| Topic Name: |
US VCs and Europe |
| Message Name: |
Israeli Startups |
| Date Posted: |
01/28/2000 |
| In Reply To: |
You are right..there is a lot of action in Israel from the point of the venture capital investment. Corporations, like 3Com, Motorola, and others have established a VC presense there. The online players, such as vcapital.com and garage.com are also entering into this space. The biggest difference between Europe and Israel is that there is no liquid market in Israel (i.e. companies do not plan an "exit strategy" in Israel.
Israeli VCs align themselves with their American counerparts and either bring the company to the US or bring the technology here. If you are lucky, you will get bought, much like Mirrabalis did with their revolutionary ICQ product that AOL gobbled up. |
| Message: |
We at Venture Compass have been watching these trends Mr. Starr refers to being played out for the past three years. Companies like Foxcom (backed by Patricof & Co. among others) are moving their corporate headquarters to places like New Jersey, SoCal and Atlanta (a real fave among expat Israelis), while maintaining R&D in Israel. One country we have especially been keeping our eye on is Eire, the Celtic Tiger. We are watching large amounts of capital stream into Ireland due to liberal tax structures enacted by a government intent on leapfrogging over the industrial phase of development. The policy has obviously paid off with US corporate and VC investments in companies like IONA and enba PLC. We are now seeing the contagion pass over the Irish Sea to the UK with a flurry of activity by GE's Capital fund, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Sevin Rosen, Oak and others. For more information on Venture Compass, please contact me at rsaunders@easternmanagement.com.
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