexport, recently raised $1 billion at a $3.2 billion valuation. The Softbank Vision Fund [also an investor in Slack and several other tech unicorns] led that round. With Bloomberg Beta’s portfolio, we should definitely take a look and watch for its future performance. Right now, several startups in the fund’s portfolio signals positive judging from later performance. For a hint, a 2016 press release from Bloomberg Beta said its portfolio companies had gone on to raise more than $340 million. Bloomberg Beta is led by some top players in the tech industry.
