Viola Ventures announces new $250 million fund for early-stage investments

Eight of the Israeli VC’s portfolio companies reached unicorn status and beyond in 2021

Israeli venture capital firm Viola Ventures announced on Wednesday the closing of its sixth fund of $250 million, dedicated solely to early-stage investments. Viola Ventures has crossed $1.25 billion in assets under management (AUM) and its portfolio includes some of the most successful technology companies in the Israeli ecosystem, including global category leaders ironSource, Payoneer, Redis, Verbit, Outbrain, Pagaya, Lightricks and Immunai.

 

“It’s not only important to invest in high-performing companies but to invest in them early,” said Danny Cohen, General Partner at Viola Ventures. “Our track record proves that we know how to identify outstanding teams, aggressively be the first money, and then support them to unicorn status and beyond. We are confident that our sixth fund will help grow the next generation of market leaders.”

Viola Ventures team. Photo: Eric Sultan

 

With the new fund, Viola Ventures will invest in 25-30 early-stage (seed and A-round) companies. The fund will continue to invest in its core verticals in which it has had consistent success such as fintech, vertical AI and deep tech, as well as in verticals it expects to generate the next cohort of global outliers such as digital health, next-gen enterprise infrastructure, SaaS 3.0, Web 3.0, and cybersecurity.

 

“The Israeli ecosystem has shattered its own glass ceiling reaching 60 unicorns, 33 of them in the last 12 months. Viola Ventures invested less than 0.5% of the capital deployed in Israel in 2021 and has around 15% of Israel’s total unicorns,” said Omry Ben David, General Partner at Viola Ventures. “The Israeli tech ecosystem is definitely evolving. Israeli entrepreneurs have growing aspirations and we are seeing more Israeli companies going public and staying independent, thus controlling their own destiny for longer.”

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Viola Ventures recently promoted Yael Alroy, a principal at the fund, to Partner and appointed a dedicated Partner from the executive search industry, Jeff Shapiro, to assist portfolio companies in building their global and local management teams, a growing challenge for Israeli startups as they scale.

 

The Viola Ventures investment team includes Shlomo Dovrat, Avi Zeevi, Daniel Cohen, Omry Ben David, Zvika Orron, Yael Alroy, Itzik Avidor, and Rotem Shacham.