Yaron Jacobs appointed PrivatEquity.biz chairman

Yaron Jacobs
Yaron Jacobs

The former Director General of Israel’s Government Companies Authority will lead PrivatEquity.biz's employees securities fund.

Adv. Yaron Jacobs has been appointed chairman of PrivatEquity.biz, Israel’s first secondary market platform. The former Director General of the Israel’s Government Companies Authority will lead the raising of PrivatEquity.biz's $13 million employees securities fund - the first such fund in Israel. It will also be one of the first funds in the world whose capital is allocated solely for investing in securities that will be purchased from employees, former senior employees, founders, and entrepreneurs in pre-IPO high-tech companies.

In 2000-2002, Adv. Jacobs served as the Director General of the Government Companies Authority under two Prime Ministers, Ehud Barak and Ariel Sharon. During that period, Jacobs led the privatization of six government companies. Jacobs served in various roles in the public and private sectors, including as policy adviser to then-Minister of Foreign Affairs Ehud Barak, a senior adviser to the minister of the interior and legal adviser of the Central Bureau of Statistics. Jacobs serves as Chairman of software company MagicFlex and also leads the educational-social NGO Taking Responsibility - Israel 2048.

The new fund, High-Tech Employees Index, offers an innovative investment model in a long-term micro-fund, whose goal is to allocate roughly $13 million for the selective purchasing of privately-held securities of senior employees at high-tech companies. The fund will invest in companies whose solutions have substantial international market potential. Most of investment will be in Israeli companies, which have raised at least $10 million. The managers of the High-Tech Employees Index fund intend to raise capital from Israeli and foreign Family Offices and private investors.

The fund will invest in high-tech employees’ securities in carefully selected fields, which have been identified by PrivatEquity.biz as very interesting for Israeli and foreign private investors, including internet, medical devices and the life sciences, ICT, energy, cleantech, and agrotech. The fund seeks to purchase a wide variety of securities, in order to ensure intelligent risk management for the long term.

PrivatEquity.biz's managers have signed a series of agreements with senior high-tech employees, who are now presenting offering their pre-IPO stocks for sale on the online trading arena. Companies whose senior employees present their stocks for sale include DoubleVerify, LiveU, and Websplanet.

The Board of Directors of PrivatEquity.biz is currently examining some of Israel’s leading escrow services firms to act as trustees, oversee the investors’ capital and its management, and handle taxation issues and periodic reports pursuant to the fund’s conditions.

Adv. Jacobs said, "Private high-tech companies prefer to remain private over longer periods of time. As a result, there is a significant rise in the value of these companies before they become public. We see a strong demand by private investors from Israel and overseas to invest in securities of senior employees at pre-IPO high-tech companies through PrivatEquity.biz's innovative model. Within six months, more than 1,000 investors, mostly from overseas, but also from Israel, have registered with PrivatEquity.biz. We intend to allow private investors access to senior employees' securities of Israel's best private high-tech companies."

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 28, 2015

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2015

Yaron Jacobs
Yaron Jacobs
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