Investors backing Israeli tech.

Ayal Shiran is a Global Operating and Management Executive successful at building high-performance executive teams and leading sophisticated telecommunications and service organizations with billion dollar revenues. With more than 20 years’ experience, he is a strategic visionary who is skilled at establishing operational excellence and translating conceptual models into specific growth strategies. He has vast experience in planning and executing multi-faceted global business development campaigns designed to improve market share and gross revenue. He has a successful track record in sourcing, negotiating and completing complex transactions in the $100-500 million range. Prior to joining Viola Private Equity, Ayal served as President of Amdocs (NASDAQ: DOX) Customer Business Group, with extensive responsibilities that ranged from managing a large portion of Amdocs’ business operations, strengthening Amdocs’ customer business worldwide to leading a team of Division Presidents in targeting emerging businesses new to Amdocs’ existing portfolio. Prior to his appointment as Amdocs’ Customer Business Group President, Ayal held the position of Amdocs’ Division President responsible for the AT&T group of companies, including SBC, Bellsouth and Cingular. Before joining Amdocs in 2004, Ayal served as Acting Vice President at TTI Team Telecom International (Nasdaq: TTIL, later acquired by TEOCO Corporation), where he was responsible for all project deliveries and follow-up sales in the Americas region. In the Israeli Air Force, Ayal was responsible for the development of avionic systems for the F-15 fighter jet. Ayal holds a Bachelor and Master’s degrees in Computer Engineering from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.

Ayala Peterburg is based out of Tel Aviv, Israel and is the Founder and Managing Partner of S Capital. Ayala previously worked at Oribi as a Board Member. Ayala Peterburg attended Reichman University.

Ben Bernstein co-founded Twistlock, Inc. in 2015, and serves as its Chief Executive Officer. Ben has 14+ years of experience in enterprise security and operating systems. He is a Microsoft veteran with extensive experiences in both software development and product management. Ben is a veteran of the Israeli Intelligence Corps. He has a B.A cum laude in Computer Science from the Technion in Israel and an MBA with a scholarship of excellence from the Interdisciplinary Center in Israel.

Ben Rubin is based out of New York, New York and is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Here Not There Labs. Ben previously worked at Sequoia Capital as a Scout. Ben Rubin attended Technion - Israel Institute of Technology.

Ben Wiener is the Managing Partner of Jumpspeed Ventures. He previously worked as a Judicial Law Clerk at Israel Supreme Court. He attended Yeshiva University.

Benoit Wirz is a founding partner at Brighteye working with startups that leverage technology to help people learn, create and participate in the knowledge economy. Brighteye Ventures is the first edtech focused venture capital fund based in Europe, investing in early stage companies in Europe, Israel and the US. Previously, Ben started and ran the Knight Enterprise Fund, a US seed stage venture fund as part of the $2.5B Knight Foundation focused on edtech, media and govtech companies, investing in over 40 startups including Nearpod, Newsela and Tapad (acquired by Telnor). Prior to Knight, Ben was a partner with US Global, where he developed and invested in startups in energy, manufacturing and tech. Ben received his BA and MA at Stanford University, his MBA at INSEAD and is a Kauffman Fellow.

Beth Turner is a Managing Partner at SV Angel. Prior to joining, Beth ran operations and invested with a family office focused on seed stage opportunities, investing in companies such as Clover Health, Flatiron Health, LifeLock, and Blue Apron. Prior to this, Beth was managing director of a consulting firm and worked with an international NGO with an operational focus in East Africa. Prior to this, Beth was an early employee at the ad-tech startup Adaptly and worked with one of Israel's first startups, Netafim. She is a Siemens Westinghouse Scholar, has spoken at TEDx and The World Space Conference, the youngest person to ever record an asteroid occultation, and a musician (performing the national anthem for NBA/NFL, with the Houston Grand Opera, and on an album with Albany records). Beth graduated from MIT with a major in Civil and Environmental Engineering and minors in Physics and Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS).

