The Junction, venture capital fund Genesis Partners' accelerator, is expanding. After recently launching its first cohort of startups under a new plan, the accelerator is now adding two new partners to the accelerator program. The first is Samurai Incubate, a seed-stage Japanese venture capital fund, which will offer the startups in the accelerator a possible investment of $50,000-$100,000 for a 5% or 10% stake, if they want it.
Samurai House head of Israel operations and Samurai Incubate official representative Yony Golan said, "The partnership with The Junction will provide the companies in the program with a window to the Japanese market, and will facilitate their exposure to leading giant technological and industrial corporations having international infrastructure in Asia and around the world, which are showing great interest in the Israeli technology market - a subject rapidly gaining traction in Japan."
At the same time another partner has joined the accelerator - German reinsurance company Munich Re. Munich Re is searching for innovation in financial technology, and regards exposure to Israeli companies as an opportunity to keep up to date on new developments in the financial market, in addition to Big Data, analysis, etc. "We are interested in access to cutting edge technology for the purpose of developing new products and business models," says Munich Re senior executive Karsten Steinmetz. "The partnership with The Junction is a significant step for us in this direction, and constitutes recognition of Israel's emergence as a global innovation center in our field."
The Junction manager Amir Gelman added, "The partnerships with Samurai Incubate and Munich Re are part of Genesis Partners' strategy of offering companies accepted to the program more possibilities for taking their next significant step.
"The companies in the program are exposed to international companies representing to a large extent the most up-to-date technological needs in the international markets, and the partnership with them makes it possible to devise a consultation and training program for each company tailored to its sphere of business, in addition to the content and benefits that all the companies receive from our other partners, which include SAP Labs Israel, Bank Leumi (TASE: LUMI), the Meitar Liquornik Geva Leshem Tal law firm, and the Deloitte Brightman Almagor Zohar accounting firm."
The first cohort of startups under The Junction's new model is scheduled to end in January. The four companies accepted have raised an aggregate $3 million from both within the program and external investors. Registration for the second cohort of startups in the new program will continue until the end of the month.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 17, 2015
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