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Jeremy Levine

Jeremy Levine73 posts

Jeremy Seth Levine is a venture capitalist born in 1974. He graduated magna cum laude from Duke University with a BS in Computer Science and Economics, and worked as a business analyst at McKinsey & Co. and an associate at AEA Investors from 1995 to 1999, when he joined internet company Dash. He joined Bessemer Venture Partners in 2001 and led the company’s investments in Yelp and LinkedIn. He has also served on the boards of Pinterest.com, Wikia, GraceNote, Soap.com, Diapers.com, Onestop, Shopify, and other startups. He is married with three children, and is based in Larchmont, N.Y., and Silicon Valley.

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1995

Graduates Duke

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Levine graduates magna cum laude with a Bachelors degree in Computer Science and Economics.

Jun 1995

McKinsey & Co.

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Levine works for the management consulting firm as a business analyst, working with major companies in financial services and consumer products on management and technology issues.

Jul 1997

AEA Investors

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Levine moves to the private equity firm as an associate, specializing in consumer-product and light industrial companies in the U.S. and Europe.

Jun 1999

Dash.com Inc.

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Levine joins the internet software provider as Vice President of Operations.

May 2001

Bessemer Venture Partners

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Levine works at the firm’s New York office as a partner, focusing on entrepreneurial startups and high-growth companies in industries like consumer Internet, consumer software, and business software and services. He is part of the company’s Cyber Security and Russia Opportunities team, and leads investments in North and South America, Europe and Asia.

2004

GraceNote investment

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Levine joins the board of the music metadata provider as Bessemer participates in the Series D funding round with other investors for a total of $13 million.

10 Feb, 2004

Critical Windows vulnerabilities

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Microsoft announces that eEye has discovered serious vulnerabilities in Windows, and offers a patch to address the critical threat. Maiffret:

This is one of the most serious Microsoft vulnerabilities ever released. The breadth of systems affected is probably the largest ever. This is something that will let you get into Internet servers, internal networks, pretty much any system.

Researchers at eEye discovered the security flaws in July but agreed to keep quiet until Microsoft could repair them. Maiffret says Windows users have been vulnerable to hacks throughout the period.

Jun 2004

Invests in eEye

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Levine leads Bessemer’s investment in the vulnerability management software provider, supplying $15 million in the Series D round and joining the company’s board.

15 Jun, 2005

Funds Parallels

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Levine leads Bessemer’s investment in SWSoft, the virtualization and cloud software provider’s parent company. The funding round is reported to add $12.4 million to the company from Bessemer, Intel Capital, and Insight Venture Partners. Levine:

We are impressed by the resurgent hosting market’s rapid growth, which is reminiscent of the environment in this sector several years ago when we made investments in Verisign, Register.com and Verio

Oct 2005

Invests in Yelp

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Levine joins the board of Yelp as a director, leading Bessemer’s investment in its Series B funding round for a reported $5 million. Bessemer is Yelp’s first institutional investor.

Mar 2006

Wikia investment

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Levine leads Bessemer’s investment in the for-profit community-based content site, which changes its name to Wikia from Wikicities. The funding round raises $4 million from a group of VC firms, private investors and angel funds, including Marc Andreessen. Levine joins the board. Wales doesn’t disclose where the money will be spent but says it will help the site run more smoothly:

With the nonprofit organization that is supported by donations, if the Web site is slow sometimes, that just sort of tells people that it might be time to donate money. We can’t do that with Wikia, which is ad-supported. People expect it to be strong all the time, and this will help us do exactly that.

The site’s vision:

We’re extending the Wikipedia social model into other areas. We’re building communities that are in all kinds of areas. Some things like ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Star Trek,’ and geek culture type of stuff, has been successful for us. People can come and build a Web site about anything.

30 Sep, 2006

OLX Series A investment

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Levine joins the board of the international classified ad provider as Bessemer and three other investors contribute $10 million Series A funding.

6 Dec, 2006

Amazon joins Wikia investors

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Amazon enters as the only participant in a Series B round reported at $10 million. It is the first corporate investor. Senior vice president for business development Jeff Blackburn joins the Wikia board.

21 Dec, 2006

LinkedIn valuation $250 million

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The upcoming Series C funding round is rumored to value the company at $250 million valuation. LinkedIn expects to generate $45 million to $60 million in sales in 2007 and $100 million in 2008 – it has been profitable since March and employs 45 people.

Jan 2007

$53 million Series D funding

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Bessemer joins Bain Capital and existing investors Sequoia Capital and Greylock Partners to supply $53 million in the fourth funding round, in exchange for a 5% stake. Nye:

We have a strong balance sheet and a strong business model. Now we have the luxury of being able to focus on building a great company.

Invests in LinkedIn

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Levine and Bessemer managing partner David Cowan lead an investment in the Series C funding round. Together with European Founders Fund, they provide a total of $12.8 million to join a roster that includes Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners, and Josh Kopelman. Cowan:

As heavy users of LinkedIn for deal flow, due diligence and hiring, we have seen first-hand how profoundly LinkedIn promises to transform several service markets

2 Apr, 2007

eEye CEO fired

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Brown is fired by eEye after less than six months on the job. The company has had its best-ever first quarter but Brown says he knew the change was coming. He is replaced by head of sales Kamal Arafeh, while Maiffret and Gardiner stay on as CTO and CFO.

2007

Expects $30 million sales

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Diapers.com expects sales to more than double in 2007, growing 173% to more than $30 million. Revenues grew 340% in 2006 to $11 million. Lore:

Shoppers were making more than 200,000 keyword searches on diapers each month and we couldn’t believe there weren’t more retailers going after the business opportunity

Jul 2007

Intego funding

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Bessemer invests in Apple security software provider Intego, and Levine joins the company’s board. The deal is worth a reported $25 million and gives Bessemer about 85% of Neutral Holdings Inc., a vehicle set up to act as Intego’s parent company.