Bessemer closes $5.75B to back AI founders from seed through growth

Bessemer Venture Partners announced $5.75 billion in new capital raised in a single close — $1.75 billion for seed and early-stage investing and $4 billion for growth — aimed at founders across the AI stack as companies stay private longer.

FINANCE desk — when a top SaaS-era VC puts another $5.75B specifically into the AI stack and a dedicated growth sleeve, it is a bet that the biggest AI companies will keep compounding privately for longer — and that early checks alone are no longer enough to stay in the game.

What the newsroom says the money is for. The firm says it has had a front-row seat to technology shifts, backed the entrepreneurs who defined them early, and kept supporting the strongest companies as they scale. It says there is no question this moment goes past previous technology waves. AI, it says, is creating more value, faster than any previous shift, and has quickly become the central nervous system across every sector of the economy. Central nervous system, here, is the firm's metaphor for AI sitting inside every industry. It says it will back founders across geographies and across the full AI stack, whether the check is the first one or a growth investment at a critical inflection point. A stack, here, is the layers from the machines that run AI up through the products people use. An inflection point is a moment when the company's path changes speed. The approach, the post says, is conviction, and the flexibility to support founders across stages. These lines are the newsroom's aims. They are not a list of checks this desk watched clear.

Investing early is still the core, the newsroom says. It starts with roadmap-driven research: studying emerging markets deeply enough to catch a shift before it is even named, then backing the founders behind that shift ahead of consensus, often before there is revenue or an established category. Roughly 70 percent of the firm's investments are still made at the early stage. Seventy percent is about seven checks in ten, if that rate holds. The newsroom names the companies that reflect that commitment: Abridge, ChipAgents, fal, Noda, Perceptron, Plenful, TurbineOne, and Wonderful. That list is the newsroom's early-stage sentence. The wire's early-stage sentence names different companies. Do not merge the two lists.

Why there is a $4 billion growth sleeve. The newsroom says companies are staying private longer and creating more of their value before they ever reach the public markets. Private means the shares are not listed on a stock exchange. The public markets are where anyone can buy the stock. The growth strategy began as doubling down on the firm's highest-conviction early investments. Today, the post says, a dedicated team fully focused on growth has turned that work into its own engine, leading concentrated bets in generational companies whether they started in the portfolio or not. Concentrated means fewer, larger checks, not a little money in everything. The newsroom's growth examples are Anthropic, ClickHouse, Cognition, EliseAI, EvenUp, Fireworks, HiBob, Legora, MaintainX, Saronic, ShopMy, and Waymo, among others. Among others means the page does not claim that sentence is the full list. A dedicated growth team does not mean a siloed one, the post says. Siloed means the two sides do not talk. Early-stage and growth work as one firm, combining founder relationships and roadmap expertise with growth capability, so the firm can recognize an inflection point and double or triple down as a company scales. Double or triple down is the newsroom's phrase for writing another, larger check. It is not a multiple this desk calculated.

What the firm says it has already done in AI. Since 2022 it has backed 260-plus AI-native companies and invested more than $3 billion across the full stack, from compute and infrastructure to foundation models, developer platforms, and AI applications and agents. AI-native is the firm's phrase. The page does not print a definition. In ordinary speech it means a company built around AI from the start, not a software company that added a chat box later. Compute is the raw computing power. Infrastructure is the plumbing around it. A foundation model is a large general model other products are built on. A developer platform is the tools builders use. An application is a product a person or a business uses. An agent is software that takes a series of steps, not only one answer. More than $3 billion, and 260-plus, are the firm's figures. This desk did not audit the portfolio. The post says much of that conviction traces back decades, and that the insights from each generation of companies carried into the next.