Bob Kocher, MD is a Partner at Venrock and focuses on healthcare IT and services investments. He currently serves on the Boards of Devoted Health, Virta Health, Aledade, Lyra Health, where he is also a co-founder, and Premera. He is a Board Observer at Grand Rounds, Stride, Renew, Doctor on Demand, and Robin. He is formerly a Director at Jiff and Castlight Health (CSLT). Additionally, he is an Adjunct Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, Senior Fellow and Advisory Board Member at the Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics at USC, and Guest Scholar at the Brookings Institution. He serves on the Advisory Boards of Harvard Medical School Health Care Policy Department and National Institute of Healthcare Management (NIHCM). He is also a member of the Health Affairs Editorial Board. Prior to Venrock, Bob served in the Obama Administration as Special Assistant to the President for Healthcare and Economic Policy on the National Economic Council. In the Obama Administration, Bob was one of the shapers of the Affordable Care Act focusing on cost, quality, and delivery system reform and health IT policy. He was one of the leaders of the First Lady’s “Let’s Move” childhood obesity initiative, led the formation of the Partnership for a Healthier America, and served on the Federal Advisory Panel charged with developing a national obesity strategy. He also co-founded the Health Data Initiative with Todd Park, a joint effort of HHS and the Institute of Medicine, to release healthcare data to spur private sector innovation to improve healthcare cost and quality. For the past five years, he has served as Co-Chair of the Health Datapalooza. Before the White House, Bob was a Partner at McKinsey & Company where he led McKinsey Global Institute’s healthcare economics work and Center for United States Health System Reform. He has worked widely across the US and international healthcare systems to improve regulatory policy, economic performance, labor productivity, clinical outcomes, and patient experience. Bob received undergraduate degrees from the University of Washington and a medical degree from George Washington University. He completed a research fellowship with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the National Institutes of Health, and went on to complete his internal medicine residency training at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the Harvard Medical School.

Brock Weatherup is the CEO/Founder of Metamorphosis Partners driving enterprise value through innovation in the $80B pet industry focused on the consumer. Brock was most recently the EVP of Strategic Innovation & Digital Experience at Petco. Previously he was CEO & CoFounder of PetCoach (acquired by Petco) - revolutionizing the Pet Health Care experience. Brock is a CEO, entrepreneur, angel investor, builder of enterprise value and passionate advocate about the consumer and their interactions with digital media & Ecommerce. Brock is also managing partner of Atai Ventures angel investments, co-founder of ICONYC (www.iconyclabs.com) an early stage NYC based Israeli accelerator, investor/advisor/board member for 7+ startups - VeryApt, SideCar, Social Ladder, Ethology and an industry advisor for VC firms EQT Partners, MissionOG & SafeGuard. Previously Brock was SVP/Chief Digital Officer of Petsmart after selling Pet360 where he was CEO the prior 5 years. Brock was also CEO of Fathead and held several leadership positions with InterActiveCorp (Ticketmaster, Match.com, CitySearch, ReserveAmerica). A graduate of University of Colorado Boulder, sits as a board member of the Nature Conservancy – Adirondacks, father of two amazing girls and pet owner to my 4yr old retriever named...Boulder.

Christopher Schaepe is a founding general partner of Lightspeed Venture Partners, an early-stage technology venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, CA with offices in Asia and Israel. He has 15 years of venture capital experience and invests in areas including infrastructure technologies, digital media and services. Mr. Schaepe has been responsible for investments including AMEC, Brocade, Ciena, Combinet, eHealth, Galileo Technology, LightLogic, Lightspeed International, Premisys, Quantum Effect Devices, Rhythm, Riverbed, SemEquip, SiPort, Terayon, Transmeta, Tzero and Unity. Prior to Lightspeed, he was a general partner at Weiss, Peck & Greer Venture Partners after serving in corporate finance and capital markets roles at Goldman Sachs. Previously, Mr. Schaepe was a software engineer at IBM. He holds BS and MS degrees in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from MIT and an MBA from Stanford Business School.

Cyril Bertrand is a Partner at Xange Captial where he is responsible for core-technology investments and for the German-speaking area. Cyril has prior venture capital experience at DVC (Munich, Germany) where is was responsible for the Telecom & Semiconductor investments, and at TeleSoft Partners (San Mateo, CA). Prior to that, his 7-year tenure at Alcatel brought him to the position of Director in charge of creating and growing Alcatel’s first generation of 802.11 products across France, Spain and Israel in 2000. Cyril is also a non-exec board director of Apertio (UK), MergeOptics (Germany), Panoratio (Germany), Powerlase (UK) and is an observer at BigMachines (US).

As the Sr. Investment Analyst at JetBlue Technology Ventures (JTV), Daisy’s primary focus is on making new investments and conducting due diligence on early stage startups. Some of her areas of interest include artificial intelligence, sustainability, and cybersecurity. Prior to joining the JTV team, Daisy worked for an early stage VC in Stockholm, Sweden. Her career has also taken her abroad to Israel, Uganda, India, and Latvia. She holds dual MSCs in International Business from the Stockholm School of Economics, and double BAs in Mathematics and Environmental Economics from UC Berkeley.

