Israel’s Magenta Venture Partners announces first closing of a new $100 million fund focused on early stage Israeli startups
17 January 2019Israeli VC firm Magenta Venture Partners announced today a new venture capital fund targeting $100 million. The new fund had its initial closing in October 2018 and is planning its final closing in 2019.
Magenta Venture Partners is an equal partnership between Mitsui & Co, one of the largest trading and investment companies in Japan, Ori Israely, and Ran Levitzky, two seasoned Israeli professionals from its venture capital industry
The fund specialises in early-stage investments in Israeli and Israeli-related technology startups in multiple domains including Automotive, Mobility, AI, Smart Cities, Industry 4.0, Enterprise Software and Fintech.
The four partners of the fund include Ori Israely, formerly of Motorola Solutions Venture Capital and Giza Venture Capital, Hiroshi Takeuchi of Mitsui who has relocated now to Israel after 15 years of venture investment experience in Japan and the US; Ran Levitzky, formerly from Viola Ventures where he co-led investments in early stage startups, and earlier held roles at Amdocs, Microsoft, and Verint Systems; and Atsushi Mizuno from Mitsui’s investment arm who has over 10 years of experience investing into Israeli companies and who has been living in Israel for the past four years.
“Our name Magenta, is a blend of blue and red – the colours of the Israeli and Japanese flags,” explains Ori Israely, the managing general partner and a veteran of the Israeli VC industry, “it signifies the strengths of Israel and Japan. Our fund is a financially focused, but we look to invest in startups that not only look for capital but also seek value driven by the team’s experience in Japan, EU and the USA."
