2024 - Year in Review

We saw this consistency — in the nature and number of founders we back, the size of funds we raise, and the caliber of investors we hire — translate to confidence from our LP network during fundraising, when we received interest for more than three times what we set out to raise. We have also seen it translate to performance; in 2024, we were recognized in the HEC-Dow Jones Venture Capital Performance Rankings as the best-performing fund globally since 2010.

This is also a testament to the efforts of our outstanding founders, who continue to impress us daily with their ambition and tenacity. To commemorate our new website, we sat down with a few of them to talk about their entrepreneurial journey. Daniel Dines of UiPath told us about his belief in product, Hristo Borisov of Payhawk led us through his unconventional path to building a unicorn, and James Ding of Draftwise talked about the transition from Palantir engineer to serving some of the world’s largest law firms.  

There have been many more wins and milestones in the portfolio as well this year. 

We were proud to exit another fund returner Obilet in a transaction led by global mobility giant BlaBlaCar. This marked another successful exit within the 2014 vintage portfolio of 15 companies, among others such as UiPath, Minit, and Mikrogrup.

We welcomed 5 exceptional companies to the portfolio. 

• Zeta Labs is developing a large language model (LLM) based browser automation technology for small and medium enterprises to help them automate their repetitive tasks. Their groundbreaking email assistant, JACE, is the first AI agent to combine smart emails with browser automation capabilities.
• Grand Games was the team’s first gaming investment since Peak Games. Founded by industry veterans, the company is redefining genres with high-quality, immersive experiences to make a lasting impact in the gaming landscape. The team has already launched two successful titles, Magic Sort and Car Match, and will have more exciting news in coming months.
• Proofs is revolutionizing how software is sold with an AI-powered productivity solution that aims to automate the PoC and integration-building processes for API-first companies.
• An unannounced, UK-headquartered company building a visual AI software to track operating rooms.
• An unannounced, SF-headquartered company building an AI conversational intelligence tool. 

We saw our existing portfolio going from strength to strength, raising significant rounds from global investors. 

• Midas raised $45m in a round led by Portage, joined by us and Spark Capital as existing investors. It’s the fastest-growing investment app in Turkey & MENA.
• Draftwise, which is transforming the legal industry with AI-powered drafting and negotiation software, raised a $20m Series A led by Index Ventures. The company’s customers include thousands of lawyers at top US law firms. Read our interview with Draftwise founder James Ding on his path from Palantir engineer to founder. 
• Upstash, which develops a serverless managed database and event streaming service, raised a $10m Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz. 
• Picus Security, a security validation platform provider, raised a $45m round led by Riverwood Capital. The company has helped its customers simulate 1 billion cyberattacks.  
• Simr raised a $20m Series A from Uncorrelated Ventures, with participation from BMW i Ventures. The company is revolutionizing how engineers design, verify, and test products by automating sophisticated simulations in the cloud. 
• An unannounced, fast-growing consumer business raised a $20m round from a top-tier global investor months after Bek’s initial investment. 

We look forward to more success for our founders and their teams in 2025.

A final note to say thank you to everyone who offered their creative ideas for how to use our new name. We liked “backed by Bek”, “Welcome Bek,” "Bek to Bek successes," and “Bek to the future”, but to us, Bek will always be a verb. Definition? To quietly provoke.