Bee Partners leads pre-seed deeptech investing, writing first checks to Founders building AI/ML, Robotics, Automation, MFG and related tech.
Key people at Bee Partners.
Key people at Bee Partners.
Bee Partners is a venture capital firm specializing in pre-seed and seed-stage investments focused on deep tech sectors such as artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML), robotics, automation, and manufacturing technologies. Their mission is to partner with visionary founders who possess the intelligence, grit, and humanity to build transformative companies that shape the future of human-machine interaction, machine-to-machine learning, and biological machines. Bee Partners emphasizes long-term founder partnerships, providing not only capital but also strategic guidance, operational support, and access to a strong network of industry experts, helping startups scale and succeed in competitive markets[1][3][5].
Founded in 2008 and headquartered in San Francisco, Bee Partners was established by Michael Berolzheimer, who serves as Founder and Managing Partner. The firm has evolved to focus explicitly on three investment "vectors": Human-Machine Interaction, Machine-to-Machine Learning, and Biological Machines, reflecting a deep commitment to frontier technologies. Key partners include Kira Noodleman and Alejandra Vergara, who bring expertise in go-to-market strategies and human-centered investing approaches. Bee Partners is known for being one of the earliest investors in pre-seed deep tech startups, often writing the first check and supporting founders through the challenging early stages of company building[1][3][4].
Bee Partners rides the wave of accelerating innovation in AI/ML, robotics, and automation, sectors that are rapidly transforming industries from manufacturing to healthcare. The timing is critical as advances in machine learning and biological engineering open new frontiers for automation and human-machine collaboration. Market forces such as increasing enterprise adoption of AI, demand for automation, and the convergence of biology and technology create fertile ground for Bee Partners’ portfolio companies. By focusing on early-stage deep tech, Bee Partners influences the ecosystem by enabling startups that push the boundaries of what machines can do, thus shaping the future of technology and industry[1][3][4].
Looking ahead, Bee Partners is likely to continue expanding its leadership in pre-seed deep tech investing, leveraging its strong founder relationships and technical expertise to back startups that will define the next generation of intelligent machines. Trends such as autonomous systems, AI-driven automation, and synthetic biology will shape their investment focus. Their influence is expected to grow as they help build foundational companies that drive innovation across multiple sectors, reinforcing their role as a key catalyst in the deep tech startup ecosystem[3][5].
| Date | Company | Round | Lead Investor(s) | Co-Investor(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 1, 2025 | Paradigm | $5.0M Seed | — | Axiom Partners, Blue Bear Capital, C2 Investment, Contrary Capital, General Catalyst, Erik Nordlander, Next Play Ventures, Play Ventures, Sequoia Capital, UP.Partners, Y Combinator, Akshay Kothari, Amjad Masad, Arash Ferdowsi, Balaji Srinivasan, Bradley Horowitz, David Petersen, Drew Houston, Dylan Field, Elad Gil, Eoghan McCabe, Gokul Rajaram, Jonathan Wasserstrum, Kyle Vogt, Marc Benioff, Sahin Boydas, Sam Altman, Spencer Kimball |
