Aussie investor Josh Liberman targets Israel tech with $140m firm Lumir Ventures

Earlier Israeli investments by Mr Liberman include a stake in freelance marketplace Fiverr, which currently has a market cap of $2.8 billion on the New York Stock Exchange, and $10.14 billion-valued Nasdaq stock Monday.com.

“Over the past decade or so I’ve organised and led about 10 missions to Israel where I’ve taken hundreds of Australians to the country, many of them for the first time,” Mr Liberman said.

“The best deals may be competitive, and this is where strong relationships and networks are important.”

— Josh Liberman, Lumir Ventures.

“Lots of these individuals were amazed by the tech ecosystem and expressed an interest to co-invest with me in deals I was doing there.

“This ultimately led me to establish a fund specifically as a vehicle for Australian investors to gain access to my pipeline of Israeli technology start-up opportunities.”

He said Israel had become a global powerhouse in developing tech and research-based companies due to a conflation of a number of factors.

These included a technologically advanced defence force, which was a breeding ground for entrepreneurs; more than 350 multinational research and development centres established by leading technology companies like Apple, Facebook, Intel, Microsoft; generous government loan and grant programs and a small domestic market, which led to start-ups targeting global markets from day one.

“Israel has traditionally been particularly strong in cybersecurity – and continues to be – however it now has successful and growing tech companies across a wide range of verticals,” Mr Liberman said.

“We’re not limiting the Lumir Ventures fund to certain verticals but rather will build a diversified portfolio of great tech companies across various sectors and market focuses.”

10D is an early stage VC firm led by one of Israel’s leading venture capitalists, Yahal Zilka, who Mr Liberman said has an enviable track record, including being the first and largest investor in Waze, a navigation application acquired by Google back in 2013 for around $US1 billion.

It also has an existing early stage fund that invests in primarily pre-revenue start-ups, whereas Lumir will target more established revenue-generating companies, at the Series B or C funding stage.

“The 10D fund may be a feeder of opportunities to the Lumir fund if opportunities are approved by the Lumir investment committee,” Mr Liberman said.

Square Peg has also recognised the opportunity for investing in Israeli tech over the last decade, and previously had one of its partners Dan Krasnostein based in Tel Aviv. It now has Yonatan Sela as an investment principal, and Orly Amir as a senior investment associate based there.

“Square Peg has done a great job in building their business and supporting the start-up ecosystem across the various markets they operate in … we are friendly with Square Peg, and I’ve co-invested with their founders since before their first fund,” Mr Liberman said.

“There is a lot of money targeting the start-up ecosystem in Israel however the opportunity set is also very large. There are 9000-plus active start-ups in Israel with more than 600 new start-ups being founded each year.

“The best deals may be competitive, and this is where strong relationships and networks are important.”