Accel Partners is opening an Israel office. Facebook's 32 year old Israeli-born head of corporate development Nir Blumberger is returning home to run Accel's Tel Aviv office as venture partner. “We see the pace of innovation has accelerated and the best way to cover the market is to have someone who is a core part of the Accel London team physically on the ground (in Israel),” Accel partner Sonali De Rycker told "Bloomberg."
Accel has offices in San Francisco and Palo Alto, California, London and Bangalore, and has invested more than $350 million in Israel since 2002, "Bloomberg" reports. These investments include the now publicly traded cybersecurity company Imperva Inc., global services marketplace Fiverr, data governance solutions provider Varonis Systems Inc., and more recently cyber security companies ForeScout and Demisto, and data storage company E8 storage.
Accel join other international funds with offices in Israel, including Bessemer Venture Partners, New Venture Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Battery Ventures. Last year, 131 foreign venture funds made at least one investment in Israel according to IVC Research Center.
In April, Accel announced it had raised a new $500 million fund targeting European and Israeli startups. The firm currently has $2.5 billion committed to Europe and Israel.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 8, 2016
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2016