| Jul 1, 2025 | Julius AI | $10.0M Seed | — | Accel, Andreessen Horowitz, Axiom Partners, Blue Bear Capital, C2 Investment, Contrary Capital, CRV, Index Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Lowercarbon Capital, Next Play Ventures, Operator Collective, Sequoia Capital, South Park Commons, Stash Ventures, Sutter Hill Ventures, SV Angel, UP.Partners, Webb Investment Network, Y Combinator, Akshay Kothari, Alexandre Prot, Amjad Masad, Arash Ferdowsi, Balaji Srinivasan, Bradley Horowitz, Claire Hughes Johnson, Deborah Liu, DJ Patil, Don Dodge, Drew Houston, Dylan Field, Elad Gil, Eoghan McCabe, Fidji Simo, Gloria Baeuerlein, Gokul Rajaram, Guillaume Princen, Guillermo Rauch, Hanno Renner, Howie Liu, Jean Charles Samuelian, Job Van Der Voort, Jonathan Wasserstrum, Kevin Lin, Koen Bok, Kyle Vogt, Marc Benioff, Mike Volpe, Pawan Deshpande, Sahin Boydas, Sam Altman, Sam Palmisano, Shishir Mehrotra, Tobias Lutke, Tom Blomfield |
| Jul 1, 2025 | Sundial | $23.0M Series A | — | Accel, Alt Capital, Blue Bear Capital, Browder Capital, Contrary Capital, Jenny Fielding, Scott Hartley, Founders Fund, Freestyle Capital, FTX Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Meritech Capital Partners, Mischief Venture Capital, Next Play Ventures, Operator Collective, Redpoint Ventures, Saga, Sequoia Capital, South Park Commons, Summit Partners, Sutter Hill Ventures, TCV, The Hit Forge, UP.Partners, Vela Partners, Webb Investment Network, Amjad Masad, Arash Ferdowsi, Balaji Srinivasan, Bradley Horowitz, Christina Cacioppo, Deborah Liu, Dharmesh Shah, DJ Patil, Don Dodge, Drew Houston, Dylan Field, Elad Gil, Fidji Simo, Howie Liu, Immad Akhund, Jason Lemkin, Jonathan Neman, Jonathan Wasserstrum, Joshua Reeves, Julian Shapiro, Justin Mateen, Koen Bok, Kyle Vogt, Marc Benioff, Max Mullen, Parker Conrad, Sahin Boydas, Sam Altman, Scott Belsky, Scot Wingo, Sean Rad, Shishir Mehrotra, Siqi Chen, Tobias Lutke |
| Jul 1, 2025 | Commutator Studios | $2.0M Seed | — | NextView Ventures, Preston-Werner Ventures, James Beshara, Roger Bamford |
| Jul 1, 2025 | Ashby | $50.0M Series D | — | Alkeon Capital, Blue Bear Capital, Contrary Capital, Gaingels, General Catalyst, Greylock, Indeed.com, LGF, Next Play Ventures, Otherwise Fund, Sequoia Capital, UP.Partners, Amjad Masad, Arash Ferdowsi, Balaji Srinivasan, Bradley Horowitz, Drew Houston, Dylan Field, Elad Gil, John Collison, Jonathan Wasserstrum, Konstantin von Unger, Kyle Vogt, Marc Benioff, Sahin Boydas, Sam Altman, Scott Belsky, Vivek Patel |
| Jun 1, 2025 | Warp | $10.0M Series A | — | ACME Capital, Addition, Alumni Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Basecamp Fund, Blue Bear Capital, Bond, Contrary Capital, Craft Ventures, Floodgate, General Catalyst, Giant Ventures, Giza Polish Ventures, Greylock, Frederique Dame, Haystack, IVP, Kleiner Perkins, Klossy, LAUNCH, Lux Capital, Makers Fund, Maniv Mobility, Matrix, Menlo Ventures, Next Play Ventures, Hans Tung, Sequoia Capital, Seven Seven Six, Slow Ventures, The General Partnership, The House Fund, Toyota Ventures, Tribe Capital, Ultratech Capital Partners, Ulu Ventures, UP.Partners, Venture Highway, Volition Capital, Workday Ventures, Y Combinator, Adam Back, Amjad Masad, Arash Ferdowsi, Balaji Srinivasan, Bradley Horowitz, Catherine Lu, Ding Zhou, Drew Houston, Dylan Field, Elad Gil, Emmett Shear, Gokul Rajaram, Henry Kravis, Jonathan Wasserstrum, Kelvin Beachum Jr., Kevin Weil, Kyle Vogt, Manish Chandra, Marc Benioff, Nico Rosberg, Sahin Boydas, Sam Altman, Tony Xu |