Where the newsroom says that pattern came from. These names are its history lesson. They are not a claim that each company is receiving money from the new close. It backed Mellanox, whose networking fabric it says now connects the GPU clusters that power modern AI, and that relationship led it to DriveNets. A GPU is the chip widely used to train and run AI. Twilio and Auth0 taught the firm what turns an API into a platform, which is why it backed fal, Fireworks, and ClickHouse as the picks and shovels of the AI build-out. An API is a door other software can call. Picks and shovels means the tools the builders buy, not the finished product. Years on the boards of Toast, ServiceTitan, and Procore taught it where ordinary software hits a ceiling and where an AI-native product breaks through, the pattern it says led to EliseAI, EvenUp, and Legora. Investments in deep tech and hardware, including Rocket Lab, taught it how to underwrite companies where hardware, capital intensity, and regulatory timelines all have to be solved at once. Capital intensity means the company needs a lot of money before it works. That profile, the post says, is defense tech and physical AI, and it is why the firm had the conviction to back Waymo, Saronic, and others. The close of the post says the same edge carries forward, across healthcare and life sciences, the developer ecosystem, and the next chapter of foundation models. The pace of innovation has changed, it says, but the role has not: go deep, invest with conviction, and back founders for the long term.

What the wire adds, and where its company lists are not the newsroom's. Business Wire carried “Bessemer Venture Partners Closes $5.75 Billion to Back Founders From Seed Through Growth.” The direct Business Wire page returned a block when this desk asked for it. The copy this desk read is the FinancialContent republication, which stamps September 23rd 2026, 11:00 AM EDT via Business Wire. 11:00 a.m. Eastern is 3:00 p.m. UTC. The subhead says the new capital includes $1.75 billion for seed and early-stage investing and $4 billion for growth investments, amid accelerating opportunities across the AI stack. The lede says Bessemer today announced $5.75 billion in new capital, raised in a single close, with that same split. The wire says the capital is designed for a market where AI is transforming how quickly new technology companies can emerge, scale, and create enduring value, and that it gives Bessemer the ability to partner with founders from inception through growth while making concentrated investments in the companies shaping the AI era. Since 2022, the wire says, Bessemer has backed more than 260 AI-native companies, investing more than $3 billion across the full AI stack, from compute and infrastructure to foundation models, developer platforms, applications and agents. Those counts match the newsroom. The examples do not. The wire's early-stage sentence names Abridge, Perplexity, Shopify, Toast, and Wonderful. The newsroom's early-stage sentence names Abridge, ChipAgents, fal, Noda, Perceptron, Plenful, TurbineOne, and Wonderful. Abridge and Wonderful sit on both. Perplexity, Shopify, and Toast sit on the wire's early sentence and not on the newsroom's. ChipAgents, fal, Noda, Perceptron, Plenful, and TurbineOne sit on the newsroom's early sentence and not on the wire's. The wire's growth sentence names Anthropic, DriveNets, fal, ClickHouse, Cognition, EliseAI, EvenUp, Legora, Ramp, ShopMy, and Waymo. The newsroom's growth sentence also names Fireworks, HiBob, MaintainX, and Saronic, and it does not put DriveNets, fal, or Ramp in that sentence. Do not collapse the two lists into one portfolio card.

The quotes, and only the pages they sit on. The newsroom post this desk read does not print a quote from Byron Deeter or from Jeremy Levine. The wire does. Jeremy Levine, identified as a Bessemer partner, said that while the playbook has evolved, the conviction has not: identify transformative technology shifts early, back exceptional founders before the market fully recognizes the opportunity, and continue investing as their ambition compounds. He said AI is creating a generational opportunity, and this capital strengthens the ability to make the first bets on the founders shaping the AI age. Byron Deeter, also identified as a Bessemer partner, said AI-native companies are scaling faster than any category of technology the firm has backed before. He said the expansion of the growth practice is built for that velocity, with dedicated capital and partners to lead concentrated, high-conviction rounds in the companies defining this era, whether the firm has been with them since seed or is meeting them for the first time. A quote on a release is the speaker's sentence. It is not a growth rate this desk measured. This desk did not interview them.

