Tel Aviv, Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Jerusalem Venture Partners, an Israeli venture-capital group that has helped four Israeli technology companies to the initial-share-offering stage, said it raised $400 million for telecommunications-equipment start-ups.
The fund, JVP's fourth, includes new investors such HarbourVest Partners LLC, Adveq Management AG and Technion, Israel's top engineering university. Jerusalem Venture already included Boeing Co., France Telecom SA, Reuters Group Plc, and Singapore's government.
JVP said in a statement it sees a global economic recovery on the horizon. The fund is $100 million less than JVP's goal. By July, it had raised $350 million. The group collected the money as venture investment in Israel slumped this year, dropping 66 percent in the third quarter, according to the Israel Venture Capital Research Center. JVP now has $640 million under management, making it one of Israel's largest venture investors.
It backed Chromatis Networks Inc., an optical start-up that was bought by Lucent Technologies Ltd. for $4.6 billion last year and closed in August.
Jerusalem Venture Partners' portfolio of public companies includes in Fundtech Ltd., ViryaNet Ltd., Precise Software Ltd., and Jacada Ltd.
Start-ups buoyed Israel's economy to 6.2 percent growth in 2000. The drop off in investments will help bring the economy to a standstill this year.
--Joshua Mitnick in the Tel Aviv bureau (972) 3 694-4207 or
mitnick@bloomberg.net /bsm
Story illustration: {GSSIIST GP} to graph the Goldman Sachs Israel Technology Index.
