Two major American venture capital firms have returned to Israel, filling the vacuum left by other firms like Tiger Global and SoftBank that have greatly reduced their investments in Israeli startups.
The first venture capital firm returning to Israel is Greylock, one of the biggest in Silicon Valley, which operated in Israel through a dedicated venture capital fund until 2015, and has now appointed Mor Chen as its local representative. In the past Greylock has invested in Facebook, Palo Alto Networks and Airbnb.
In contrast to its previous Israel activity, in which it granted the Greylock brand to an Israeli fund that was raised by Israeli partners and designated for investments in Israel, it now continues to invest directly from its global venture capital fund, as it has been in recent years, except that it will now have a local representative. Recent Greylock investments in Israel include in cybersecurity companies Wiz, Upwind and Apiiro.
Until recently Mor Chen managed the Israel activities of the Accel venture capital firm, which invested in companies like Cyera, Oasis, Commodore and Gloat. Chen is a graduate of the IDF’s 8200 intelligence unit. Greylock Israel founded the 83North venture capital fund, without any connection to Greylock, together with partner Laurel Bowden.
The second major venture capital firm to reopen an office in Israel is Sequoia Capital which has appointed Dean Meyer as its representative. Sequoia has a similar story to Greylock operating in Israel with a dedicated fund called Sequoia Israel until last decade, managed by Shmil Levy, Haim Sadger and Gil Raanan. In recent years Sequoia has continued investing directly in Israel, mainly through veteran partner Doug Leone.
“Globes” has also learned that US venture capital firm Primary is looking to set up operations in Israel and is currently seeking a local manager.
No response has been forthcoming from Mor Chen and Greylock.
Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on June 2, 2024.
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