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JVP’s innovative approach to venture capital starts with its unique location at the Margalit Startup City Jerusalem. Located in the renovated Mint of the British Empire and the Historic Ottoman Storehouses next door, the Startup City is heralding the revitalization of the area surrounding Jerusalem’s old train station. With over 200 dynamic entrepreneurs in the Business, Social and Cultural enterprises, the Margalit Startup City Jerusalem houses start-ups, VC fund JVP, early stage initiative- JVP Play, Our Crowd incubator- Labs/02, the performing arts hub – “Zappa Jerusalem in The Lab,” the social profit organization – “In the Community” (Bakehila), as well as a restaurant and a nightclub.

With a deep respect for the history of Jerusalem and its powerful legacy, Margalit Startup City Jerusalem tackles the key business challenges of today through its focus on seed-stage start-ups in the fields of artificial intelligence, computer vision, cloud, and Internet of Things (IOT) mobile amongst others. In an open plan workspace, engineers, artists, storytellers and entrepreneurs in the profit, social profit and entertainment worlds meet to develop ground breaking solutions and disruptive technologies.

The historic complex’ atmosphere of creativity and innovation is the consequence of the Fund’s innovative approach to venture capital. Collaborating around selected pre-defined themes and defining key business challenges, elected start-ups from the Israeli eco-system work to find innovative solutions, validate the pains, the product, the market readiness and the product/market-fit. The companies benefit from JVPs innovative company building process and direct access to sector specific strategic partners as they fine tune to their proposition and offering.

JVP International NYC Cyber Center

After nearly 25 years of growing global companies and building successful tech ecosystems from its centers in Jerusalem,  Be’er Sheva and the Galilee, JVP has expanded to New York City.

New York City and JVP launched the International NYC Cyber Center early February 2020 to transform NYC into the Cyber Innovation Capital of the Word, and provide unprecedented access to New York City’s robust business and municipal infrastructure to build the next billion-dollar company

Oscar winner and entrepreneur Gwyneth Paltrow joined NYC Deputy Mayor Vicki Been, and Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP) Founder and Chairman Erel Margalit for the Grand Opening. 

The International NYC Cyber Center:

The center, located at 122 Grand St, is a six-story, 165,000- square foot building designated as a New York City landmark. Between Crosby and Grand streets, the building built in 1879-80 features French Renaissance architectural design by John Correja. JVP enlisted award-winning architect Peter Bohlin, designer of the Apple stores, Pixar HQ and Square HQ, to transform the site into a center of innovation for cybersecurity, AI and Big Data technologies, while at the same time preserving the historic characteristics of this unique location. With 28 companies already scaling from within the center, tens of thousands of jobs are expected to be generated by the center. The majority of the center’s companies have at least $10 million of annual recurring revenue. These companies are scaling, they’re hiring, building sales and marketing organizations across the United States, and in New York they have an identity.

The City of New York Partnership

In late 2018, JVP partnered with The City of New York on a $100M initiative to transform NYC into a global leader for cybersecurity. The JVP International NYC Cyber Center provides a strong base for startups, connecting them to a cyber alliance including investors, multinational companies, leading executives, entrepreneurs, and universities within the New York ecosystem. With support from stakeholders across the city, startups in the Center will play a vital role not only in protecting cities, banks, utilities, and healthcare systems, but also democracies, the integrity of information, and the freedom of the individual. Moreover, it will provide these emerging businesses with a platform to develop the next groundbreaking innovation in cyber security. This along with the leading universities such as Columbia, Cornell Tech, NYU and CUNY.

Building Tomorrow’s Leading Cyber Security And Data Analytics Innovators

Margalit Startup City Be’er Sheva aims to identify, nurture and build the next wave of cyber security and big data companies to emerge out of Israel. JVP Cyber Labs operates the first government-backed early stage incubator focusing on cyber-security and big-data. It is strategically established in the epicenter of Israeli cyber innovation in Beer Sheva – bringing together academia, multinational corporations, and experts with experience from the military’s elite computer units.

BUILDING AN ECOSYSTEM FROM SEED

The JVP Cyber team is currently focusing on companies in various key themes, including APT detection and prevention, encryption, Cloud Security, authentication and identification, Industrial Internet, mobile, M2M, Big-data analytics, End-point security and more. The JVP Cyber Labs are headed by a seasoned team of partners with deep industry expertise and a strong track record of developing and building early-stage companies. Since its inception in 2013, JVP Cyber Labs has become a magnet for hundreds of strategic players visiting each year, as well as hundreds of entrepreneurs that are evaluated each year. Companies such as General Electric, Siemens, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Singapore Airlines, Bank Ha’Poalim, Paypal and others, have teamed up with JVP Cyber Labs to accelerate the growth of their companies.

LEADING THE FIRST EXIT OUT OF BE’ER SHEVA

In March 2015, JVP Cyber Labs enjoyed its first exit when PayPal announced the acquisition of disruptive technology-provider CyActive. As a result of this exit, PayPal established its new security design center in Be’er Sheva, creating numerous jobs for the area as well as serving as a potential additional business and design partner for JVP and its portfolio companies.

Technological innovation isn’t only about apps and platforms. At its core, it’s about improving lives. We believe that making lives better begins with making better food. Israel is known for its strong foundation of innovation in everything from plant genetics, crop projections, water recycling to high-tech protein solutions. The new hub combines Israel’s historic strength in agricultural with its international leadership in cutting-edge technologies. By leveraging the natural assets of the region, JVP is focused on establishing Israel as the next global epicenter for AgriFood Tech.

This process began with Founder & Executive Chairman JVP & Margalit Startup City Erel Margalit who created an economic plan to develop an international hub for agricultural and food technology. 

Building a Global Agrifood Tech Ecosystem

Margalit Startup City’s AgriFood Tech initiative unites JVP’s international network of strategic partners, multinational agricultural companies, top academic institutions and researchers, market expertise, along with the pioneering Israelis, regional consuls and entrepreneurs.

The opportunity in AgriFood Tech sits at the intersection of Israel’s longtime agricultural knowhow and its expertise across AI, machine learning, computer vision, and big data. This technology is transforming almost every business category. As countries around the world feel the pressure of food scarcity, there has never been a more important time to leverage Israeli innovation. Undoubtedly, Israel is uniquely positioned to undertake this endeavor, creating jobs and opportunities at home, while making a measurable and sustainable impact around the globe.

“Margalit Startup City Community” which  creates social change by establishing  new regions of excellence that combine technology and education to increase innovation-based employment opportunities and attract young educated people to different regions around Israel. This model already produced two success stories: one in Jerusalem, where Erel established the Margalit Startup City Quarter that created thousands of jobs in the city; and the second in Be’er Sheva, where he created the Cyber Security epicentre that catapulted the city to global prominence and created thousands of employment opportunities for students and graduates of the Ben Gurion University in the South. The Margalit Start Up City model continues to be applied in newly created centers of excellence – Margalit Startup City Foodtech Quarter in the Galilee and Margalit Startup City Digital Health Quarter in downtown Haifa.

More than 18 years ago, Erel and his wife Debbie recognized the socio-economic gaps among Jerusalem’s disadvantaged children and it propelled them to create the social impact program  Margalit Startup City Community “Bakehila.” What started only in Jerusalem is a now a nationally renowned educational non-profit that raises academic achievements and promotes personal and societal growth. More than 40,000 students nationwide, Jews and Arabs, have attended Bakehila programs as the program continues its reach.