Israel Infinity Venture Capital announced today that it had raised $155 million dollars in the initial closing of the new Infinity Israel-China Fund. This exceeds the original $150 million target size of the fund announced in October 2006.
The fund's management said that because of the positive response to the new fund, the strong interest in its novel business model, and the number and size of existing investment opportunities, it had decided to raise the target size of the fund from the original $150 million to $250 million. This is a notable achievement, at time when most local venture capital funds are beginning to raise new funds and the process does not look easy.
Infinity started raising the fund last October and in the subsequent six months it discovered that investors were taking an interest in the new fund's business model and that there was no shortage of investment opportunities. The model focuses on investment in Israeli companies seeking to market their products in China.
The Infinity Israel-China Fund is Infinity’s second fund operating under its Israel-China business model. The first Infinity fund operating under the Israel-China model was the first on-shore fund ever to be approved by the Chinese government. Infinity has invested in six companies and has had two successful exits, NanoMotion and Shellcase.
The fund's core strategy is to make large investments in later-stage Israeli technology companies and established Chinese businesses that license, develop and market Israeli technologies for the Chinese market. Infinity said that the new fund will leverage the team, network, track record and brand that it has built in China over the last four years.
In January 2007 Infinity made its first investment from the new fund in Mate Intelligent Video, a developer of video surveillance, content analysis and transmission solutions. It was joined in the investment by its Chinese partner, CSVC/SIP, which will also invest along side Infinity in future investments. Infinity said that the collaboration with the Chinese fund allows for a much larger investment pool as well as an alignment of interests at the shareholder level between the Israeli and Chinese investors, a key success factor for Chinese-related investments involving foreign money.
The new fund's investors include several who invested in Infinity's previous funds alongside new investors, among them private investors, funds of funds, and leading investment institutions from the US, Canada, the UK, Switzerland, South Africa and Israel. The main investors in the new fund are IDB Holding Corp. Ltd. (TASE:IDBH) subsidiary Clal Industries and Investments Ltd. (TASE: CII), and GlenRock Israel owned by Leon Recanati.
Infinity has more than $400 million in assets under management and it has had 13 exits since June 2005. The company's managing partners are Amir Gal-Or and Avishai Silvershatz and its chairman is IDB deputy chairman Avi Fischer.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on May 7, 2007
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