Bloomberg Beta

Bloomberg Beta is an early stage venture capital firm with $225M under management, capitalized solely by Bloomberg. The fund exists to expand Bloomberg’s horizons by investing in companies that are creating profound change in the way business operates,[1] with a focus on machine intelligence and the future of work. Bloomberg Beta was recognized by VC review site CB Insights as the #2 investor in AI.[2]

Bloomberg Beta
IndustryVenture Capital
FoundedJune 2013 (2013-06)
FounderBloomberg L.P.
Headquarters
San Francisco, California
,
United States
Key people
Roy Bahat
Karin Klein
James Cham
Total assets$225 million
Websitewww.bloombergbeta.com

Led by technology business operator and entrepreneur Roy Bahat, Bloomberg Beta has an unconventional investing model where anyone on the team can independently say yes to a deal. The fund's operating manual is publicly available online.[3]

Bloomberg Beta launched in June 2013 with $75 million of funding from Bloomberg L.P.[4][5] A second fund of $75 million[6] was announced in July 2016. In October 2019, they announced a third fund of $75 million.[7] Bloomberg Beta is headquartered in San Francisco, California, with additional operations in New York City.

Areas where Bloomberg Beta invests[8] include: content discovery, cybersecurity, data sets and services, developer tools, full-stack startups using technology to compete in a new way, hardware, human-computer interaction, learning, media distribution, new organizational models, open-source software, productivity tools, professional networks, technology platforms, workflow tools, and workplace communication.

Bloomberg Beta uses data to find new customers. Their "Future Founders"[9] project started in 2014[10] to predict who will start companies before they do.[11]

In 2014, Bloomberg Beta began publishing an annual Machine Intelligence landscape to better understand what was happening in the startup ecosystem with artificial intelligence and machine learning.[12]

In May 2017, Bahat co-founded and co-chaired The Shift Commission on Work, Workers, and Technology to study the effects of AI on work 10-20 years out, alongside the president of think-tank New America, Anne-Marie Slaughter.

Bloomberg Beta is the organizer behind "Comeback Cities,"[13] taking groups of venture capitalists[14] and members of congress[15] on bus tours throughout America[16] to find untapped beds of talent and entrepreneurship.[17]

Partners

Bloomberg Beta consists of three full-time partners: Roy Bahat, Karin Klein, and James Cham.

Bahat is a Commissioner on the California Future of Work Commission,[18] a lecturer at UC Berkeley, was the founding chairman of OUYA, a Kickstarter-backed game console, and former president of IGN Entertainment. He is a board member at the Center for Investigative Reporting. He was named one of Fast Company's most Creative People in Business, has served in the government and led a non-profit, and worked at established corporations and day-zero startups. He graduated from Harvard, and was a Rhodes Scholar.

Klein has more than twenty years of operating and venture capital experience[19] and runs Beta's East Coast investing activities. She currently serves on the board of Paramount Group[20] (NYSE: PGRE), Regency Centers[21] (S&P 500: REG), and L'Oreal Women in Digital.[22] Prior to launching Bloomberg Beta, she led new initiatives at Bloomberg, oversaw Softbank's venture team that reviewed new investments, and co-founded an educational training business for children. She has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is a Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the Annenberg School of Communications and The Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania.

Cham speaks[23] and writes[24] on the implications of AI for companies,[25] including a landscape of machine intelligence companies. Cham was previously a principle at Trinity Ventures and Vice President at Bessemer Venture Partners, where he worked on investments Twilio, Dropcam, and Lifelock. He's a former software developer and management consultant. He has an M.B.A from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was an undergraduate in computer science at Harvard College.

Relationship with Bloomberg L.P.

Bloomberg Beta is operated as a separate entity from Bloomberg L.P., which is the sole investor in the fund.[26]

Notable investments
  • A full list of investments can be found in its GitHub repository.[29]

References
  1. Bahat, Roy (7 October 2019). "Lessons about the future of work from six years of investing". Medium.
  2. "A New High In Deal Activity To Artificial Intelligence Startups In Q4'15". CB Insights Research. 4 February 2016.
  3. "Bloomberg-Beta/Manual". Bloomberg Beta. 28 March 2020.
  4. "Bloomberg Launches Bloomberg Beta, A $75 Million Early-Stage Investment Fund Led By Former IGN Exec Roy Bahatt". TechCrunch. June 4, 2013. Retrieved June 3, 2014.
  5. "Bahat to Head $75 Million Bloomberg Beta Tech Fund". June 4, 2013. Retrieved June 3, 2014.
  6. "Bloomberg Beta raises a second $75 million fund". TechCrunch.
  7. "Bloomberg Beta, now six years old, closes its third $75 million fund". TechCrunch.
  8. ""Themes"".
  9. "VC firms use data to identify startup founders before they know it". Fortune.
  10. Bahat, Roy; Beta, head of Bloomberg. "Fortune-Tellers, Step Aside: Big Data Looks For Future Entrepreneurs". NPR.org.
  11. "The Next Mark Zuckerberg Is Not Who You Might Think". NYTimes.
  12. "Machine Intelligence In The Real World". TechCrunch. Retrieved 30 March 2020.
  13. Bahat, Roy (30 March 2018). "What this Silicon Valley VC learned on the 'Rust Belt Safari'". Vox.
  14. Roose, Kevin (4 March 2018). "Silicon Valley Is Over, Says Silicon Valley". The New York Times.
  15. Andrews, Natalie (23 February 2018). "With Jobs in Mind, Ohio Democrat Takes Venture Capitalists on Midwest Road Trip". Wall Street Journal.
  16. "Placing bets beyond the venture hubs of New York and Silicon Valley". TechCrunch.
  17. "Comeback Cities tour takes politicians, venture capitalists to tech startups in the South". VentureBeat. 19 October 2018.
  18. "Future of Work Commission Members | LWDA". Retrieved 30 March 2020.
  19. "Karin Klein". WOMEN VC. Retrieved 30 March 2020.
  20. "Board of Directors - Paramount". ir.paramount-group.com. Retrieved 30 March 2020.
  21. "Board of Directors". Regency Centers Corporation. Retrieved 30 March 2020.
  22. Penning, Abby. "LOréal Women in Digital Names Board Members". Global Cosmetic Industry. Retrieved 30 March 2020.
  23. "James Cham: Peter Drucker Meets Machine Intelligence". Creative Destruction Lab.
  24. Cham, James (9 October 2017). "Your Next Management Guru". Medium.
  25. Online, Safari Books; Cham, James. "Spotlight on innovation: AI explained with James Cham | Live Training". www.oreilly.com. Retrieved 30 March 2020.
  26. "Bloomberg Begins Fund to Invest in Start-Ups". The New York Times. June 5, 2013. Retrieved June 3, 2014.
  27. Loizos, Connie. "Survata Surveys Investors, Raises $6 Million Series A". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2015-07-20.
  28. "Survata Announces $6 Million in Series A Funding". Survata Blog. Retrieved 2015-07-20.
  29. "Bloomberg Beta founders and their startups". GitHub. Retrieved 30 March 2020.
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