Ran Levitzky

Our partner Raz Mangel sat down with CTech by Calcalist to share our trends for 2026, and while the conversation covered everything from deep tech to AI infrastructure, one theme cuts through it all: Israeli companies are mastering the discipline of scaling. For years, the Israeli tech narrative centered on innovation. But what's changing now, and what global LPs are increasingly excited about, is the pairing of that innovation with systematic go-to-market execution. We're seeing it firsthand: multiple Greenfield portfolio companies that were at single-digit ARR when we invested are now approaching or crossing $100M+ ARR with line of sight to $1B. This didn't happen by accident. It's the result of implementing the right operational frameworks early - what we call the Seven Pillars of Efficient Growth: Strategy, Operational Framework, People, Pipeline, Sales Process, Partnerships, and Account Management. Our G²M Excellence program exists to help companies build this GTM infrastructure from the start, avoiding costly cycles and enabling the rapid yet efficient growth required to reach sustainable scale. This year, whether it's deep tech, AI infra, or cyber, the companies that will define Israel's next decade won't just build great technology. They'll build enduring global businesses with the go-to-market muscle to match their technical depth. Read Greenfield Partners full trends and predictions for 2026 in the comments:

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I added the new Israeli Proptech startup landscape by TLV Partners to my 2025 collection on VC Cafe. There are over 200+ Israeli startups operating in the proptech sector (including a number of unicorns). The new crop of AI-first startups are penetrating every layer of the tech stack - from elevating the tenant experience and enabling predictive maintenance, to construction site monitoring and delivering AI-driven infrastructure insights. Link to the CTech by Calcalist article with the commentary below.

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🚀 Welcoming Insignito Solutions Ltd to the ICI Fund Portfolio! Excited to share our investment in Insignito, an Israeli startup pioneering the field of #drone #acoustics. Insignito's AI-powered technologies dramatically reduce drone noise, enable accurate long-range acoustic detection, and provide mission planning tools that optimize performance in real-world environments. What makes Insignito truly stand out is its founding team — Itay Nourian (CEO), Yarden Eilat (CTO), and Dor Ruf (VP R&D) — three longtime colleagues from the Israeli Air Force who bring deep technical expertise, operational excellence, and the trust that comes from years of working together in high-stakes environments. We believe Insignito has the potential to set the global standard for drone acoustics, opening new opportunities across commercial, defense, and urban applications. 👏 Grateful to back this visionary team and excited to see what’s ahead. 📩 Read more about Insignito in our latest newsletter: https://lnkd.in/dgM5u24d . Innovation • Community • Intelligence #DroneTechnology #AIInnovation #DeepTech #IsraeliStartups #VentureCapital #FutureOfFlight #AerospaceInnovation Timothy Jones Prof. Yaron Wolfsthal Aviv Nizri Ari Goldfarb

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Announcing Israel Quantum Fellows. Today we announce the Israel Quantum Fellows program, which brings together VP-level executives from the private sector (largest banks, telecom, healthcare, finance and infrastructure providers) alongside decision makers from Israel's defense industry who use or expect to use quantum technology in the coming years. We hosted the very first event at Aleph (teaser video below) with incredible speakers and 50+ senior executives who shape the Israeli economy. Speakers included: - Naftali Bennett (13th Prime Minister of Israel) - The strategic importance of quantum technology for the State of Israel - Nir Minerbi (CEO at Classiq) - Quantum 101 - Aviv Zeevi Balasiano (CTO at the Israel Innovation Authority) - Israel's National Quantum Program - Miriam Shtilman Lavsovski - EU Quantum Flagship Program - Itamar Sivan, Ph.D. (CEO at Quantum Machines ) - We Can't Miss the Train Thank you to my friends and partners who helped make it happen - Ayal Itzkovitz (Managing Partner at Pitango), Idan Keynan & Shir Peri Lichtig (the founders and managers of the Qubit.iL Community). Shoutout to the wonderful team of volunteers - Tali Mayer-Chissick, Gilad Levi, Dror Pezo & Dafna Meir and special thank you to our roundtable discussion leaders - Tal David, Nir Bar-Lev, Nati Erez, Ron Cohen, Nissan Maskil & Yaniv Harel, Ph.D

