INE Ventures has launched INE Ventures Fund I, which will co-invest seed capital in Israeli technology start-ups with a selection of trusted venture capital partners.
Portfolio company founders will relocate to Philadelphia and New York City to help them penetrate the US market and turn into growing multinational companies.
“The goal of INE Ventures is to take exciting but unproven Israeli technology companies and work closely with their founders to grow them into viable and scalable businesses with strong traction in the US market,” says Paul Grossinger, managing partner of INE Ventures.
Israel, termed the “Start-up Nation,” is one of the world’s best incubators of new companies and offers the second highest density of early stage companies after Silicon Valley. However, out the hundreds of Israeli start-ups created each year, many fail to flourish because they lack access to sizeable growth capital and a large, friendly consumer market. INE Ventures will provide its portfolio companies with access to both as the first venture capital fund to target seed-stage Israeli start-ups for relocation to the East Coast.
“We are excited to have partners like INE Ventures to help follow through on our mission to make Philadelphia a leading technology hub and amongst the best North American cities to start or build a company,” says Mayor Michael Nutter of Philadelphia. “INE Ventures sees the enormous value for companies to relocate their business development operations to our city and we want to thank INE Ventures for making Philly one of their hubs.”
“I would like to congratulate INE Ventures for establishing a co-investment fund in Israeli companies which will also support the companies with their growth in the US market. This is a particularly exciting testament to the wealth of opportunities Israeli start-ups provide for local investors,” says Nili Shalev, Israel’s economic minister to North America.
INE Ventures’ fund partners, Grossinger and Joshua Cline, bring expertise in early investing, seed-stage operations, and lean marketing and branding in the global market through their collective experience with Pervasive Group., The Cline Group, and a collection of ongoing and closed seed and Series A-level financial raises for Israeli portfolio and advisory companies during 2013, including iOnRoad, MediSafe, and Seebo.
Intending to make investments in groupings of six to eight start-ups over the course of a year, INE Ventures’ partners are already evaluating companies for co-investment and will relocate the first portfolio company founders in the winter of 2014.
