Only a year after opening their doors, First Time investment fund led by Ilan Shiloah, Nir Tarlovsky, and Jonathan Benartzi raised $60 million, 50% more than their goal.
Shiloah, chairman of McCann Tel Aviv and part-owner of Matomy, is partners with Tarlovsky in thetime startup incubator, where another of his partners, Uri Weinheber, serves as CEO.
Benartzi, the grandson of late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, is one of the co-founders of web solution firm Latto and served in the past as CEO of NetKing, one of Israel's first web portals.
The FirstTime fund will focus on investments in Internet and media companies in the post-seed or pre-A stage. The three co-founders explained that they were seeking startups with a product or technology already on the market but are not yet ready to look for funding from institutional bodies.
The fund distributes investments of up to $2 million and professional advisory in the tech and finance sectors.
What sets FirstTime apart from other venture capital firms, according to its founders, is that it does not invest in late-stage startups, offers much higher involvement from the managers, and gives priority to startups which had passed through thetime's doors. Furthermore, the fund, in which the three invested $6 million, does not charge management fees.
FirstTime's portfolio includes Shaul Olmert's viral quiz site PlayBuzz, Oren Frank's mobile therapy service TalkSpace, Miky Tamir's live-stream enhancing Pixellot, and Orit Hashay's Brayola, a platform for women to purchase bras based on the ideal size for each individual figure.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 10, 2015
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