State of Mind Ventures, a new investment fund, is trying to take advantage of the high tech boom to raise $50 million. Pinhas Buchris and Yuval Baharav founded the fund, which will invest $1-2 million per company at the seed stage in companies operating in the big data, aerospace, communications, cyber, cloud infrastructure, and computerized vision sectors.
The fund has already invested $4 million in three companies: Cabara, Twiggle, and SpacePharma. Gen. (res.) Buchris commanded the IDF 8200 Intelligence Corps unit; many of those who served in this unit later worked in Israeli high tech. He later served as Ministry of Defense director general. Baharav, now an angel investor, is a former partner in Sequoia Capital and executive at Amdocs Ltd. (Nasdaq: DOX).
The two men invested their own money in the fund, and were joined by Shlomo Kalish and Ranan Grobman's Vaizra Investments fund and other undisclosed investors. Former 888 manager and angel investor Gigi Levy-Weiss will act as a consultant and investment committee member for the new fund.
The fund's first investment was in the SpacePharma startup, which is developing a solution to enable pharmaceutical, food, and chemical companies to conduct research in outer space. SpacePharma's technology makes it possible to obtain scientific results quickly and at low cost in a variety of segments, including gene mapping, devising vaccines, drug development, etc. Former Intelligence Corps satellite system commander Yossi Yamin and senor satellite technology figure Ido Priel founded State of Mind.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 29, 2015
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