Hetz Ventures, one of Israel’s seed-stage venture capital funds, recently announced the closing of its third fund of $123 million.
The new fund, Hetz III, brings the firm’s total assets under management to nearly $300 million, and like its previous fund, “was heavily oversubscribed.”
Hetz focuses on seed and pre-seed investments, and “since launching in 2018, has been an early backer of some of Israel’s most promising and innovative technology companies, including Granulate (acquired by Intel last month), Trigo, Retrain.ai, Blink Ops and Velocity.”
Judah Taub, Managing Partner at Hetz Ventures, stated:
“Raising this fund is a testament to our hands-on approach and our ability to provide our portfolio companies with value far beyond financial investment. The Israeli ecosystem is evolving and maturing, with entrepreneurs moving away from quick exits and rising to the challenge of building companies that stand the test of time. Early investment and active involvement from VCs have never been as crucial to the development and success of a company as they are today. With this fund, we look forward to deepening our impact within the ecosystem and assisting more companies from an even earlier stage.”
Hetz’s third fund will see the firm continue with its thematic approach of investing early in five distinct sectors “within the Israeli tech ecosystem: DevOps & Dev Tools, Open Source Software, Enterprise/Data Software, Fintech and Cybersecurity.”
Hetz has deliberately focused on these sectors as it has “identified them as areas where they can provide the most value through expertise and experience.”
Moreover, Hetz’s extensive, curated industry database and analysis “has shown that these markets are primed for long-term growth and development.”
Pavel Livshiz, General Partner at Hetz Ventures, remarked:
“With over $5BN having been already raised by Israeli companies in Q1 of 2022, it is clear that the record-breaking investments of 2021 were not a one-off. Competition to invest in the best companies in the ecosystem – especially at seed stage – has never been greater.”
Livshiz added:
“Founders repeatedly tell us they chose Hetz as their lead investor because of our active role in providing guidance in effectively scaling the company from pre-seed to Series A and onwards. This is why we are the lead investor in 90% of the investments we have made to date, and we intend to continue with this proactive approach through Hetz III.”
As noted in a release, Hetz Ventures is an Israeli seed stage venture capital firm “taking a thematic approach to early stage investing.”
With nearly $300M under management, the fund “invests in and supports startups in DevOps, Dev Tools & Open Source, AI/Data, Fintech, Cybersecurity, and other enterprise verticals.”
The Hetz team leads “with an entrepreneurial mindset and is a collaboration between investors and industry professionals with a shared commitment to invest as an agile, tech-driven and hands-on venture partner.”
Hetz Ventures was founded in 2018 and “is headquartered in Tel Aviv with additional partners operating out of London.”