According to IVC Research, 28% of the venture capital investments were made in seed stage companies in 2008, compared to 43% in 2007. More than 30% of the vc funds in Israel made no investments in seed companies in 2008. Greylock Israel was 2008’s most active fund ranking with nine First investments followed by Vertex with eight First investments for the second straight year. Carmel Ventures and Gemini Israel Funds have both lost their lead in this category, which might explain why the latter fell short in its recent funding efforts, raising $150 million rather than the $200 million planned.
The IVC Research Center has released the results of its 2008 VC survey, to determine 2008’s most active venture capital funds in Israel. The ranking consisted of the number of first investments by the funds in 2008 based on the data reported directly by the funds as well as the IVC Online database.
Overall, Israeli VC funds made 119 First investments in technology companies in 2008, compared to 127 investments in 2007. There was a massive decline in the Dollar amounts invested in each of these First investments – 28% less than the previous year. In terms of sectors, IT & software attracted the largest number of First investments in 2008 (26 total), reflecting 22% of the total number of investments.
Most Active Israeli Venture Capital Funds in 2008 Ranked by Number of First Investments
|
Rank |
Management Company |
No. of |
Companies |
|
1
|
Greylock Israel
|
9 |
EnStorage, Imperva, Metis, modu, PLYmedia, Precise (Part of a buyout deal with Vector Capital), Retalika, WebCollage, Webswappers |
|
2 |
Vertex |
8 |
DigiFlex (through Technion Seed Incubator), MediaBoost, Neuralitic (Non-Israeli), Percello, Sidense, Universal Ad, Waze, WEbook |
|
3
|
AquAgro (A cleantech-specialized VC fund) |
7 |
CES, Desalitech, EvoGene, Tomaisins, TransBioDiesel (Through LN Innovative Technologies Incubator), Variable Wind Solutions (Through AquAgro Lab – a portfolio company of the fund) , Zo-Opt |
|
DFJ Tamir Fishman Ventures (A merger of Tamir Fishman Ventures and Draper Fisher Jurvetson) |
7 |
aniBoom, Kaiima, Polls Boutique, Siano, Siklu, Superfish, ZON |
|
|
4
|
Carmel |
6 |
|
|
IHCV ( Israel HealthCare Ventures – a life sciences-specialized VC fund) |
6 |
EasyLap, EasyGlide, SunSoul, Invasix, Priness, Metamorefix (All companies related to Moshe Mizrahy, Syneron co-founder, IHCV’s first significant exit) |
I'm a former general partner at google ventures, head of Google for Entrepreneurs in Europe and founding head of Campus London, Google's first physical hub for startups.
I'm also the founder of Techbikers, a non-profit bringing together the startup ecosystem on cycling challenges in support of Room to Read. Since inception in 2012 we've built 11 schools and 50 libraries in the developing world.
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