A $75 million venture capital fund that will invest in start-up companies will be launched by Media outlet Bloomberg.
The upcoming fund will be known as Bloomberg Beta and is expected to be rolled out on Wednesday (Today). According to a report from VentureBeat, the fund has already invested in nine companies including Newsle, Nodejitsu, Codecademy, Errplane, and ProsperWorks.
The new fund will cater the financing needs of a firm that are “producing insights from data” helping businesses to make better decisions, says the report from VentureBeat.
Bloomberg is the leader in financial information, and was recently accused by Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) for ‘snooping’ confidential data.
New team
Roy Bahat, former head of IGN Entertainment, will lead the fund in San Francisco. Bahat, who is the chairman of video game hardware startup Ouya, will be helped by Bloomberg executive Karin Klein and James Cham. Karen, earlier to this, was the head of initiatives at Bloomberg and was a VP at Softbank’s venture fund. James Cham was presently working as a principal to Trinity Ventures, and previously was the vice president of Bessemer Venture Partners.
“If an entrepreneur wants Bloomberg Beta’s money because they think they’ll have a higher chance of getting covered by a Bloomberg journalist, then they shouldn’t take our money,” Mr. Bahat said on Tuesday.
“We were set up to have confidentiality protections, and we will only share when appropriate.”
Bloomberg Ventures
Earlier also, Bloomberg has invested in tech companies through Bloomberg Ventures. The venture supported companies that can be aligned with Bloomberg products. But after the exit of Bloomberg Ventures co-founder Matt Turck, the venture had been put on backburner. Matt Turck left the organization to join as a managing director at FirstMark Capital.
Other similar funds
The launch of Bloomberg Beta continues the trend where media and entertainment companies form venture capital funds for investing in young companies. Similar funds were launched by Conde Nast, Hearst Interactive Media, and Time Warner Investments. However, the unique point about Bloomberg Beta is that it is less concerned with strategic investments but will focus on generating a venture-type return.
