Israeli-Japanese VC fund Aristagora raises $60m

Israeli-Japanese seed-stage tech investment Aristagora VC has announced its first $60 million fund. The fund focuses on deep technologies and will invest $500,000 to $1.5 million as an initial investment in each selected initiative. As a fund with deep financial capabilities, Aristagora VC will support its portfolio companies’ growth through next-stage funding rounds and will serve as a feeder for later-stage and growth-stage funds and will focus on multi-stage exit strategies.

Aristagora VC will also bring another significant advantage to its portfolio companies. As one of the fund’s active general partners hails from Japan and manages private equity and investment activities in Tokyo, the fund will also provide a foot in the door for its portfolio companies to make connections and secure significant business relationships within the Japanese market, known to be hard for foreigners to penetrate..

The fund’s Israeli managing partners are Anat Tila Cherni and Moshe Sarfaty, both experience venture capital investors, while the chairman of the fund’s Investment Committee is Gideon Ben-Zvi. The fund’s fourth partner, Takeshi Shinoda, operates out of Japan and Singapore.

He said, "From my vantage point in Japan, I know exactly what needs to be done to penetrate the Japanese and Asian markets. My local team and I will ensure that the fund’s portfolio companies are brought to the local market at the right time and in the best possible way. We will help Israeli entrepreneurs with their diverse Israeli mentalities to adapt themselves to the local market while also holding on to the many benefits that led us to focus on the Israeli market in the first place."

Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on October 27, 2020