Glilot Capital Partners, an Israel-based venture capital fund investing in early-stage enterprise software start-ups, has held the closing of a USD77 million fund, Glilot II.
The firm’s second fund was raised on the successful track record of the firm's first fund, Glilot I, which has had three exits to date and distributed significant profits to its investors since its inception less than four years ago.
Glilot I, was founded in 2011 by Kobi Samboursky and Arik Kleinstein, was a $30 million fund that invested in eight companies. Among its investments are Aorato (acquired by Microsoft), Insightera (acquired by Marketo) and Porticor (acquired by Intuit). Other portfolio companies include LightCyber, Blazemeter, YouAppi, CyberX and Solebit.
Glilot II, like its predecessor fund, will invest in seed and early stage Israeli software companies with a particular focus in cyber-security and enterprise software. Glilot II had already completed its first investment.
Glilot II raised equity commitments from new institutional investors, family offices and prominent individual investors from the United States, Europe, Asia Pacific, Israel and South Africa, as well as a significant number of return investors. New investors include strategic investors such as Bank Hapoalim, Israel's largest bank.
"Our investment in Glilot II is a great gateway to the next promising Israeli software startups," says Yossi Vinitski, head of high-tech at Bank Hapoalim "The investment in Glilot is the first strategic investment in a venture capital fund for us and is part of our plan to enhance our position in the extremely vibrant and fast growing Israeli start-up scene."
Samboursky and Kleinstein, who serve as the fund's managing partners, have vast entrepreneurial experience in founding, managing and successfully exiting start-ups, prior to which they both served as officers in the R&D unit of the IDF Intelligence Corps.
"The fund places a strong focus on "rule-breaking" companies in the cyber-security and enterprise software spaces, with a lean expense structure and a rapid time-to-market. In the last four years Glilot had demonstrated an investment model that is very effective both to entrepreneurs and investors. We hope to continue the same path in the coming years," says Samboursky.
"Getting to international markets quickly and achieving revenues and market recognition in a short time frame is critical to the success of Israeli start-ups, and Glilot is committed to assist its portfolio companies to achieve these goals. We strongly believe that with the right support, Israeli entrepreneurs can build leading companies," says Kleinstein.