Dan Isenberg (@danisen) is founding executive director of the Babson Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Project, Associate at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School. From 1981-7 and 2005-9 Dan was a professor at the Harvard Business School, and in the interim (1987-2005) was an entrepreneur and venture capitalist in Israel. Dan authored Worthless Impossible and Stupid: How Contrarian Entrepreneurs Create and Capture Extraordinary Value(Harvard Business Review Press 2013), published over 30 online and print articles on entrepreneurship in the Harvard Business Review, and has been featured in the Economist, Forbes, NPR, Bloomberg, Quartz, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, etc. Dan has been a pioneer in the concept and development of entrepreneurship ecosystems, and he launched and directs Manizales-Mas and Scale Up Milwaukee. Between 2009-2013 Dan was active in the World Economic Forum and conducted Forum events in Davos, Africa, Europe, and China. In 2012 Mikhail Gorbachev awarded Dan the Pio Manzu Award for "Innovations in Economic Development." At Babson Executive Education, Dan created and directs the 3-day program, Driving Economic Growth Through Entrepreneurship Ecosystems. He holds the Ph.D. degree in social psychology from Harvard University, received under the mentorship of Robert Freed Bales. He lives in Boston and in his home town of Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and has 4 grown children. Dan enjoys salsa dancing (On2), jazz, collecting wine, and not-catching-fish (at which he excels); nevertheless, he is most excited about spending time with his kids (one of whom is an entrepreneur) and his granddaughter, helping his angel investments grow, and being continually surprised by what entrepreneurs around the world can accomplish. Dan is currently publishing two books of children's stories.

David was a computer security software entrepreneur, co-founder and President of SecureWare, builder of a secure operating systems platform for web applications and Executive VP of R&D for S1, a financial software company that proved the technology by creating the first Internet bank, Security First Network Bank. SecureWare’s assets were sold to HP and S1 was publicly-traded on NASDAQ. David made aliyah with his wife and 5 children in 1999, and most recently was Vice President for Operations for The Shalem Center, where he defined and installed the IT infrastructure for Shalem College, Israel’s first liberal arts college scheduled to open in Fall, 2013. David, an avid bicycle rider, was chairman of the organizing committee for the Wheels of Love charity bike ride, the largest sporting fundraiser in Israel, raising upwards of $2 million per year for ALYN Hospital , a pediatric & adolescent rehabilitation center based in Jerusalem.

David is a Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners and focuses on the firm’s investment efforts in Israel, with a focus on the enterprise infrastructure, communications, semiconductors and cleantech sectors. David brings nine years of operating experience and eight years of venture capital experience to his role at Lightspeed. Before joining Lightspeed, David was a partner at BRM Capital, an Israeli venture capital firm with $150 million under management, where he focused on investments in the communications and components sectors. Prior to BRM, he served as CEO at Paspar2, an Internet application service provider. He also served as corporate attorney at Rosensweig & Co., a leading Israeli commercial law firm. Prior to that, he was the head of software development teams for the Israel Defense Forces as well as Edunetics, where he managed a programming team that produced software products for the U.S. market. David holds a BA in Economics and an LLB from Tel Aviv University, as well as an MBA from Insead, Fontainebleau, France.

David Weisz is the Co-Founder of Pontera. He previously worked at Israeli Navy as a Executive Officer. David Weisz attended Reichman University (IDC Herzliya).

Dean Sysman is the Co-Founder and CEO of Axonius. Dean is a world renowned expert in cybersecurity and has been honored with being in the Forbes 30 Under 30 Israel 2017 list. Before founding Axonius, Dean co-founded Cymmetria, A YC-backed cyber deception company with Fortune 500 customers. He has spoken at major conferences including Blackhat, Defcon, CCC and more. He is an alumnus of an elite unit in the Israeli Intelligence Corps, where he served for 5 years as a team leader and officer. During his service, Dean received commendations and awards for his service. Dean is a graduate of the special "Etgar" program, where he earned his B.Sc in computer science at the age of 19. In 2005, Dean was part of the gold medal winning team in the international Robotic Olympics in South Korea. Dean enjoys playing poker and reading existential philosophy

