MENLO PARK, CA and LARCHMONT, NY -- (Marketwire) -- 01/17/13 -- Bessemer Venture Partners, a top venture capital firm backing great entrepreneurs who lead transformative startups and other high growth companies, ended 2012 on a high note counting five IPOs and a number of major M&A exits. The partnership, known for investing early in innovators such as Endeca, LinkedIn, Yelp and Pinterest, also made 20 new investments this year.

2012 IPOs
With 5 IPOs, BVP earned a spot among the top three VCs for total IPOs in 2012, according to the NVCA. These include:

• Eloqua (NASDAQ: ELOQ) went public in August. BVP invested in 2007. Oracle recently announced the acquisition of Eloqua for $871 million plus company cash.
• Lifelock (NYSE: LOCK) went public in October. BVP was the first institutional investor, leading the Series A and participating in each later round. At the time of IPO, BVP was the largest shareholder in Lifelock and remains so today.
• Millennial Media (NASDAQ: MM) went public in March. BVP seeded the company, co-led the Series A and participated in each later round, sharing the role of largest shareholder.
• Verastem (NASDAQ: VSTM) went public in January. BVP co-led the Series A financing and participated in each later round.
• Yelp (NYSE: YELP) Yelp went public in March. BVP was the first institutional investor, investing in 2005 and securing a stake as the largest shareholder. The firm remains the largest shareholder today.

2012 M&A Highlights
In 2012, BVP realized venture returns through a number of major M&A exits. Highlights include:

• Stromedix was acquired by Biogen in March for $75 million upfront, plus up to $487.5 million in milestone based payments. BVP backed the company in multiple rounds.
• OMGPop was acquired by Zynga in March for $178 million. BVP was an early investor.
• Summit Microelectronics was acquired by Qualcomm in June for an undisclosed sum. BVP participated in a number of the rounds of financing.
• SelectMinds was acquired in September by Oracle for an undisclosed sum. BVP was the first and only venture investor in the Series A round. There were no further rounds.
• Truaxis was acquired by Mastercard in September for an undisclosed amount. BVP incubated the company in its offices, then led and participated in their later financing rounds as the largest shareholder.
• Traffix Systems was acquired by F5 Networks for $135 million in February, less than six months after BVP's October 2011 investment in the series B round. BVP was the largest shareholder.

2012 Investments
BVP made 20 new investments in 2012, and a number of other follow-on investments. Highlights include:

• ClearSlide, Inc., sales communications platform that helps sales professionals to be more strategic and effective in their presentations, emails, and in-person meetings
• Health Essentials Holdings, Inc., provider of post-acute care management services
• Liazon Corporation, online private benefit exchange platform for small and medium sized businesses MyHeritage Ltd., online application for researching and building family trees
• SendGrid, Inc., cloud-based email infrastructure relieves businesses of the cost and complexity of maintaining custom email systems
• Thinking Phone Networks, provider of cloud-based communications services to corporate customers
• Twitch.tv, the world's largest video platform and community for gamers
• Xtime, leading cloud-based Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and scheduling platform for the automotive service industry
• Zapier Inc., enables the integration of different web apps
• 42Floors, Inc., online marketplace for commercial real estate

2012 follow-on investments include Box, Criteo, Fiverr, Twilio, Tilera and Pinterest, in which BVP led the Series A and remains the largest shareholder.

Industry Distinction
BVP's investment team was recognized within the industry for their outstanding performance and expertise. Forbes named BVP partners David Cowan, Rob Chandra, Byron Deeter, Bob Goodman, and Jeremy Levine to the prestigious Midas List of Top 100 Tech Investors (2012). And, Bob Goodman, G. Felda Hardymon, and Jeremy Levine were named to the AlwaysOn 2012 Venture Capital 100 list, while AlwaysOn named David Cowan and Byron Deeter as 2012 Power Players in the Cloud and listed Bob Goodman and David Cowan as Mobile Power Players of 2012.

BVP has 45 active investment professionals, focused on identifying investment opportunities in start-ups in the Cloud Computing, Education Technology, Healthcare IT and Services, Infrastructure 2.0, Israel, India and Emerging Markets, Mobile, Online Retail and Trusted Internet sectors. In 2013, the firm will continue to invest in these and other areas, teaming with exceptional management teams and fostering the growth of BVP portfolio companies.

BVP's track record is exceptional for its longevity, success and breadth across multiple partners in a mix of sectors, stages and geographies. The firm's investments range from $100,000 angel investments to $50 million hyper-growth deals, in 15 countries from six global offices. The success of 2012 follows a strong 2011, in which the firm benefited from early investments in LinkedIn, Cornerstone OnDemand and Endeca, among other exits, and raised a $1.6B global venture capital fund.

About Bessemer Venture Partners
With $4 billion under active management, Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP) is a global venture capital firm with offices in Silicon Valley, Cambridge, Mass., New York, Mumbai, Bangalore and Herzliya, Israel. BVP delivers a broad platform in venture capital spanning industries, geographies, and stages of company growth. From Staples to Skype, VeriSign to Yelp, LinkedIn to Pinterest, BVP has helped incubate and support companies that have anchored significant shifts in the economy. More than 100 BVP-funded companies have gone public on exchanges in North America, Europe, and Asia. See www.bvp.com or follow BVP on Twitter @bessemervp