Bloomberg Beta, the early-stage investment firm sponsored by media group Bloomberg, has channelled $150m of capital into two new funds.
The cash will be equally split between a fourth fund for new investments and an Opportunity Fund which will reinvest in existing portfolio companies. The firm now has a total of $375m under management.
Founded in 2013, Bloomberg Beta’s thesis is to invest in ‘the future of work’, an area which can cover cybersecurity, education, media distribution, real estate and a range of enterprise software products such as workplace communication or work productivity tools.
The US-based firm chiefly targets startups in New York and the San Francisco Bay Area, and partners are allowed to make investment decisions without approval from above.
Bloomberg is the firm’s sole limited partner and the returns it brings in go to founder Michael Bloomberg’s charitable organisation, Bloomberg Philanthropies. It also stays away from companies likely to compete against Bloomberg’s financial sector clients.
The size of the two new funds is the same as each of Bloomberg Beta’s previous three funds, closed in 2013, 2016 and 2019 respectively. The unicorns in its portfolio include online insurance brokerage Newfront, online education provider Masterclass and digital freight forwarder Flexport, having backed all three from seed stage.
The news comes two months after Roy Bahat, head of Bloomberg Beta, was named in the GCV Powerlist for the seventh time.
Photo courtesy of Bloomberg Beta.
