Vertex Israel ranked at the top of the 2017 list with 12 first investments. aMoon Partners, a life sciences fund managed by Check Point founder Marius Nacht, ranked second, performing 11 new investments from its $150 million fund. Three funds shared third place – F2 Capital, iAngels Seed Fund and Mindset Ventures with ten new investments each.
While Vertex, with $800 million under management in four funds, and in the process of raising capital for its fifth fund, has been active for 20 years, aMoon and F2 Capital ($50 million), iAngels ($100 million) and Mindset Ventures ($20 million) started their activity in 2016 vintage year.
The top-ranked funds are varied in terms of investment focus on sectors and stages, and in the amount of capital they manage and invest. Six investments seemed to be the preferred number of new deals. Among the first six ranks in 2017 – ten funds performed six new investments each. All top ranks were captured by Israeli funds, except for Brazilian Mindset Ventures (see Table 1).
Twelve Israeli funds were ranked in the first six leading spots, two were U.S. funds, and one from Japan, Brazil, China, and Hong Kong each. In addition, the Most Active Funds report
found traces to the early stage slope in terms of exits and amounts of capital raised. Several funds, ranked higher in previous years due to high investment rates in early stages, slowed down in 2017. Singulariteam, managing $152 million in three funds, ranked first in 2015 with 12 new investments, performed eight new deals in 2016 and no new investments were registered in 2017.
The same happened with OurCrowd and UpWest Labs, co-ranked first in 2016. Upwest Labs, (managing $9 million) ranked second with 11 new deals in 2015 compared to eight and six new deals in 2016 and 2017, respectively. OurCrowd, managing $20 million in two funds, ranked third in 2016 with seven deals, and did not reach the first six places in 2017. OurCrowd’s equity crowdfunding platform was very active in 2017, but wasn’t included in this report.
Israeli VC funds increased their first investment activity with 212 new deals holding 48 percent of the total new investments, a record in the last five years. The ratio between Israeli and foreign
funds decreased, as the foreign funds performed 233 new deals holding 52 percent of the total – the lowest share in five years.
(Source: IVC)
VonNaftali/מנפּתלי/ByNaftali 