Tel Aviv-based venture capital firm Crescendo Venture Partners has completed the first closing of a new fund that is planned to reach $80-100 million. The final closing is scheduled to be in the first half of 2020.
Crescendo Ventures is partnered with Swiss-based Crescendo Group, which manages client assets in excess of $3 billion from its offices in Geneva, London, Guernsey, New York, Miami, Madrid, Hong Kong, Montevideo and most recently Nassau.
The new fund will invest in early-stage Israeli software startups in fields such as big data, AI and machine learning, with an emphasis on software that transforms traditional sectors such as agriculture, education, construction, healthcare and industry. The fund began operations during 2019, and has already made its first investment, leading the A round of Lightico, an Israeli startup that has developed an automation solution for the last mile of the customer journey in contact centers.
Crescendo Venture Partners is led by Zvi Schechter, Dr. Yuval Avni and Tal Mizrahi, formerly partners at Giza Venture Capital, together with Mark Kavelaars.
"Despite the huge potential of startups in early stages, there is a gap between the financing needs of these companies and the amounts investors actually invest in this stage," Avni said. "Crescendo will bridge this gap, with its team that will propose to entrepreneurs a combination of experience in investment and management of startups, along with a broad network of connections with companies and investors in Europe, Latin America and Asia who are interested in investing in Israeli software companies."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on December 4, 2019
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