Bloomberg, the provider of financial news and data, has launched a $75 million early-stage fund called Bloomberg Beta. Bloomberg is the sole LP in the fund, which will invest in companies in such sectors as data and what the firm describes as “making the experience of work better,” which it explains includes the fields of “networks and communities, human-computer interaction, and radically new organizational models.” In announcing the fund, Bloomberg Beta has disclosed it has already invested in Newsle, Nodejitsu, Codecademy, Errplane and ProsperWorks. Bloomberg Beta will operate in offices on both coasts with Roy Bahat, an entrepreneur and former board member of Flixster, leading the firm from the San Francisco-based locale.
(CORRECTION: Bloomberg issued a new press release this morning with updated information, which includes MkII as an investment of Bloomberg Beta.)
PRESS RELEASE
Bloomberg Beta Launches with $75 Million Technology Venture Capital Fund
New VC to Invest In and Create Companies – Patient Capital Invested for Financial Return; Sees Bloomberg L.P. as a Template for Startups
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – June 5, 2013 – Bloomberg L.P. today announced the launch of Bloomberg Beta, a $75 million venture fund to invest in and create early-stage technology companies. Bloomberg Beta, in keeping with Bloomberg L.P.’s longstanding pattern of entrepreneurialism, is focused on backing and working alongside exceptional founders. Bloomberg Beta exists to expand Bloomberg L.P.’s horizons by investing in and creating companies within Bloomberg’s broad areas of interest.
Set up as a true fund, Bloomberg Beta will invest for financial return, selecting companies independently of their current or future business relationship with Bloomberg L.P.
“Bloomberg Beta is a natural extension of the entrepreneurial spirit and culture of Bloomberg,” said Daniel Doctoroff, CEO and President of Bloomberg LP. “We’re guided by the belief that the best investors are entrepreneurs and the best entrepreneurs are investors. Through Beta, we get to back and build breakthrough companies in the areas we care about, and entrepreneurs get an investor whose interest is fully aligned with theirs.”
Bloomberg Beta’s initial focus areas are producing insights from data (data, technology platforms, content discovery, media distribution) and making the experience of work better (networks and communities, human-computer interaction, and radically new organizational models).
In these areas, Bloomberg Beta’s first announced investments are Newsle, MkII, Nodejitsu, Codecademy, Errplane and ProsperWorks.
“Bloomberg L.P. is itself a template for startups – first to succeed in its market, founded on a big idea, with a strong culture, and guided by its founders for three decades,” said Roy Bahat, head of Bloomberg Beta. “With Bloomberg Beta we can nurture the new generation of technology companies built on this template. We’re entrepreneurs at heart, and we want to invest and make companies. We’re fortunate to have a patient backer in Bloomberg L.P., which has seen firsthand the rewards to growing an extraordinary company over time.”
Led by Roy Bahat, a technology business operator and entrepreneur, the Bloomberg Beta team is comprised of experienced company operators and investors:
Roy Bahat in San Francisco, prior to founding Bloomberg Beta, led IGN Entertainment for five years, an online media company then owned by News Corporation. He is chairman of OUYA, the venture-backed hardware startup, and has served on the boards of Revision3 (through its acquisition by Discovery) and Flixster (through its purchase by Warner Bros.). Roy teaches media at UC Berkeley, and is a board member at educational non-profit CodeNow. He is a graduate of Harvard College and was a Rhodes Scholar.
Karin Klein in New York heads Bloomberg Beta’s investing activities on the east coast. She is the former head of new initiatives at Bloomberg and previously was vice president at Softbank’s venture fund. At Softbank, Karin sourced and served on the board of Buddy Media prior to its acquisition by Salesforce. She also was the co-founder and president of an educational training business for children. Karin currently serves on the advisory board of L’Oreal’s Women in Digital and is a mentor with TechStars, New York City Economic Development Corporation and several other startup accelerator programs. 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.
James Cham in Palo Alto was most recently a principal at Trinity Ventures where he focused on consumer services, enterprise software and digital media investments. Previously he was vice president at Bessemer Venture Partners where he was instrumental in eight new investments and a number of seed ventures. He has an M.B.A. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was an undergraduate in computer science at Harvard College.
About Bloomberg
Bloomberg, the global business and financial information and news leader, gives influential decision makers a critical edge by connecting them to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas. The company’s strength – delivering data, news and analytics through innovative technology, quickly and accurately – is at the core of the Bloomberg Professional service, which provides real time financial information to more than 315,000 subscribers globally. Bloomberg’s enterprise solutions build on the company’s core strength, leveraging technology to allow customers to access, integrate, distribute and manage data and information across organizations more efficiently and effectively. Through Bloomberg Law, Bloomberg Government, Bloomberg BNA and Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the company provides data, news and analytics to decision makers in industries beyond finance. And Bloomberg News, delivered through the Bloomberg Professional service, television, radio, mobile, the Internet and two magazines, Bloomberg Businessweek and Bloomberg Markets, covers the world with more than 2,400 news and multimedia professionals at 146 bureaus in 72 countries. Headquartered in New York, Bloomberg employs more than 13,000 15,000 people in 185 192 locations around the world.
About Bloomberg Beta
Bloomberg Beta is a $75M fund capitalized by Bloomberg L.P. that backs and builds breakthroughs. Bloomberg Beta believes the best investors are entrepreneurs and vice versa. It is focused on investments in areas broadly of interest to Bloomberg L.P., and invests purely for financial return. Bloomberg Beta is headquartered in San Francisco with a presence in New York. For more information visit www.bloombergbeta.com.
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