Israel-based venture capital fund Glilot Capital Partners today announced the successful closing of a $77 million fund, Glilot II. The fund will specialize in investing in seed and early-stage start-ups in enterprise software, cyber and IT security, SaaS and IoT.
The 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, as 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, which has already completed its first investment, raised equity commitments from new institutional investors, family offices and prominent individual investors from the US, 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 (TASE: POLI).
"Our investment in Glilot II is a great gateway to the next promising Israeli software startups," said 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."
"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," Samboursky said.
"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," Kleinstein added.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 21, 2015
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