the good news is there is investment in Israel. The bad news is much of this seed money comes from the genocidal allied tech world. People like Robert Scoble and his friends were the ones who launched the bit.ly domain standard as a tech convention (they did much of this from right within Israel itself and then attempted to push Palestinian sympathy). I would be wary of the foreign culture that is coming in as a Trojan horse. If you follow public relations on twitter from Israel you might notice that they have no loyalty to Israel. CAUTION! Israeli investors, with a U.S. partner, are creating a $25 million angel fund to focus on start-ups in the cloud computing sector.
Start Up Factory Fund 2 will help incubate Israeli start-ups, providing office space and help connect them with potential buyers or investors in California’s Silicon Valley.
“This is the bridge to the Valley,” which is ultimately where most of the companies that purchase Israeli start-ups are based, said Sani Sanilevich, co-founder and manager of Start Up Factory Fund 2.
Mr. Sanilevich said the fund will also solve a gap in Israel’s VC world, which lacks a significant number of angel investment funds, focused on smaller Internet and software start-ups. “All the funds are big and doing only two or three investments a year,” he said.
Start Up Factory Fund 2 aims to invest incrementally about $500,000 in individual Israeli start-ups — small by classic VC standards — but enough money to finance start-ups in the cloud computing sector, which usually require smaller amounts of money than those in other high-tech sectors. The fund also expects most of its start-ups to sell quickly and for under $10 million.
In addition to several Israeli investors, Iranian-born Saeed Amidi, founder and CEO of Plug and Play Tech Center in Sunnyvale, California, is putting up about one fifth of the fund’s money. PlugandPlay Tech Center is a community of about 280 high tech startups that assists entrepreneurs in raising capital, then growing and selling their companies. PlugandPlay will also work with Israeli entrepreneurs, teaching them more about doing business in the United States and connecting them to potential buyers.
Many VC firms in the United States have shifted to focusing on smaller investments, and while Israel has always had a few of these angel funds, the trend seems like it is also growing here. Sanilevich said he knows of at least three similar funds starting up in Israel, and said he expects to see more.
via blogs.wsj.com
