The Israel Venture Capital Research Center - IVC finds that Greylock Israel was the most active Israeli venture capital fund in 2008.
The IVC ranking was based on the number of first investments by the VC firms. First investments are the first time that the VC firm invests in a start-up, regardless of which round it is for the start-up.
Greylock Israel had nine first investments. The start-ups included EnStorage, Imperva, Metis, modu, PLYmedia, Precise, Retalika, and WebCollage.
Vertex Venture Capital ranked second with eight first investments for the second straight year. DFJ Tamir Fishman and AquAgro placed third with seven investments each, and they were followed by Carmel and Israel Healthcare Ventures with six first investments each.
Cleantech venture capital fund AquAgro's investments were in CES, Desalitech, EvoGene, Tomaisins, TransBioDiesel, and it also invested in Variable Wind Solutions and Zo-Opt through AquAgro Lab, one of its portfolio companies.
Greylock Israel, owned by US-based Greylock Partners, focuses on IT & software investment, and had four deals in these sectors in 2008.
Vertex’s first investments were equally split among the IT & software, Internet and semiconductor sectors, with two deals in each. DFJ Tamir Fishman, a merged entity between Tamir Fishman Ventures and US-based Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ), made four of its seven investments in Internet companies. Carmel Ventures invested mostly in the Internet and IT & software sectors, with two deals in each.
Israel Healthcare Ventures (IHVC) made its six investments in life science companies, all of which were in companies related to Syneron co-founder Moshe Mizrahy. Syneron was IHCV’s first significant exit.
In 2008, 33 first investments were made in seed stage companies, representing 28% of first investments. In 2007, 43% were in seed stage companies. ProSeed Venture Capital Fund (TASE:PRSD) made the most investments in seed companies with three deals. Twelve of 32 venture capital funds made no investments in seed companies.
Ten first investments were made in foreign companies in 2008. Infinity’s Israel-China VC fund, with 60 percent of its managed capital designated to investments in China, made four of its five first investments in Chinese companies.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 16, 2009
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