Advertising giant Omnicom is forming a venture capital fund for investment in Israel in co-operation with advertising agency Gitam-BBDO. The volume of the fund, to be named Boticelli, will be $75 million. Omnicom will invest $15 million in the fund and will hold 66% of the share capital, while Gitam will invest $2-3 million in return for 34% of the share capital. Omnicom also intends to acquire Israeli start-up companies.
The fund proposes to raise additional moneys from financial and strategic entities in Israel and overseas, with the minimum unit of participation standing at $1 million. The fund is due to be closed in October, and will have a lifetime of seven years.
The fund chair will be Omnicom group president and general manager John D. Wren. Manager of the fund will be Amir Goldstein, one of the pioneers of Amdocs and a founder of Cellcom, who until recently served as vice-president of Cellcom.
The fund's proposed volume of investment per start-up is $1-2 million.
Omnicom has so far invested in one Israeli start-up, namely Earthnoise, other than through the new fund.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on 15 May 2000