The about box, and the geography line, are the wire's. Bessemer says it helps entrepreneurs lay strong foundations from inception to build enduring companies. It says it has more than 155 IPOs and 450-plus portfolio companies across industries, and that it supports founders from seed through every stage of growth. An IPO is a first sale of shares to the public. It says it has backed Anthropic, Abridge, Canva, LinkedIn, Perplexity, Pinterest, Rocket Lab, Shopify, ServiceTitan, Toast, and Twilio, and that it has $20 billion of assets under management. Assets under management, shortened to AUM, is the money the firm oversees. $20 billion is the about box. It is not this $5.75 billion close, and it is not the more-than-$3-billion AI figure. The wire says the firm invests globally, with teams in San Francisco, Silicon Valley, New York, Boston, London, Bangalore, and Tel Aviv. A separate sentence says it applies that experience across the United States, Europe, India, and Israel. The AI thesis paragraph says the bet builds on earlier transitions: the compute and infrastructure that now underpin AI, the cloud and SaaS era, which showed where traditional software approaches reach their limits, and the hardware and physical systems now advancing defense tech and physical AI. SaaS is software sold as a subscription. That thesis paragraph is the wire's. The newsroom tells the same history through company names and does not use the phrase SaaS era.

What an independent story the same afternoon adds. TechCrunch, by Julie Bort, stamps 1:35 p.m. PDT on September 23, 2026. 1:35 p.m. Pacific is 4:35 p.m. Eastern, which is 8:35 p.m. UTC. The headline is “VC firm Bessemer now has another $5.75B to invest in (what else?) AI.” It says Bessemer announced on Wednesday that it raised $5.75 billion across two new funds, to accelerate investment across all parts of the AI stack. Two new funds is TechCrunch's frame. The newsroom and the wire say one close split into $1.75 billion and $4 billion. They do not print the words two funds. TechCrunch's company sentence names Anthropic, Cognition, Legora, Perplexity, Ramp, Shopify, and Waymo, and it does not split them into early and growth. It calls Bessemer a leading venture firm of the SaaS era, with a knack for enterprise winners such as Box, Docusign, and Gainsight. Those three names are TechCrunch's spelling and TechCrunch's list. They are not on the newsroom post or the wire this desk read. Since 2022, TechCrunch says, the firm has invested in more than 260 AI-native companies, and so far has invested $3 billion into AI-related startups, including compute, infrastructure, foundation models, dev tools, app-layer startups, and agentic tech. Dev tools is its phrase for developer platforms. $3 billion, without the words more than, is TechCrunch's figure. The newsroom and the wire say more than $3 billion. TechCrunch prints Deeter's scaling-faster sentence and says he said it in the company's funding announcement, which matches the wire. It also says Deeter told Bloomberg that firms need to keep increasing their war chests, because companies staying private longer has become a permanent structural shift. War chests, and permanent structural shift, are TechCrunch's account of that Bloomberg conversation. The image credit on the TechCrunch page is TechCrunch (AI-generated). That image is not this filing's hero.

What the Bloomberg Law page this desk could read actually says, and the tense. The page is by Natasha Mascarenhas, stamped Sept. 23, 2026, 1:00 p.m. UTC, which is 9:00 a.m. Eastern. That is two hours before the 11:00 a.m. Eastern wire. The headline is “Bessemer Raises $5.75 Billion in Funds, Expands Growth Efforts.” The visible lede says Bessemer is set to announce $5.75 billion in fresh funding to support a broader shift toward more growth-stage investments, and that the firm plans to announce Wednesday. Set to, and plans to, are that page's verbs at 9:00 a.m. Eastern. The 11:00 a.m. wire says today announced. Do not merge the two clocks. The page calls the firm San Francisco-based. It says $4 billion of the funds goes to growth-stage financings, which include funding young companies raising large rounds at high valuations, according to Byron Deeter, and the remaining $1.75 billion goes toward younger startups raising capital at inception or soon after, Deeter said. That split matches the later wire. It says that with over $20 billion in assets under management, Bessemer has invested in more than 260 companies in the AI world, and the visible text ends at “building a portfolio that.” More than 260 companies in the AI world is Bloomberg Law's phrase. The newsroom's phrase is 260-plus AI-native companies since 2022. This desk did not find the words permanent structural shift on the Bloomberg Law page it could read. That phrase stays with TechCrunch.

