Leading Israeli VC fund director: ‘Market upheaval will end positively’
The director of one of Israel’s leading venture capital firms, Southern Israel Bridging Fund, is upbeat about the future and believes the current “market upheaval will end well.”
“The upheaval in the markets in general and the technology sector in particular has created many challenges for the technology sector, but it also has positive things," stated Or Ben Shoshan during a recent investor conference in the city of Kfar Saba in central Israel.
"No more inflated values, no more growth models that do not hold water and, in general, it can be said that the market is becoming much more realistic and much healthier,” he added.
Looking to the future, Ben Shoshan said he believes Israel’s tech market will recover in 2024.
“We believe that the technology sector will recover in 2024, and today’s market is a great investment opportunity,” said Ben Shoshan.
In the first quarter of 2023, Israeli startups raised the smallest amount of funding since 2018, about $1.7 billion, according to the Start-Up Nation Policy Institute. In comparison, Israel’s startups raised $6.7 billion for the same quarter in 2022.
Nevertheless, Tel Aviv recently ranked as the world’s fifth-largest producer of unicorns, which is defined as a startup company with a market value of at least $1 billion.
Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai welcomed the good news about his city, which is known as Israel’s high-tech capital.
“I am proud that the City of Tel Aviv-Yafo is so well ranked in the ‘Global Founders Factory’ and that 27 leading local companies have ‘given birth’ to 108 innovative companies, founded by former employees of large companies. These are the achievements of democracy, freedom and human rights, which have allowed the local high-tech industry to show amazing creativity and success over the past year,” said Huldai.
The All Israel News Staff is a team of journalists in Israel.
