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Ant Financial Looking to Invest in Israeli Startups

Riddhiman Das, an international technology investment manager at Ant Financial currently on a two-month visit to Israel, says the company is interested in investing in blockchain, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, IoT, and cloud computing

CTech 16:2016.08.18

Ant Financial, an affiliate of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., is looking to invest between $2 million and $50 million in Israeli startups, according to Riddhiman Das, an international technology investment manager at Ant Financial. Das is currently on a two-month-long business trip to Israel in search of local investments.

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Speaking in an interview posted Monday on the video blog of Israeli entrepreneur Hillel Fuld, Das said Ant Financial is looking to invest in Series B stage companies focused on the financial aspects of five key areas: blockchain and its underlying deep technologies for better performance and security; artificial intelligence, specifically conversational agents and natural language processing; cybersecurity; internet of things (IoT); and cloud computing.

Tel Aviv. Photo: PR

According to Das, Ant Financial typically invests in Series B rounds but is also willing to consider late A stage and early C stage companies. Das also said he is interested in getting to know the Israeli ecosystem and urged entrepreneurs, startups, venture capital firms, and investors to contact him.