What an Israeli business desk adds the same day, and only that page. CTech stamps 17:14, 23.09.26, and does not print a timezone. The headline is “Bessemer raises $5.75 billion and doubles down on Israeli startups.” The standfirst says the firm is putting $1.75 billion into early-stage companies and launching a $4 billion growth fund as startups stay private for longer. The lede says Bessemer is raising $5.75 billion across two new funds. Raising, and two new funds, are that lede's words. The next paragraph says the firm announced Wednesday that it has closed $1.75 billion for seed and early-stage investments and another $4 billion for a new growth fund. Closed is that paragraph's verb. Adam Fisher, the partner who established the firm's Israel operations, said that over the past two years they have doubled the pace of investments in Israel, from seed through growth. The page says Bessemer has operated in Israel since 2007, has invested in approximately 80 Israeli startups, more than half of them at the seed stage, and that over the past two years roughly two-thirds of its Israeli investments have been at the early stage. It says Bessemer is establishing a dedicated growth platform for the first time. For the first time is CTech's. The newsroom says the growth practice began as doubling down and has expanded into its own engine. It does not print for the first time. CTech names DriveNets, Port, and Upwind as Israeli growth examples, and it prints Upwind round figures that this desk did not re-read. Those figures stay in the source note. The page also says the firm has backed more than 450 companies globally and now manages $20 billion in assets, which matches the wire's about box, and it names Anthropic, Canva, Shopify, LinkedIn, and Perplexity. This filing does not treat the Israel pace as a number on the Bessemer newsroom.

Plain English for the rest of the card. $5.75 billion = the new capital, in one close. $1.75 billion = seed and early-stage. $4 billion = growth. Roughly 70 percent = the share of investments the firm says are still early. 260-plus and more than $3 billion = the firm's AI tally since 2022. $20 billion = assets under management in the wire's about box, a different number from this close. More than 155 IPOs and 450-plus companies = the about box. Single close = one closing. Two new funds = TechCrunch's frame and CTech's lede, not a phrase on the newsroom or the wire. AI-native = the firm's name for companies built around AI. The pages do not define it. SaaS = software sold as a subscription. AUM = assets under management. Seed = the earliest check. Growth = a later, larger check. Staying private longer = building more of the company's value before a public listing. 11:00 a.m. Eastern = the wire republication's stamp. 9:00 a.m. Eastern = the Bloomberg Law stamp, when the verb was still set to announce. 4:35 p.m. Eastern = TechCrunch. No hour = the newsroom. 17:14 with no timezone = CTech. This filing is the 23 Sep fund close. It is not a term sheet, and it is not a list of every company Bessemer has ever backed.

PRIMARY here: Bessemer Venture Partners' 23 Sep 2026 newsroom post, “$5.75 billion to back the founders building what's next” — Tier A PRIMARY, the firm's own record. The page did not print an hour. The Business Wire release, read here through the FinancialContent republication stamped 11:00 a.m. Eastern because the direct Business Wire page returned a block, is the same-day wire and the page that carries the Levine and Deeter quotes. TechCrunch is an independent same-afternoon report. Bloomberg Law at 9:00 a.m. Eastern is an earlier same-day account whose visible verb is still set to announce. CTech is an independent same-day report of the Israel practice. The $5.75 billion single close, the $1.75 billion and $4 billion split, the roughly 70 percent early-stage line, the newsroom's early list and growth list, the since-2022 260-plus and more-than-$3-billion lines, the one-firm line, and the Mellanox-through-Saronic history are the newsroom's. The Levine quote, the Deeter scaling-faster quote, the wire's different early and growth lists, the SaaS-era thesis sentence, the more-than-155 IPOs, the 450-plus companies, the $20 billion of assets under management, and the office list are the wire's. Two new funds, Box, Docusign, Gainsight, the $3 billion figure without more than, and the permanent-structural-shift line are TechCrunch's. The 9:00 a.m. set-to-announce tense, San Francisco-based, and more than 260 companies in the AI world are Bloomberg Law's. The Fisher quote, Israel since 2007, approximately 80 Israeli startups, roughly two-thirds early in Israel, and for the first time are CTech's. NOT claimed: the names of the limited partners, a management fee, that this desk read the fund agreement, that the newsroom list and the wire list are the same list, that permanent structural shift appears on the wire or on the Bloomberg Law page this desk could read, that two new funds is the newsroom's phrase, that for the first time is the newsroom's phrase, that TechCrunch's $3 billion and the wire's more than $3 billion are one sentence, that this desk re-read Upwind's rounds, a stock tip, or investment advice. Distinct from the already-filed bird-com-450m-agentic, tekever-580m-series-d, and brahma-ai-150m.