Eric Schmidt's Innovation Endeavors has closed its third venture capital fund of $333.5 million, according to documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund, which invests in US and Israeli startups, was targeting $300 million when it began raising money in October 2017, and was oversubscribed. The fund, Innovation Endeavors' largest to date, was raised from 70 investors led by Schmidt himself, the former chairman of Google, who currently serves as an innovation consultant to the US Defense Department.
This is the first fund raised by Innovation Endeavors since it merged with Israeli venture capital fund Marker LLC, which was renamed Innovation Endeavors Israel. Since the merger, three Israeli partners have left Innovation Endeavors - Yuval Shachar, Liat Aaronson and Ziv Kop leaving just two Israeli partners Daniel Goldstein and Dror Berman.
As reported by "Globes," Schmidt was in Israel last week to meet with senior figures in the country's economy. The meetings took place just two days before the new venture capital fund was closed.
During the visit, Schmidt met with at least 14 senior figures on the Israeli high-tech scene including Microsoft Israel general manager Assaf Rappaport, entrepreneur Benny Landa and executive director of Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) Amos Yadlin. It is believed that Schmidt's meetings were aimed at expanding the fund's Israel operations.
Innovation Endeavors has offices in Silicon Valley, New York and Tel Aviv and its Israel portfolio includes the Team8 cybersecurity think-tank, media recommendation company Taboola, video technology company Beamr, SaaS company Samanage, marketing platform Yotpo and more.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 24, 2018
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