This is the second Israel startup investment fund closed by the Tel Aviv venture capital firm.
Israeli venture capital fund Aleph has closed the $180 million Aleph II fund. The Tel Aviv based high tech investment fund is led by partners Eden Shochat, Michael Eisenberg and Aaron Rosenson.
Eisenberg announced the closing of the fund in a Rosh Hashana New Year's message on the Aleph website. He wrote "We would like to thank all of our Limited Partners for their continued support of Aleph and our mission to build big companies out of Israel. You are wonderfully supportive and we truly appreciate it."
This is Aleph's second fund and larger than the $150 million, which was closed in 2013. Aleph declined to provide details about the new fund's investors.
Only last Thursday, Aleph announced that it was leading an $8 million financing round in Israeli anomaly detection and real time business analytics company Anodot. Other startups in Aleph's diverse portfolio include: car accident prevention company Nexar; maritime data analytics company Windward; twitter rival Meerkat; event planning platform HoneyBook; social video app Yevvo; online freight network Freightos; and music teaching company JoyTunes.
Israeli VC Aleph closes its second fund after raising $180 million
Wishing their followers a Happy Jewish New Year on Medium, Aleph Partner Michael A. Eisenberg announced the close of the VC's second fund at $180 million.
"We would like to thank all of our Limited Partners for their continued support of Aleph and our mission to build big companies out of Israel. You are wonderfully supportive and we truly appreciate it," Eisenberg said in a blog post which was signed by the company's three general partners, including Eden Shochat and Aaron Rosenson.
Aleph's marketing and community director Avigail Levine tells Geektime that they plan to continue investing out of their first fund before tapping into the new one. However they had no comment on who had invested into the fund or if there would be any specific direction with Aleph II either in the stage of their investments or the kinds of companies that catch their eye.
Their portfolio is already pretty diverse with companies like HoneyBook, MeerKat, shipping startup Freightos, seafaring intelligence Windward, insurtech company Lemonade which launched last week, Nexar and Colu. They also took part in last week's $8 million round in Israeli BI solutions startup Anodot, leading with a $7.5 million investment.
"We would also like to thank and recognize the incredible entrepreneurs that have agreed to let us become their partners," the post continued, "in their quest to change the world and build big, mission-driven companies. We are inspired by your optimism and resilience, as well as your innovation and fortitude.
Led by Michael A Eisenberg, Eden Shochat and Aaron Rosenson, Aleph has built up a diverse portfolio of Israeli startup companies