| May 1, 2025 | CarbonSix | $4.0M Seed | — | 1984 Ventures, Foothill Ventures (formerly Tsingyuan Ventures), Index Ventures, Plug & Play Ventures, Supernode Ventures, The House Fund, Dylan Field |
| Mar 1, 2025 | Sourcetable | $4.0M Seed | — | AAF Management Ltd., Better Tomorrow Ventures, Flourish Ventures, NextView Ventures, Pioneer Fund, Preston-Werner Ventures, Amir Farha, Asher Siddiqui, James Beshara, Jason Gardner, Kulveer Taggar, Nate Matherson, Roger Bamford, Ryan Chan |
| Oct 1, 2024 | General Galactic | $8.0M Seed | — | 8VC, Alumni Ventures, Cantos Ventures, FJ Labs, Refactor Capital, Sequoia Capital, Verified Capital, Virta Ventures |
| Jun 1, 2024 | Speak | $20.0M Series B | — | Andreessen Horowitz, TJ Nahigian, Blue Bear Capital, BoxGroup, Buckley Ventures, Byers Capital, Contrary Capital, First Round Capital, General Catalyst, GIT1K, Next Play Ventures, Sequoia Capital, UP.Partners, Y Combinator, Amjad Masad, Arash Ferdowsi, Balaji Srinivasan, Bradley Horowitz, David J. Phillips, Drew Houston, Dylan Field, Elad Gil, Gordon Wintrob, Jonathan Wasserstrum, Kyle Vogt, Marc Benioff, Michael Stoppelman, Nate Matherson, Nikhil Krishnan, Nitay Joffe, Sahin Boydas, Sam Altman, Zak Kukoff |
| Mar 1, 2024 | CarbonCapture | $80.0M Series A | — | Alumni Ventures, Amazon Climate Pledge Fund, Blue Bear Capital, Contrary Capital, Next Play Ventures, Prime Movers Lab, Sequoia Capital, UP.Partners, Amjad Masad, Arash Ferdowsi, Balaji Srinivasan, Bradley Horowitz, Drew Houston, Dylan Field, Elad Gil, Jonathan Wasserstrum, Kyle Vogt, Marc Benioff, Sahin Boydas, Sam Altman |
| Nov 1, 2023 | Pathway Medical | $5.0M Seed | — | BoxOne Ventures, Pioneer Fund, Toyota Ventures |
| Sep 1, 2023 | teachme.to | $2.0M Seed | — | 1984 Ventures, Bling Capital, Blue Bear Capital, Contrary Capital, Next Play Ventures, Sequoia Capital, UP.Partners, Amjad Masad, Arash Ferdowsi, Balaji Srinivasan, Bradley Horowitz, Deborah Liu, Drew Houston, Dylan Field, Elad Gil, Gokul Rajaram, Jonathan Wasserstrum, Kyle Vogt, Marc Benioff, Sahin Boydas, Sam Altman |
| Aug 1, 2023 | Sensible | $4.0M Seed | — | NextView Ventures, Preston-Werner Ventures, James Beshara, Roger Bamford |
| Aug 1, 2023 | Panobi | $5.0M Seed | — | 1984 Ventures, Adverb Ventures, Aglae Ventures, AirAngels, Alt Capital, Jana Messerschmidt, #ANGELS (Hashtag ANGELS), C2 Investment, Craft Ventures, Earl Grey Capital, Eric Rosenblum, FPV Fund, Greylock, Hyper, Index Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, KRM Interests LLC, Lerer Hippeau, Northzone, Norwest Venture Partners, OODA Ventures, Placeholder, Plug & Play Ventures, Race Capital, Redpoint Ventures, Sarona Ventures, Seven Seven Six, Supernode Ventures, The Hit Forge, The House Fund, Volt Capital, Weekend Fund, Y Combinator, Balaji Srinivasan, Ben Davenport, Ben Porterfield, Bradley Horowitz, Casey Neistat, Charles Zedlewski, Christina Cacioppo, DJ Patil, DROdio - Daniel R. Odio, Dylan Field, Florian Huber, Fredrik Hjelm, Jacob Kerzner, Jeff Hammerbacher, Mathilde Collin, Paul Yacoubian, Sahil Lavingia, Sahin Boydas, Scott Belsky, Stewart Butterfield, Varsha Rao |
| Aug 1, 2023 | Realm | $10.0M Venture Round | — | 8VC, Alumni Ventures, Cantos Ventures, FJ Labs, Refactor Capital, Sequoia Capital, Verified Capital, Virta Ventures |
| Aug 1, 2023 | Intuition Robotics | $20.0M Venture Round | — | 2150, BoxOne Ventures, Crow Holdings, Endeavor8, Microsoft, OurCrowd, Pioneer Fund, Seraphim Space, Toyota Ventures, Vertex Ventures, Viola Ventures, Webtalk Ltd, Marc Benioff |
