Bessemer Venture Partners: Century Fund

In July of 2021, Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP) contemplated the future of its growth investing practice, known as "Century." While still relatively new as a focused initiative, BVP's growth investing already had significant momentum. The fund's investment pace had been faster than expected, and the initial investments looked strong. But many of their VC competitors had already been operating growth funds, a new wave of growth-stage-focused investors were increasing their investment activity, and the team wondered what BVP should do. They considered three "out of the box" ideas: extending the firm's multi-stage focus to include leveraged buyouts, expanding aggressively into East Asia and Africa, and applying the BVP process to public companies through a hedge fund. Which option, if any, should the team pursue?