This has been a bad year for Israeli venture capital funds -- but then 2009 was a bad year, too. That alone can go a long way to explaining the angst gripping much of the VC industry in Israel.
But the soul-searching now under way in Herzliya, the sleepy seaside town just north of Tel Aviv that has been transformed into the heart of the Israeli high-tech and venture sectors, suggests that something deeper is amiss. Perhaps the most dramatic public expression of this growing groundswell of gloom and doom came in a letter sent in May by Ze'ev Holtzman, founder and chairman of Giza Venture Capital and former chairman of the Israel Venture Association, to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Finance Yuval Steinitz. Holtzman's message was blunt: "Israel's venture capital and start-up industry is heading for collapse.... The industry, which is the economy's growth engine, is liable to be irreversibly damaged."
To read the full, original article click on this link: Israeli Venture Capital: Between a Rock and a Hard Place - Knowledge@Wharton
