Pitango Venture Capital and Gemini Israel Funds were the most active Israeli venture capital funds in 2006 says IVC Online. The ranking was made by the number of first investments in 2006 (i.e. follow-on investments in portfolio companies was excluded).
Pitango topped the rankings with ten investments in new companies in 2006: 3DV, Beta-O2 Technologies Ltd., Contigo Mobility Ltd., D-Pharm , FringLand Ltd., Kilopass (non-Israeli), Neocraft Ltd., StarNet, Varonis Ltd., and YCD Multimedia Ltd.
Gemini invested in nine companies: Arootz Interactive Ltd., bp Interactive Technologies Ltd., Contigo, eSnips Inc., Novafora Ltd., Panaya Inc., Prime Sense Ltd., SupportSpace Ltd., and Wellsphere Ltd..
Benchmark Capital and Carmel Ventures made eight investment each; Genesis Partners made seven investments; Evergreen Venture Partners and Sequoia Capital made six investments each; and Cedar Fund, Giza Venture Capital, Vertex Venture Capital made four investments each.
Except for Cedar Fund, all the management companies raised new funds in the past three years.
Israel Infinity Venture Capital, Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP), Star Ventures, and Pontifax Fund, which were included in the 2005 list of most active Israeli venture capital funds, did not make the 2006 list.
Gemini, Giza, and Pitango were prominent for their seed-stage investments, with each fund making four investments last year.
32% of all venture capital investment in 2006 was in seed-stage companies, 51% was made in the R&D stage, and 17% was in advanced stage companies.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on February 12, 2007
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2007