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MENLO PARK, CA and LARCHMONT, NY -- (Marketwire) -- 01/17/13 -- Bessemer Venture Partners, a top venture capital firm backing great entrepreneurs who lead transformative startups and other high growth companies, ended 2012 on a high note counting five IPOs and a number of major M&A exits. The partnership, known for investing early in innovators such as Endeca, LinkedIn, Yelp and Pinterest, also made 20 new investments this year.

2012 IPOs
With 5 IPOs, BVP earned a spot among the top three VCs for total IPOs in 2012, according to the NVCA. These include:

•Eloqua (NASDAQ: ELOQ) went public in August. BVP invested in 2007. Oracle recently announced the acquisition of Eloqua for $871 million plus company cash. •Lifelock (NYSE: LOCK) went public in October. BVP was the first institutional investor, leading the Series A and participating in each later round. At the time of IPO, BVP was the largest shareholder in Lifelock and remains so today. •Millennial Media (NASDAQ: MM) went public in March. BVP seeded the company, co-led the Series A and participated in each later round, sharing the role of largest shareholder. •Verastem (NASDAQ: VSTM) went public in January. BVP co-led the Series A financing and participated in each later round. •Yelp (NYSE: YELP) Yelp went public in March. BVP was the first institutional investor, investing in 2005 and securing a stake as the largest shareholder. The firm remains the largest shareholder today.

2012 M&A Highlights
In 2012, BVP realized venture returns through a number of major M&A exits. Highlights include:

•Stromedix was acquired by Biogen in March for $75 million upfront, plus up to $487.5 million in milestone based payments. BVP backed the company in multiple rounds. •OMGPop was acquired by Zynga in March for $178 million. BVP was an early investor. •Summit Microelectronics was acquired by Qualcomm in June for an undisclosed sum. BVP participated in a number of the rounds of financing. •SelectMinds was acquired in September by Oracle for an undisclosed sum. BVP was the first and only venture investor in the Series A round. There were no further rounds. •Truaxis was acquired by Mastercard in September for an undisclosed amount. BVP incubated the company in its offices, then led and participated in their later financing rounds as the largest shareholder. •Traffix Systems was acquired by F5 Networks for $135 million in February, less than six months after BVP's October 2011 investment in the series B round. BVP was the largest shareholder.