New York-based fund Insight Partners, which has become one of the most prominent investors in Israel's technology industry and is responsible for many local companies becoming unicorns, has announced the final closing of its twelfth flagship fund, along with a dedicated co-invest fund that will participate in certain investments alongside the flagship fund to invest in global high-growth technology, software and Internet businesses.
Fund XII closed with total capital commitments in excess of $20 billion. This marks the firm’s largest fundraise to date. Its previous fund, raised in April 2020, totaled $9.5 billion.
The momentum behind investment in technology companies has slackened, with falls in the share prices of those that have gone public and a decline in valuations of privately held companies raising capital. This has not, however, deterred the giant funds from raising billions to invest in technology. It may even indicate that large technology companies will have to remain privately-held for a long time and rely more and more on injections of venture capital, especially given the decline in growth forecasts.
While the fund will focus on investment in companies from the early stage up to IPO, Insight has split off part of the money into a smaller fund dedicated to reinforcing investment in growth companies in which the main fund has invested.
Altogether, Insight Partners now manages $90 billion.
Insight Partners managing director Teddie Wardi told "Globes" that the decline in the markets did affect companies at the mature stage, but hardly touched startup companies. "The market has always been volatile - there are good times and bad times, but we invest for the long term. There are companies making IPOs, and there are companies that can do that in another three or seven years. We'll stand behind them."
Wardi declined to comment on how much will be invested in each portfolio company, and sufficed with the general remark that Insight Partners intended to invest in interesting software companies at any stage. According to its announcement, the fund invests between $5 million and $500 million in a company.
According to research company IVC, Insight Partners is one of the most active venture capital funds in Israel, alongside hedge fund Tiger Global. It currently manages 75 active investments, some of them in leading Israeli privately-held cybersecurity companies, such as Wiz, Transmit Security, Noname Security, and Aqua Security. Other unicorns in the fund's portfolio are Lightricks, Big Panda, Joy Tunes, and Moon Active. The fund is behind some of the outstanding IPOs of 2021, although they have seen their share prices decline since last year, among them Monday.com, SentinelOne, and Walkme.
Two months ago, Insight Partners appointed Liad Agmon as Israel partner, to help it find and manage investments in Israeli startups. Until then, it operated in Israel remotely.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on February 24, 2022.
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