Canaan Partners to invest $50-80m in Israel

The venture capital firm has closed its $600 million ninth fund.

10 January 12 13:24, Batya Feldman

Canaan Partners plans to invest $50-80 million in Israeli start-ups from its new $600 million fund, Canaan IX, Canaan Partners general partner Izhar Shay told "Globes". The new fund brings total capital under management by Canaan to $3.5 billion. The firm operates in the US, India, and Israel.

Canaan Partners, founded in 1987, plans to invest the new fund in building disruptive global companies in the technology and healthcare sectors. Its Israeli portfolio includes touch screen developer N-trig Ltd., online live video developer LiveU Ltd., and 3D gesture recognition software developer PrimeSense Ltd.

Canaan Partners originally planned to raise $500 million for its ninth fund, but received strong demand from its existing limited partner base, as well as selected new limited partners.

The firm has been operating in Israel for over a decade and in 2005, it opened a local office run by Shay, whose entrepreneurial track record includes V-Secure Technologies, sold to Radware Ltd. (Nasdaq: RDWR) in 2005, and Business Layers, sold to Netegrity Inc. (Nasdaq: NETE) in 2003.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 10, 2012

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