Bee Partners Raises $43 Million For Third Fund

By Annie Baker ● Sep 18, 2019
  • San Francisco-based Bee Partners recently raised $43 million for its third fund called Bee III

San Francisco-based Bee Partners recently announced that it raised $43 million for its third fund, according to Crunchbase. This is a big jump from its $8 million first fund in 2011 and $30 million for its second fund in 2014.

The limited partners include 11 of Bee’s portfolio company founders. Industry Ventures and a large Boston-based endowment are also limited partners for this fund. The venture firm also revealed that it promoted advisor Tim Smith to partner.

Bee’s check sizes have a wide range and the average is $750,000. But it also invests as little as $150,000 in companies.

“Sometimes founders only need a few hundred thousand dollars to drive a specific model to unlock the next round of resources, including capital,” said Bee founder Michael Berolzheimer in an interview with Crunchbase.

The Bee team also includes investor Kira Noodleman and partner Garrett Goldberg.

Some of the company’s exits include TubeMogul (IPO in 2014 and acquired by Adobe for $540 million in 2016) and Buildingconnected (acquired by Autodesk for $275 million in December 2018). Buildingconnected brought a 14x return on Bee’s initial investment. And Bee also has several pending exits.

Bee has invested in 9 companies with the third fund so far and two will be joining the portfolio soon. For example, Bee III has invested in Crowdbotics, InnerPlant, and Geosite. InnerPlant and Geosite are both headed up by women founders and CEOs. And 30% of Bee’s portfolio since the venture firm launched is comprised of female-founded and/or female-led companies.