Berlin Could Be Home to JVP’s Next Cyber Center, Says Erel Margalit

Two weeks ago, Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP) inaugurated its cyber center in New York City, and now the fund is considering a similar project in Europe, founder and CEO Erel Margalit said Thursday. Margalit spoke at Calcalist’s WeTech Berlin 2020 conference, held in collaboration with Israel’s Bank Leumi Property Holdings PLC. Berlin is one option JVP is considering, as are London and Paris, he said.

The New York center has over 29 companies, half of them Israeli, Margalit said. Those companies have revenues in the range of $15 million to $20 million, and that’s the place to build the next unicorn, he said. JVP aims to create 30,000 new jobs in New York, and in the future to scale up collaboration between Israel and Germany, he said.

Innovation can change countries and connect them, and that is also true for cities, Margalit said, recounting his own experience with Jerusalem and JVP’s establishment in 1993. The most impoverished city in Israel was dealing at the time with many challenges, including negative immigration and security threats. For many, he said, innovation facilitated a connection with different communities. “Since then, we created 140 companies, made deals worth over $20 billion, had 12 Nasdaq IPOs, and 24 mergers and acquisitions.”

Today, the Israeli tech scene is experiencing a change, Margalit said. Experienced entrepreneurs are no longer looking to sell early but are interested in building a truly international company with sales, and it is up to investors to help them turn their technology into a real product and help them build the right infrastructure in the right place, be it Berlin, the U.S., or Singapore, he said.