Bessemer raises $5.75 billion and doubles down on Israeli startups
The venture firm is putting $1.75 billion into early-stage companies and launching a $4 billion growth fund as startups stay private for longer.
Bessemer Venture Partners is raising $5.75 billion across two new funds, betting that the AI boom will not only create a new generation of startups but also change how venture capital firms finance them.
The U.S. investment firm announced Wednesday that it has closed $1.75 billion for seed and early-stage investments and another $4 billion for a new growth fund. The split reflects a shift in the economics of building technology companies, with AI allowing startups to develop and scale faster, while companies are also remaining private for longer and reaching much larger valuations before entering the public markets.
The new funds will also give Bessemer more capital to invest in Israeli startups. Adam Fisher, the partner who established the firm’s Israel operations, said Bessemer has doubled the pace of its investments in the country over the past two years, spanning both early and growth-stage companies.
“Over the past two years, we have doubled the pace of our investments in Israel, from seed through growth,” Fisher said.
Bessemer has operated in Israel since 2007 and says it has invested in approximately 80 Israeli startups, more than half of them at the seed stage. Over the past two years, roughly two-thirds of its Israeli investments have been at the early stage.
The firm’s new funds come after a period in which AI has compressed the time and capital required to build certain types of technology companies, while simultaneously creating enormous demand for infrastructure, software and new applications.
Since 2022, Bessemer says it has invested more than $3 billion in more than 260 AI-native companies. Its investments span the AI stack, from computing and infrastructure to foundation models, developer platforms, applications and AI agents.
The firm says approximately 70% of its investments are still made at the early stages. The $1.75 billion fund is intended to preserve that strategy, while the other $4 billion fund addresses a different part of the market.
Bessemer is establishing a dedicated growth platform for the first time, reflecting the growing amount of capital and value being created before companies reach the public markets. The fund will allow the firm to make larger investments in existing portfolio companies as well as new opportunities.
That change is already visible in Bessemer’s Israeli portfolio. Over the past year, the firm has led growth rounds in companies it initially backed at an earlier stage, including networking company DriveNets. It has also made growth investments in companies such as Port and Upwind.
Bessemer led Upwind's $250 million financing in January at a $1.5 billion valuation. In September, Upwind raised another $300 million at a valuation of approximately $3.8 billion, with Bessemer and TCV again leading the round.
Bessemer’s Israeli portfolio also includes cybersecurity companies Onyx, Torq and Neo, as well as AI companies Zyg, Unframe, Wonderful and Double AI.
The firm has recorded 24 exits from its Israeli investments since opening its local office, including the IPOs of Wix and Fiverr and acquisitions involving companies such as Melio and Habana.
Bessemer says it has backed more than 450 companies globally and now manages $20 billion in assets. Its portfolio includes companies such as Anthropic, Canva, Shopify, LinkedIn and Perplexity.
