Israeli funds Entrée Capital and F2 Capital were the most active venture capital firms in the Israeli technology market in 2020, with fourteen first investments in startups each. The figures are from a report by research company IVC in collaboration with the law firm of Amit, Pollak, Matalon & Co., released today.
According to the report, in joint second place are US private equity and venture capital firm Insight Partners and Israeli venture capital firm Peregrine Ventures, with thirteen investments each. They are followed by Israeli VC SIBF (South Israel Bridge Fund) and US firm GoAhead Ventures, each of which made eleven investments,.
After them, the report lists US firm Lightspeed, which made ten investments in Israel in 2020, followed by Israeli firms TLV Partners, JVP, and Gigi Levy Weiss's NFX, each of which made nine investments last year. The report states that, altogether, 620 first investments were made in Israeli startups in 2020, which compares with 470 in 2019.
The report is based on publicly available information and on information supplied by the firms. It does not consider investment size, and so is naturally very biased towards firms that make small investments in companies at the earliest stages.
The report does not include companies that were in technology incubators or accelerators at the time that they received investment, but in the case of F2 and Peregrine Ventures it does include investments made through the accelerator and incubator that they own. The report also does not cover investment by corporate venture capital funds, micro funds, and funds of the universities.
According to the report, Israeli venture capital firms made 45% of all first investments in 2020, which is similar to the proportion in 2019 (46%). Participation in first investments by Israel venture capital firms grew by 65% between 2014 and 2020, which compares with growth of 26% on the part of foreign firms in that period.
Adv. Yonatan Altman, chairman of Amit, Pollak, Matalon & Co., said, "We are seeing growth in the number of first investments in late rounds, and we are not surprised. We are finding a substantial number of deals of all kinds on the ground, and the numbers are consistent with that. The growth in the number of investments in early rounds and the recovery seen in comparison with 2019, however, is a significant indication of stronger confidence in the market and readiness to make investments at early stages. It may be a fragile change, observable only in the past year, but the strong numbers with which we opened 2021 allow us to be cautiously optimistic."
IVC research manager Marianna Shapira said, "2020 saw growth in the number of Israeli venture capital funds and also a greater variety of types of funds. Along with that we have seen new models of types of investment, such as growth funds and academic funds, that are supply the varied demand on the part of the startup companies."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on March 22, 2021
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