Donatella Callegaris is a managing Partner, Flashpoint Venture Debt. A confident communicator with an entrepreneurial and multicultural approach with the ability to build and maintain long-lasting professional relationships within the European startup tech ecosystem and the investors supporting those companies. Donatella works with the most innovative and exciting businesses focusing on backing founders from the CEE, Baltic regions as well as Finland and Israel, from startups to growth stage. Specialised in originating deals for debt capital financing for technology companies. In September 2019, Donatella joined Flashpoint Venture Capital as a Venture Debt Managing Partner and was instrumental in the fundraising and successful launch of Flashpoint Venture Debt Fund I. She is involved in deal origination, the management of the portfolio’s entire deal life cycle as well as the Venture Debt Funds’ fundraising process. Before joining Flashpoint, Donatella worked at CLP and focused particularly on relationships with the equity sponsors ecosystem and on identifying high growth technology companies in need of growth financing that best suited CLP’s investment criteria. Prior to joining CLP, Donatella spent seven years working at Kreos Capital, managing several aspects of the investment process as well as managing the portfolio for technology and life science companies based in the UK, continental Europe and Israel. Donatella also managed various levels of fund corporate governance for Kreos II, Kreos III and Kreos IV funds. Prior to this, Donatella worked in trust management. She holds a degree in Business Management from Birkbeck College, University of London and speaks both Italian and English.

Doron Alter is an angel investor. Doron joined Innovation Endeavors in 2011 to focus on discovering and supporting brilliant entrepreneurs in Israel. Doron is an entrepreneur with a corporate background. He founded and managed various software ventures in the fields of Mobile Payments and Mobile Games. Earlier in his career, in the corporate realm, Doron worked with Microsoft Technology Center and Palm Inc., in roles ranging from software engineering to product management. He served in the elite technology unit of the Israel National Security Agency. Doron holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BA in economics and management from Tel-Aviv University.

Dr. Ilian Iliev, Chief Executive Officer of NetScientific PLC, is also Managing Director of EMV Capital (EMVC), a corporate finance and VC investment firm acquired by NetScientific in August 2020. EMVC is a London-based investor in the industrial sustainability, industrials and healthcare sectors. EMVC’s investments in Europe, Israel and the US cover a range of technologies including robotics and AI, machine learning, materials science, IoT, advanced engineering, power electronics and medical devices. Ilian spun-out EMV Capital out of EcoMachines Ventures, which he co-founded in 2013. Prior to that he co-founded and was CEO of CambridgeIP Ltd (2006-2012), which he built into a leading market and technology business intelligence provider in the UK. He is a Board member at a number of Net Scientific and EMVC portfolio companies, including PDS Biotechnology Inc., Glycotest Inc., Sofant Technologies, Pointgrab, Q-Bot, Wanda Health, and also serves as Executive Chairman at Vortex Biosciences Inc. Ilian holds a PhD from Cambridge University ’s Judge Business School, focused on Venture Capital business models in emerging economies, Mcom in Economics, and BA in Politics, Economics and International Relations from the University of Witwatersrand, South Afirca. He has published widely on entrepreneurship, venture capital, and market trends in energy and healthcare, and has won awards for academic excellence.

CEO of Meshfire.

Elie Wurtman is co-founder and partner at PICO Venture Partners, an early stage venture capital fund headquartered in Jerusalem. His investments include Vroom (Nasdaq VRM), Spot.io (acquired by NetApp), Gloat, ChargeAfter, and AutoLeadStar. He brings two decades of experience as an entrepreneur, executive, and investor who has played an active role in several high-profile startups. Prior to PICO, Wurtman was a general partner at Benchmark Capital from 2006 to 2012. Prior to Benchmark, he worked for 3 years with Jerusalem Venture Partners, where he led early-stage media technology and enterprise software investments. Wurtman has been an entrepreneur and company builder throughout his career. He launched his first company in 1993 and took 3 companies from founding to IPO. As co-founder and CEO of Deltathree, Jerusalem's first unicorn, Wurtman led the company to 60 points of presence globally with operations across 35 countries. His other notable startups include IronSource, where he was the company’s first external director and an active mentor to the founders. While being a co-founder and lead investor in Vroom, Wurtman also took an active role as Executive Chairman during the company’s inception. Wurtman is the founder of PICO Kids, a social enterprise focused on childhood education in Jerusalem. He also founded Bat Shlomo Vineyards, a boutique winery in northern Israel. Wurtman is an Aspen Institute Global Leadership Fellow and sits on the board of the Tower of David Museum. He received a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City.

