Terra Venture Partners, a $25 million fund made the most first investments in 2009 (6 deals) followed by Carmel, Giza, JVP, Magma, Pitango, Sequoia and TriVentures (another small fund with $25 million under management), who all made 5 first time investments.
In 2009, Israeli VC funds made 77 first investments in technology companies, compared to 119 investments in 2008. The dollar amount in each investment dropped by about 50% compared to the year before. 38% of first investments (29 firms) were made in Seed stage companies, compared to 28% in 2008.
“The availability of Israeli venture capital for investment is shrinking, and local venture funds are not expected to raise significant new capital in the coming year. As a result, we expect allocations to first investments in 2010 to continue to be reduced.”
Below are two interesting charts from IVC Online’s survey of active venture capital funds in Israel, based on first investments.
In terms of sectors, Internet and software continue to lead and clean tech first investments have declined in 2009 compared to the year before.
Follow this link to access the original pdf report.
He is a former General Partner at Google Ventures (GV) in Europe, former head of Google for Entrepreneurs in Europe, and founding head of Campus London, Google's first startup hub. Eze writes on Israeli tech, venture capital, artificial intelligence, and founder strategy.
He is also the founder of Techbikers, a nonprofit that brings together the startup ecosystem on cycling challenges in support of Room to Read.
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