140 companies, 35 successful exits including 12 NASDAQ IPOs with a total transaction value in excess of $20 billion with and average multiple on exits of 4.8
JVP Chairman, Erel Margalit: “Over the past 25 years JVP has spearheaded revolutions that have shaped Israel into a global tech leader. Looking to the next 25 years, our goal is to ensure Israeli startups become global market leaders”
Jerusalem, September 26th, JVP celebrats its 25th year of activity this week. The Fund presented at its annual investors conference this week its achievements throughout the years. In summarizing 25 years, JVP stated that they have raised over $1.4 billion, have established more than 140 companies and completed 35 exits, including 12 NASDAQ IPOs totaling over US$20 billion with an average multiple on exits of 4.8.
Founded in 1993 by its chairman Dr. Erel Margalit, JVP is considered to be among the most successful venture capital funds in the world. One of the pioneers of the Israeli VC industry, JVP helped create the ecosystem that turned hi-tech into Israel’s economic growth engine. JVP is responsible for and closely identified with a number of Israeli hi-tech’s most important achievements and some of the country’s largest-ever transactions. Alongside this success, JVP created innovation centers which have further contributed to economic growth throughout Israel. The first center was JVP’s Media Quarter in Jerusalem, energizing a then dormant city, this was followed by JVP Cyber Labs in Be’er Sheva, pivoting the city into global cyber capital.
Throughout its 25-year history, JVP has excelled in recognizing and identifying mega trends at an early stage that have gone on to shape the technological arena in Israel and throughout the world. This began with the telecommunications revolution in the 1990s, continuing to the online communications growth at the turn of the century, followed by the revolution in data technology security and cyber security, and the early, timely recognition of in the technological breakthroughs in a variety of fields such as big data, deep learning and artificial intelligence. Currently, the fund is deepening its involvement in the latest mega trend, food-tech.
JVP Chairman and Founder Dr. Erel Margalit: “Over the past 25 years JVP has spearheaded revolutions that have shaped Israel into a global tech leader. Looking to the next 25 years, our goal is to ensure Israeli startups become global market leaders. We know that if innovation can change a country like Israel, it can change a region, and serve as a bridge to the entire world.”
One of the World’s Ten Best Funds
JVP is has been ranked regularly as one of the top 10 worldwide best performing VC funds by the Preqin Research Institute for its consistent return on investment. In the research institute’s latest report, JVP was rated sixth globally and the only Israeli venture capital fund to measure up to the Institute’s qualifications. This indicates that the highest achievements and standards are met regularly, and that a positive investment multiple is maintained for its investors with a consistently high rate of return on the fund. The Private Equity Fund rating is based upon performance analysis of 546 investment companies and 3,780 mutual funds.
JVP’s Unicorns
Since its creation, JVP has succeeded in orchestrating dozens of exits, among them are some of the most prominent “Unicorns”, companies with a valuation of more than US$1 billion, such as Netro ($5.5 billion), Chromatis ($4.8 billion), Cogent ($2.3 billion), QlikTech (which was subsequently sold for $3 billion) and CyberArk (with a current market cap of US$4 billion). These companies were the basis for major groundbreaking technology quantum leaps in the communications, data, fintech and cybersecurity fields.
JVP Exits That Created the Development Centers for Major Multi-National Companies
An important outcome of the fund’s 35 successful exits was the establishment of innovation centers and research and development infrastructures in Israel by major multi-national corporations. This is an essential factor of the fund’s strategy to strengthen Israel’s economy and increase the number of Israelis employed in the country’s hi-tech sector. Among the multi-national corporations that have set up innovation centers in the country with established JVP companies are:
- Alcatel (which acquired Native Networks in 2005)
- Salesforce (which acquired Navajo Systems in 2011)
- PayPal (which acquired CyActive in 2015)
- Sony (which acquired Altair Semiconductor in 2016)
- Walmart (which acquired Aspectiva in 2019)
Fund Investors: From Leading Multi-National Corporations to Governments
The sector and geographical distribution of JVP Investors shows a multifaceted spectrum including countries and local governments: France, the Netherlands, Singapore, Italy, Finland, the State of Alaska, and the city of New York investing alongside some of the world’s largest multinational corporations: Alibaba, Tokyo-Marine, Tesco, National Grid, and more.
Over 50% Women and committed to Jerusalem from “day one”
The fund is run by Founder and Chairman Dr. Erel Margalit, General Partners Fiona Darmon and Yoav Tzruya, as well as Partners Gadi Porat, Tali Rabin, Haim Kopans, Joy Marcus and Rinat Remler. Over half of the partners at JVP are women, a rare occurrence in the VC industry. In addition, unique to the Israeli VC industry, JVP has been based out of Jerusalem from “day one.” Over the years, JVP has grown and created centers of excellence in Beer Sheva, the Galilee, Haifa and recently in New York City.
The Regional Model – Jerusalem Media Quarter; Creating Innovation Centers
One important characteristic of the JVP fund throughout its 25-year history has been its vision and implementation on the ground of innovation and focus centers located away from Tel Aviv. This began with the Media Quarter established in Jerusalem where the fund’s offices are located alongside the technology incubator and entrepreneur hub, which in turn has become a magnet for foreign delegations interested in learning about the start-up nation.
Founder and chairman Dr. Erel Margalit saw the launch of the Jerusalem center as part of his vision to establish new development areas in Israel. As such, from day one, JVP was a key factor in creating more than 20,000 new job opportunities in Jerusalem.
Be’er Sheva – Turning the Negev’s Capital into the World’s Cyber Security Center
Following JVP’s achievement in Jerusalem and based on the success of its portfolio companies such as CyberArk, the fund made the decision to set up its next innovation center specifically in Be’er Sheva. The fund’s cyber security incubator was the spark that ignited the interest of major corporations such as Dell EMC and Lockheed-Martin in also establishing themselves in the cyber security park in Be’er Sheva. The fund’s activities created an unprecedented upgrade in the city’s image, in particular following the first exit in Be’er Sheva by CyActive, the cyber security company of the e-commerce giant PayPal.
The cyber security incubator is made up of 12 companies, among whom can be singled out leaders in the field such as Morphisec, Coronet and Source Defense.
Most importantly, the activities of the fund have led directly to the creation of 2,000 job opportunities and another 3,500 jobs in associated industries.
The Galilee – The Next FoodTech World Center
The shift that JVP triggered in southern Israel’s city Be’er Sheva, encouraged the fund to continue to broaden its model and to bring it to the Galilee in the northern part of the country. In recent years, Dr. Margalit, together with 22 regional council leaders from the eastern Galilee, have been working to make the region the world’s focus for food tech. The plan currently underway is part of a cooperative effort together with research and academic organizations in the region, such as the MIGAL Galilee Research Institute and the Academic and Technology College of Tel-Hai, whose aim is to encourage global food manufacturing corporations to establish food tech research and development centers in the Galilee like research and development centers in Be’er Sheva and Jerusalem. The State of Israel has adopted JVP’s program and budgeted NIS 500 million to incentivize food tech companies so that, in addition to their existing locations, they will also set up a center in the Galilee. Multi-national companies such as Watergen have already begun operating in the area. JVP envisions food tech as the next big thing in Israeli high-tech and has begun to invest in nascent Israeli companies such as InnovoPro, a company leading the chickpea protein production revolution.