US venture capital fund 500 Startups is opening an Israel office. The fund, which operates one of the world's five leading accelerators, has appointed Adam Benayoun and Diana Moldavsky as investment partners in Israel. They will be sourcing and investing in Israeli companies as well as supporting the existing 500 Startups network in Israel. 500 Startups has invested to date sums of between $100,000 and $250,000 in about 1,200 early stage startups worldwide.
Benayoun said, "So far we have invested in only 10 Israeli startups out of 1,200 companies. MyPermissions was the first followed by Appfront, Soundbetter, Evo, SkyGiraffe, MissBeez and Binpress, which I founded. Israel is a big startup market but until now 500 Startups has not had a systematic way of entering the market and handling Israeli startups. They now want to change that."
Benayoun said that the fund plans making 10-20 investments in Israeli startups over the next year. The total investment (each of up to $250,000) could reach $5 million. Some of the startups will be invited to join 500 Startups accelerators in San Francisco and Mountain View.
500 Startups founding partner Dave McClure who is currently in Israel said, “Israel is one of the most active entrepreneurial markets in the world - the pace of innovation here is astonishing, and more active on a per capita basis than Silicon Valley."
Founded in 2010, 500 Startups is a venture capital seed fund and startup accelerator based in Silicon Valley with $200 million in assets under management.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 8, 2015
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