Announcing Group 11 Fund ‘s first closing at >$120mm.
“Every revolution was first a thought in one man’s mind, and when the same thought occurs to another man, it is the key to that era.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
I am excited to announce today the first close of >$120mm for Group 11’s fifth FinTech fund.
Today’s announcement marks the culmination of the good faith and efforts put together by dozens of people that partnered with Group 11 since its inception to achieve this impressive (and initial) outcome.
When the team and I set to raise Fund V less than 90 days ago, we made the strategic decision to raise a large portion of it in Israel and that’s despite being a US based venture fund where historically since inception over 95% of our capital came from US based investors.
The root of this decision came from our desire to finally match between the impact Group 11 has had as a keen supporter and major backer of many Israeli-related FinTech companies (for almost a decade now) and the enormous financial strength, knowledge and impact Israel’s largest Institutional Investors can bring to the table as our partner.
As such, we decided to eliminate any “noise” and any “intermediary” and approach our new partners directly. Therefor there were NO bankers NOR were there any fund of funds standing between Group 11 and our new partners and backers.
Rather — We had our team, thesis, our top 1% returns to date, our target companies to show for while our new partners had their sheer desire to learn more about FinTech and to get involved in backing category-defining FinTech companies, their diligent investment teams, and strong balance sheet to show for them.
Moreover, we also had the new partnership with Tel Aviv Stock Exchange whereby all of our Israeli institutional investors, at their election, can place some or all of their membership units on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange TASEUP platform where they can trade them (buy or sell with other counterparts) — a revolutionary offering in the venture capital industry which I hope will become the norm in the near future.
The Group 11 team and I look forward to many more years of collaborating with our new partners — Anchors investors Migdal Insurance, Harel Insurance and Finance Company and fellow major investors Menora Mivtachim Insurance Company, More Investment House, Hachshara Insurance and True Capital Wealth Management.
Our work to be come the world’s top-performing FinTech investor continues, as is the FinTech renaissance.
Special thanks to our new partners (will be tagged on Linkedin where it’s easier):
Migdal Insurance Co Family:
Guy Fischer
Aviad Shimon
Erez Migdali
Noam Boas
Dor Ajchenbaum
Yuval Beer Even
Harel Insurance & Finance:
Ben Hamburger
Yair Hamburger
Sami Babkov
Merav Levin
Nataly Mishan-Zakai
Koby Kehaty
Amir Lev
Menora Mivtahim family:
Nir Moroz
Amram Snanes
Ariel Lesnick,
Omri Sages
More Investment House:
Eli Levy
Nir Tsarfaty
Ori Keren
Orel Levy
Hachshara Insurance:
Shimon Elkabetz
Roei Kadosh
Tel Aviv Stock Exchange:
Ittai Ben Zeev the visionary behind so many great initiatives that are developing here at the TASE, soon making it the Middle East’s largest financial nerve-centre.
Sharon Fridrich and Lior Navon who worked back to back with us to make sure that we deliver a stellar outcome as the first venture fund ever going live on the TASEUP.
Group 11 Fearless Team — Hadas Sella Sparfeld without whom nothing would move on ANY front, Devon Morris, Michelle Chang and Lian Kimiaimia who soldiered through numerous late night DD calls and many requests with and from our investors.
Legal team for Group 11:
Legal wizard Eyal Raz who masterfully helped create our legal documents while accounting for our unique offering, Gila Ponte-Shlush who worked relentlessly to negotiate and incorporate many changes that came through our investors and associate Amit Ron.
Importantly — Our founders and partners who brought us this far and without whom this would not have been possible.
Chen Amit of Tipalti, Eynat Guez of Papaya Global, Guy Goldstein, Alon Huri, Nissim Tapiro of Next Insurance, Drew Uher, Sumant Sridharan of HomeLight, Ariel Cohen, Ilan Twig of TripActions, Arad Levertov, Tal Riesenfeld, Ornit Dweck-Maizel, Nissim Tapiro of Sunbit, Lilach Bar-David, Liran Zelkha of Lili Oren Barzilai, Mody Kov, Oded Golan of EquityBee, Amit Haller of Reali, Eric Poirier of Addepar, Zachary Bookman of OpenGov Inc to name a few.
Group 11’s OG’s :) — Doug Raetz, Heather Goodman, Roy Eddleman, Boaz A Schwartz, Kristina Roth, Bikram Dang, Yoni Saban just to name a few close backers who have been with us since day one where things were not nearly as obvious as they are today.
My dear friends and mentors — Oren Zeev and Dror Berman who have been there from day one with sound advice and always had my best interests in mind. I am forever in your debt.
And lastly because it really matters — The love(s) of my life Roni Eshel and my son Leo (who will never have a social media presence for as long as I am around), my parents and brothers.
Without family all of this doesn’t matter.
Thanks Ivan Levingston for this mention on Bloomberg.