| Jul 1, 2023 | Socket | $20.0M Series A | — | Abstract Ventures, Kevin Hartz, A* Capital (A Star Capital), ACME Capital, Alpine Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Angels of Many, Banana Capital, Blue Bear Capital, C2 Investment, Concept Ventures, Contrary Capital, Felicis Ventures, Framework Ventures, Goodwater Capital, Greylock, Infinite Niches, Jetstream, Lobby Capital, N49P Ventures, Scott Sandell, Next Play Ventures, NFX, Openview Venture Partners, Pantera Capital, Paradigm, Preface Ventures, Radical Ventures, Robot Ventures, Sand Hill Angels, Seed Club Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Sweater Ventures, Tiger Global Management, UP.Partners, Alex Rodriguez, Weekend Fund, WorkLife Ventures, XX, Y Combinator, Aaron Levie, Adam Gross, Amjad Masad, Arash Ferdowsi, Balaji Srinivasan, Bob Young, Bradley Horowitz, Charles Zedlewski, Charlie Cheever, Christian Reber, Christina Cacioppo, Drew Houston, Dylan Field, Elad Gil, Evan Moore, Frederic Kerrest, Greg Brockman, Guillermo Rauch, Immad Akhund, Jawed Karim, Jim Pitkow, John Collison, Jonathan Wasserstrum, Julia Hartz, Kyle Vogt, Marc Benioff, Mark Cuban, Matt Mazzeo, Niklas Jansen, Nkechi Iregbulem, Peter Sonsini, Robert Witoff, Sahin Boydas, Sam Altman, Scott Belsky, Spencer Kimball, Stacy Brown-Philpot, Steve Chen, Tobias Lutke |
| Jul 1, 2023 | Sourcetable | $1.0M Seed | — | Gutter Capital, NextView Ventures, Preston-Werner Ventures, Ilia Papas, James Beshara, Roger Bamford, Wiley Cerilli |
| Jul 1, 2023 | Embrace | $20.0M Venture Round | — | Matter Venture Partners, Forest Baskett, New Enterprise Associates, Tiger Global Management |
| May 1, 2023 | Wellplaece | $6.0M Seed | — | 8VC, Altair Capital Management, Alumni Ventures, Cantos Ventures, FJ Labs, LombardStreet Ventures, Mantis VC, Outlier Ventures, Refactor Capital, Sequoia Capital, Verified Capital, Virta Ventures, WestRiver Group |
| Feb 1, 2023 | Future Fields | $11.0M Series A | — | 468 Capital, Asylum Ventures, BoxOne Ventures, Divergent Capital, Future Positive Capital, GE Ventures, SOSV, Toyota Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Rob May |
| Aug 1, 2022 | Lumachain | $20.0M Series A | — | Bessemer Venture Partners, Jude Gomila Rolling Fund, KRM Interests LLC, Ponte Partners, Virta Ventures, Wealthing VC Club, Y Combinator, Immad Akhund, Jeremy Yap, Marty Weiss |
| Jun 1, 2022 | Magic Eden | $130.0M Series B | — | 01 Advisors, 1984 Ventures, 8VC, Alumni Ventures, Asylum Ventures, Cantos Ventures, Conviction Partners, Dell Technologies Capital, Electric Capital, FJ Labs, Greylock, LaFont, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Meritech Capital Partners, Pareto Holdings, Refactor Capital, Sapphire Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Stellar Capital, The Community Fund, Verified Capital, Virta Ventures, Andrew Bialecki, Deepak Jeevan Kumar, Dennis Steele, Eric Rea, Mathilde Collin, Mulenga Agley, Scott Belsky |
| May 1, 2022 | Zepto | $200.0M Series D | — | Austin Walne, Blue Bear Capital, Contrary Capital, Elkstone, Faber, Glade Brook Capital Partners, Goodwater Capital, LGF, Next Play Ventures, Pareto Holdings, Sequoia Capital, Target Global, UP.Partners, Venture Highway, Y Combinator, Amjad Masad, Arash Ferdowsi, Balaji Srinivasan, Bradley Horowitz, Drew Houston, Dylan Field, Elad Gil, Gerald Parloiu, Jonathan Wasserstrum, Kyle Vogt, Manik Gupta, Marc Benioff, Oliver Jung, Sahin Boydas, Sam Altman |
