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Financial Services Practice Overview

BVP has a long history of investment in the financial services. The 1970s saw Bessemer investing in bank services roll-ups; thereafter it moved into areas as diverse as investment services (ACTIV Financial, Quadriserv, LifeHarbor, Gerson Lehrman, Motilal Oswal, and Soleil) and personal banking (BillShrink, Shriram City Union Finance, and Zopa).  Bringing expertise and experience in financial services and technology, the partners at BVP can understand and anticipate the changes occur in this rapidly evolving sector.
Description

The financial services investment practice encompasses both financial services and the investment industry, as each is related but distinct. Both are undergoing deep structural changes driven primarily by technology.

For the Investment Industry, we anticipate continued disintermediation as parties prefer to deal directly with one another instead of through middlemen. We expect to see exchanges created for many of the existing OTC markets as well as for assets as diverse as illiquid securities, real estate, and receivables. In addition, Risk Management, Accounting, Information Management, Trading Analytics, Clearing, and Reference data will increasingly be handled through software-as-a-service supplied over the Internet. Finally, we believe that cross-border activities will become increasingly important, both in terms of international transactions, which will need to become easier as they become more frequent, and providing services to populations outside the traditional boundaries of the financial industry.

In the Financial Services sector, we expect to see better investor value propositions across the entire range of customer segments, from individuals to large institutions. These will be analytically driven and delivered via the Web. While traditionally great attention has been paid to wealthy individual investors and very large institutions, focus will grow on the middle of the spectrum, such as small- and medium-sized businesses and the mass affluent. Looking beyond the current credit crunch, we expect to see a host of new services and products developed that help to mitigate and/or quantify risk.
Past Investments Current Portfolio
Investment Team
Rob Stavis Rob Chandra Eric Arnold Alex Ferrara William Harts
Rob
Stavis 		Rob
Chandra 		Eric
Arnold 		Alex
Ferrara 		William
Harts
Trevor Oelschig Anil Sarin
Trevor
Oelschig 		Anil
Sarin

With expertise and experience in financial services and technology, the partners at BVP can understand and anticipate the changes occur in the rapidly evolving sector financial services sector.

ACTIV Financial Systems, Inc. provides market data content and technologies to to more than 300 customers worldwide, including market makers, hedge funds, brokers and trading systems.

Alex Ferrara is a Vice President in the Larchmont office, focusing on investments in financial services technologies, software, technology enabled services, and digital media. He serves on the boards of Quadriserv, SelectMinds,  Sparter, and Yodle.  Alex is also involved with Bessemer’s current investments in Quadrise

BVP participated in American Federal's first and only round in 1989. The bank grew to operate 40 branch offices in northwestern South Carolina, along with a consumer finance company. That same year, the bank went public as OTC:AMFB. BVP exited the position in 1995; American Federal was acquired in 1997 by the much lar

Anil Sarin is a Director with BVP India. Based in Mumbai, he joined the team in 2006. Named a Platinum Fund Manager in July by The Economic Times , Anil has more than a decade of public equity fund management experience. Most recently, he was the co-head of equities at Prudential ICICI Asset Management, India’s la

Billshrink provides personalized recommendations to help consumers save money on everyday services.

BVP funded this multi bank holding company in 1987. It grew to operate banks in 39 communities in North and South Dakota and Minnesota. In 1991, the company went public as NASDAQ CFBX.

Eric Arnold is a Vice President in BVP's New York office., where he focuses on  the financial services, consumer internet, and media sectors. Eric serves on the board of United Capital Financial Advisers  and also works closely with  Hunch  and  Soleil Securities . Previously, Eric was a Senior Associate with Batt

Gerson Lehrman Group provides systems to help the world's leading financial services firms, consultancies, corporations and not for profit institutions find, engage, and manage their proprietary expert networks.

Prior to joining Bessemer in 2001, Rob Stavis led Salomon Brother's Arbitrage desk. Rob invests in financial services and consumer internet startups like Skype, where he led the A round.

Intacct provides on demand accounting, business and financial management applications over the web using a Software As A Service model.

LifeHarbor, Inc. develops wealth management software that provides portfolio managers and administrators with the most efficient way to customize and monitor thousands of individually managed accounts.

Bank holding company.

Rob Chandra is a Partner in Bessemer's Menlo Park office. Since entering the venture capital industry in 1996, Rob has been involved with 22 early-stage investments that have gone public or been acquired by public companies. Three of Rob's portfolio companies went public during 2008. Rob is the founding partner of 

 A financial services and brokerage company serving the needs of both institutional and retail investors in India.

Pillar's enterprise-wide budgeting software was one of the first to use Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) and object-oriented technology and to run over a network, allowing multiple simultaneous users. It was purchased by IMRS (NASDAQ:IMRS, now Hyperion, NASDAQ:HYSL) in 1994.

 Trevor Oelschig is a Senior Associate in BVP’s New York office. He works with Rob Stavis, focusing on opportunities in software, consumer technologies, and digital and mobile media. Prior to BVP, Trevor was an Associate with Panorama Capital (previously JPMorgan

Quadriserv's wholly owned subsidiary, Automated Equity Finance Markets, operates AQS®, a centralized marketplace for securities lending transactions. A FINRA member broker-dealer and a SEC regulated alternative trading system, AQS aims to maximize liquidity, access, credit, and transparency while mitigating systemic r

Shriram City Union Finance provides retail lending services to individuals and small businesses in India from a network of 633 outlets. 

United Capital's network of independent wealth management advisors provide custom tailored financial advice to individuals, families and institutions.

 Providing wireless point of sale service through a standard mobile phone platform.

William (Bill) Harts joined BVP as an Operating Partner in late 2008. Based in the New York office, he works closely with BVP portfolio companies in the financial services sector. A pioneer of algorithmic trading and an authority on applied

Zopa is an online community linking lenders and borrowers.