# Murat Bicer

> Murat Bicer is a General Partner at CRV (Charles River Ventures), one of Silicon Valley's oldest and most storied early-stage venture firms. Born in Turkey and educated at Middle East Technical University and Babson College, he has spent two decades hunting for the next breakout enterprise software company. His signal achievement: backing Datadog at the seed stage in 2011 - before cloud monitoring was a recognized category - and riding it to a $30B+ public company that burned under $25M to get there. A five-time Forbes Midas List honoree (ranked #24 in 2024), Bicer is known for investing in developer-first companies, his contrarian willingness to back pre-product teams, and a portfolio that spans Datadog, Signal Sciences (acquired by Fastly for $775M), Iterable, Voyage AI (acquired by MongoDB), LanceDB, and Gorgias.

- **Role:** General Partner at CRV
- **Organizations:** CRV, Charles River Ventures, RTP Ventures, Battery Ventures, Mercury Computer Systems
- **From:** Turkey
- **Nationality:** Turkish-American
- **Education:** Secondary Education, TED Ankara Koleji, BS, Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Middle East Technical University, MS, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Northeastern University, MBA, Finance and Entrepreneurship, Babson College, F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business
- **Known for:** Five-time Forbes Midas List honoree (Top Tech Investors), ranked #24 in 2024, Seed investor in Datadog (2011) - backed before cloud monitoring was a recognized category; Datadog IPO'd in 2019 and reached $30B+ market cap while burning under $25M, Board member at Datadog through IPO

## Career timeline

- **1999-2000** — Software Engineer at Intra Information Technologies, Ankara
- **2002-2007** — Systems Engineer, then Product Marketing Manager and Market Development Manager at Mercury Computer Systems, Boston
- **2007-2012** — Senior Associate then VP at Battery Ventures; made seed investment in Datadog (2011)
- **2012-2015** — General Partner at RTP Ventures; co-led Datadog Series A ($6.2M, 2012)
- **2015-present** — General Partner at CRV (Charles River Ventures), San Francisco

## Achievements

- Five-time Forbes Midas List honoree (Top Tech Investors), ranked #24 in 2024
- Seed investor in Datadog (2011) - backed before cloud monitoring was a recognized category; Datadog IPO'd in 2019 and reached $30B+ market cap while burning under $25M
- Board member at Datadog through IPO
- Co-led Datadog Series A ($6.2M) alongside Index Ventures in 2012
- Invested in Signal Sciences (CRV Series B, 2017), acquired by Fastly for $775M in 2019
- Led Voyage AI Series A ($20M); acquired by MongoDB in February 2025
- Part of the CRV GP team that raised CRV XX ($750M) 4x oversubscribed in just 4 weeks (2025)
- CRV previously returned $275M from a $500M fund to LPs - rare discipline in the industry
- Built portfolio including Iterable (surpassed $100M ARR, $2B valuation), Gorgias, LanceDB, Emotive, Loop

## Latest updates

- **2025-08** — CRV closes CRV XX, a $750M Seed/Series A fund - 20th flagship fund, oversubscribed 2x, closed in 4 weeks
- **2025-02** — Voyage AI (CRV portfolio, led by Bicer) acquired by MongoDB
- **2024-08** — Led Voyage AI $20M Series A investment
- **2024-05** — Led LanceDB seed round ($11M total funding); LanceDB is the leading multimodal AI database
- **2024-01** — Ranked #24 on Forbes Midas List of Top Tech Investors
- **2024** — Led Outtake AI $16.5M Series A (AI-powered cybersecurity / social engineering defense)
- **2024** — Led Thesis Care (formerly Trovo Health) $45M Series A in healthcare AI

## Links

- Website: https://www.crv.com/team/murat-bicer
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mbicer
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/itsbeecher

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/murat-bicer
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Last updated: 2026-04-29