Roy Bahat (b. 1977) is a venture capitalist, educator, and activist. He is currently the head of

Bloomberg Beta Bloomberg Beta is an early stage venture capital firm with $450M under management, capitalized solely by Bloomberg. The fund exists to expand Bloomberg's horizons by investing in companies built by extraordinary founders that are creating profoun ...

, the venture capital arm of

Bloomberg Bloomberg may refer to: People * Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer * Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian * Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician a ...

. He teaches at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

Early life and education

Bahat was born in 1977. His mother worked for the

American Jewish Committee The American Jewish Committee (AJC) is a civil rights group and Jewish advocacy group established on November 11, 1906. It is one of the oldest Jewish advocacy organizations and, according to ''The New York Times'', is "widely regarded as the wi ...

and his father was an architect. He graduated from Harvard University

magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

with a degree in social studies and was a

Rhodes Scholar The Rhodes Scholarship is an international Postgraduate education, postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford in Oxford, United Kingdom. The scholarship is open to people from all backgrounds around the world. Esta ...

at the University of Oxford. At Oxford, Bahat earned a Master's degree in economics.

Career

In 2002 Bahat worked for then-New York City Mayor

Michael Bloomberg Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman and politician. He is the majority owner and co-founder of Bloomberg L.P., and was its CEO from 1981 to 2001 and again from 2014 to 2023. He served as the 108th mayo ...

as the Senior Policy Director. He left to work for a non-profit called NYC2012, which advocated for the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

to be held in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. In 2007, Bahat started at

News Corporation The original incarnation of News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp. and also variously known as News Corporation Limited) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media corporation founded and controlled by media mogul Ru ...

. He later led the News Corp. brand

IGN Entertainment ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

. Bahat left News Corp. in August 2012. He also cofounded a gaming console company called OUYA and created a non-profit. Bahat has been a venture capitalist since about 2012. He was known in part for funding smaller startups where the founders still had day jobs. In September 2020, Bahat moved temporarily to

Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

in an effort to influence politics in a

swing state In United States politics, a swing state (also known as battleground state, toss-up state, or purple state) is any state that could reasonably be won by either the Democratic or Republican candidate in a statewide election, most often refe ...

. He raised money for the Democratic party. He was also involved with "Walk the Vote," a non-partisan group that organizes marches to voting booths. Bahat was on the board of a New York City Jewish day school called the

Abraham Joshua Heschel School The Abraham Joshua Heschel School (AJHS) is a pluralistic nursery to 12th grade Jewish day school in New York City named in memory of Abraham Joshua Heschel, a major Jewish leader, teacher, and activist of the 20th century. Other "Heschel Sch ...

. Bahat and his partners invested in

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

company Newsle in 2014. Roy Bahat advised the first Starbucks union organizers. In 2013, Bloomberg Beta was created and Bahat was appointed head of the new entity. Bahat is a partner of Bloomberg Beta along with Karin Klein and James Cham. Bahat started teaching an MBA course on leading a unionized workforce at

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. He also was a member of the Future of Work Commission, a governmental organization focused on economic growth in California.

Personal life

Bahat and his wife Sara Fenske married in 2007. The couple share two children. He and his wife are both active supporters of the Democratic Party.

References

External links

Personal website
American venture capitalists {{DEFAULTSORT:Bahat, Roy 1977 births Living people Harvard College alumni Alumni of the University of Oxford Haas School of Business faculty