Bessemer Venture Partners announced on Wednesday that it has raised $5.75 billion across two new funds, signaling an intensified push into the artificial intelligence sector. The firm plans to deploy capital across every layer of the AI stack, with $1.75 billion allocated for seed and early-stage investments and the remaining $4 billion dedicated to growth-stage startups.
Established as a dominant force during the SaaS era with portfolio companies like Box, DocuSign, and Gainsight, Bessemer has increasingly pivoted toward AI. Since 2022, the firm has invested in more than 260 AI-native companies, having already committed $3 billion to startups focused on compute, infrastructure, foundation models, developer tools, application layers, and agentic technology.
The latest fundraising underscores the firm’s conviction that AI is outpacing previous technological waves. “AI-native companies are scaling faster than any category of technology we’ve backed before,” said Bessemer partner Byron Deeter in the funding announcement.
Deeter also highlighted structural changes in the venture landscape, noting that companies are staying private longer. He told Bloomberg that these shifts necessitate larger war chests from venture firms. The new fund adds to Bessemer’s track record of backing notable entities such as Anthropic, Cognition, Perplexity, Ramp, Shopify, and Waymo.
While describing AI as the opportunity of a lifetime reflects a prevailing sentiment in the industry, such declarations often coincide with the peak of emerging technology cycles before the next trend captures market attention.
Hope they don’t choke on the capital. Sometimes less funding leads to more disciplined, efficient startups instead of bloated ones.
They mentioned companies staying private longer. That definitely explains why VCs need bigger funds than in the early 2010s.
I remember when Bessemer was all about SaaS. It’s fascinating to see such a decisive pivot toward AI-native ventures like this.
$5.75 billion is an enormous bet. Are they positioning for the next decade or just riding the current hype wave?