Bessemer's story starts nowhere near a startup: in 1911, steel magnate Henry Phipps Jr. - Andrew Carnegie's business partner and the second-largest shareholder in Carnegie Steel - formed a family office to manage the fortune from Carnegie Steel's sale. That family office didn't formally become a venture capital firm until the 1970s, when it opened a Silicon Valley outpost to chase the emerging tech industry, eventually spinning out as Bessemer Venture Partners in 1986 - making it, by a wide margin, the oldest firm in venture capital.
$10B+ (recent fund) AUM80/100 Power Score™1911 FoundedRedwood City, CA