A new venture capital fund called Crescendo Venture Partners announces the first closing and beginning of the fund’s investments, which will raise $ 100-80 million. The fund was founded by three Giza venture capitalists – Zvi Schechter, Dr. Yuval Avni and Tal Mizrahi – with another independent partner, Mark Cavallers. The fund’s leading investor is the Swiss Crescendo Group, a multidisciplinary investment company that manages $ 3 billion worth of assets.
According to the company’s announcement, the fund will invest in early stage companies in digital transformation in traditional industries. The official statement reads: “Crescendo Venture Partners will invest in Israeli startups at early stages in software, big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning – with emphasis on software projects that are transforming in traditional industries such as agriculture, education, construction, health and industry.
Schechter is a veteran of venture capitalists in Israel and founders of the Giza Fund, and he has invested, among others, in Toyota, Solotto and WalkMe. Avni is a surgeon, lecturer in entrepreneurship at the Technion and formerly a partner in the Giza Fifth Fund. Mizrahi has a background in finance and law, and he served as CFO of PortAuthority, which sold to WebSense in 2006 for $ 90 million. He was also a partner in the Fifth Giza Fund. Cavalers is an independent partner and also serves as a partner in a Spanish venture capital fund.
On the need to set up the foundation, Avni said: “Despite the huge potential of early stage companies, there is now a gap between the companies’ financing needs and the amounts that investors are actually referring to early stage investment. Crescendo will bridge this gap with a team that offers entrepreneurs a combination of experience in investing and managing companies A start-up, along with an extensive network of companies and investors from Europe, Latin America and Asia, who are interested in investing in Israeli software companies”.
So far, Crescano Ventures has made one investment – at Lecchio, which raised $ 14.5 million last July.
Also published on Medium.