Erez joined Greylock Partners in 2005 and in 2006 was a founding Partner of Greylock IL, now 83North. Erez currently focuses on Enterprise IT infrastructure, cloud technologies, virtualization, security, storage, and enterprise software. Erez formerly served as Executive Vice President in charge of Technology Strategy for EMC Corporation, reporting to the CEO. Prior to this role, Erez served as EMC's Executive Vice President of Open Software, a business that grew from one product line to a multi-hundred million dollar level. During his eleven-year tenure at EMC Erez also held various R&D roles, oversaw development efforts with strategic partners, and established EMC's first R&D presence in California and India. Erez is a member of the boards of Actifio, Zerto, Panoramic Power, Wandera and GuardiCore (Observer). Prior investments and board positions include Precise Software (Idera), Camero (SK Group) and ScaleIO (EMC). Erez is a holder of more than 30 patents, and is a graduate of the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology (BSc. and MSc.) and Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts (MBA).

Eric Deram is the founder and managing partner of Euro-Private Equity SA (www.euro-pe.com). Until February 2004, Eric was Director of DB Capital Venture Partners in London, the European venture capital arm of Deutsche Bank. In this capacity, he invested in several early stage companies in the technology and telecommunication industries in Europe and Israel. Previously, he was an investment executive of CSFB Private Equity in London, the Credit Suisse Group private equity investment arm in Europe where he worked primarily on pan European large buyouts investment opportunities across a variety of industries. Earlier, he worked in structured finance with BNP Paribas in Sao Paulo, Paris and New York specialising in leveraged buyouts, mezzanine debt and investments in private equity funds. Prior to BNP Paribas, Eric worked with Reydel Salustro & Associés, an audit and consulting firm in Paris. Throughout his career Eric served on numerous boards of directors of private and public companies as well as private equity limited partnerships. He also served on several investment committees of private equity funds. Eric worked in Paris, London, New York, Sao Paulo, Dubai and Geneva.

Gil joined 83North in 2016. He currently focuses on Enterprise IT infrastructure, cloud technologies, virtualization, security, storage and software. Prior investments and board observer positions include Anobit (Apple), XtremIO (EMC), ScaleIO (EMC), Cyvera (PA Networks), Adallom (Microsoft). Previously, Gil held senior executive positions with EMC Corp. in Hopkinton MA and in Israel.

Investor active in the Israeli technology ecosystem at Altshuler Shaham.

After spending the first ten years of his career in brand name companies like IBM and Compaq, Gordon progressively gravitated towards early stage and high growth companies. He spent eight years in the videoconferencing industry, including four years as President of an Israeli-based company that grew from $5M to $36M in a short few years and went public on the Euronext stock market. Gordon has served in an executive capacity over most company functions, but with emphasis on marketing, sales, business development and M&A. He ran corporate development and strategy for Austin-based NetQoS, who grew rapidly to more than $55M in revenue before being acquired by CA Technologies for $200M and was a founding advisor for digital advertising pioneer MediaMind, who reached $65M in revenue and a NASDAQ IPO in 2010 at a $192M valuation. Through his advisory practice, Shockwave Innovations, and as Managing Director for Austin’s Capital Factory startup accelerator, Gordon is an active angel investor, VC and startup advisor. Gordon is currently a board member for Austin-based technology companies SwimTopia, Riskpulse and Chiron Health. He received his Computer Science degree from Baylor University and now having raised three daughters he enjoys competitive swimming and spending time with his wife at their Galveston Island beach house or some global destination they’ve never been before.

Haim Sadger is based out of Haifa and is the Founder and Managing Partner of S Capital. Haim previously worked at Oolo as a Board Member. Haim Sadger attended Technion - Israel Institute of Technology.

Henry Chen Weinstein is based out of Israel and is the Founder of Vine Stone Ventures. Henry previously worked at AeroCRS as an Investor. Henry chen Weinstein attended Tel Aviv University.

As chief technology officer of Matomy Media Group, Ido oversees all technological and R&D aspects of the group, working to enhance Matomy’s performance marketing platforms and providing leadership, guidance and coordination of the company’s technological roadmap. Prior to joining Matomy, he co-founded and later was the CEO of TheMarker, Israel’s largest financial media company. He was part of the founding team of Grouper, a local clone of Groupon that was later sold to Groupon, and is now acting as the Chairman of Groupon Israel.