Bonfire Ventures Raises $231M for B2B Startups

Bonfire Ventures, which helps B2B software companies raise money during their seed stage, has closed a $168 million seed funding round and a $63 million second-opportunity fund, putting its total fundraising since 2017 at more than $1 billion, according to a company press release Tuesday (May 31).

Bonfire offers curated, hands-on partnership to B2B software founders as they move through their investment journey, starting at the seed stage, progressing to the Series A level, and moving forward with product launches, development, and other aspects of their businesses.

“Our tightly focused, bespoke approach continues to be a model of success for our founders, companies, and investors,” said Mark Mullen, co-founder and managing director at Bonfire Ventures, in the company press release. “Across the board, our funds’ performance and our portfolio companies’ success are punching far above their weight.”

Bonfire is “intentionally selective,” the company press release says, committing to no more than 25 to 30 investments per fund. Bonfire Ventures will use the fresh capital from its latest fundraising efforts to invest in B2B software companies and offer specialized support for seed-stage B2B software founders.

“Not all capital is created equal. Any firm or individual with capital can write a check, but few provide the hands-on and empathetic support that seed-stage founders need to take their company through Series A and subsequent rounds,” said Jim Andelman, co-founder and managing director at Bonfire Ventures, in the company press release.

“We’re singularly focused on backing B2B software founders at the seed stage to help them beat the odds and transform the industries they serve,” he said.

Related: Sowing the Seeds of the Connected Economy, Seed Round by Seed Round

In April, Tripp Shriner, partner at Point72 Ventures, told PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster that investing in the infrastructure that integrates payments and credits into workflows pays dividends — to the venture capital (VC) firms and the wider financial services industry.

Point72 Ventures, Shriner said, has found an opportunity to make a range of (disclosed and undisclosed) investments in smaller firms that are modernizing different parts of the payments stack. Those nascent firms focus on everything from the transactions themselves to payments processing, as well as improving workflows with robotics, algorithms and next-generation manufacturing.

Cryptocurrencies are not ready for payments prime time, he said, though crypto has a place within the investing landscape.