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The scale of today’s AI investment is staggering: billions for supercomputers, trillions for data centers, and a global race between companies and even countries to secure the lead. I recently shared some thoughts with Israel Hayom ישראל היום on what this all means for investors. One thing is clear: nearly every startup now claims to be “AI-based.” Most investors won’t even look at a company unless it’s using AI somewhere in its operations. That doesn’t mean every “AI company” is truly an AI company. As I said in the article: “Companies whose capabilities do not extend beyond what generic AI tools already enable will struggle to generate meaningful returns. Real value will come from companies with proprietary data, advanced models, or unique domain expertise- elements that cannot easily be replicated and that create a true competitive edge.” AI will shape the next decade of innovation, but the winners will be the companies building something defensible, differentiated, and lasting, not just those riding the wave. Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/dkVUz79b Arieli Group #AI #Investment #VentureCapital

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“𝘏𝘪𝘨𝘩 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘶𝘯𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘦𝘨𝘢-𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳, 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 Wiz’s $32 𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘤𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵 $7 𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘰𝘯 Armis 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘭, 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘧𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘢𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴, 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘵𝘩 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘐𝘴𝘳𝘢𝘦𝘭𝘪 𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘴𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘮.” Following a year marked by global economic uncertainty, optimism among investors in Israel’s tech sector has rebounded sharply, with 20 percent rating the industry as excellent compared with only 1 percent previously. Was a pleasure to speak with Israel Hayom ישראל היום along with other industry leaders about what lies ahead for innovation and growth in Israel in 2026 and beyond. Read the full piece here 👉 https://lnkd.in/ds7VxgmP Reut Yehuda Golan Lia Cromwell Yaniv Golan Chaim Schiff Talor Sax

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Israeli startup Octup, which makes an AI-powered platform to help manage and analyze logistics centers, has raised $12 million in a Seed funding round. The round was led by JAL Ventures Fund and Shine Capital, with support from Tal Ventures, Stone Capital, and HCS Capital. The company was started in 2022 by Alon Partuk and now has around 30 employees, most of them in Israel. Octup’s main office is in Tel Aviv, and it also has offices in Toronto and Austin. Kathleen Sullivan Garman | Nimrod Posner 🔗 Read full article link in comment #octup #AI #Seed #funding #startupnews #businessupdate #businessnews

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“The system is broken.” We keep chasing $100B valuations like it’s the norm. Said it last week, but it’s worth repeating, because let’s be honest… most of its paper. It’s not ARR driving these numbers. It’s hyper-funding rounds, inflated expectations, and a complete lack of liquidity. You’ve got companies that once hit $20B, now worth $600M. Others get acquired for $700M and then shut down within a year. And when you get to those inflated valuations, you're trapped: You can't exit. You’re not growing. You’re not liquid. You’re just stuck. The irony? Some of the smartest teams today are not raising massive rounds: → They're lean. → They’re keeping equity. → And they’re building actual businesses. So how are we going to get to $100B valuations off tiny teams, no revenue, and broken exits? You can’t. VCs are under pressure. LPs want liquidity. But IPOs are rare, private equity isn’t always interested, and secondaries, well, let’s be real… not a real solution for everyone. The system is overdue for change. Until then, we need to stop worshipping empty valuations. What’s one thing you would change about how we fund and value startups today? (Shout out to Ophir Reshef, Partner at the ISF Israel Secondary Fund for this insightful op-ed in Calcalist כלכליסט CTech by Calcalist) https://lnkd.in/egNMd6nG

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Exciting highlights for investors from Startup Nation Central’s H1 2025 Israeli Ecosystem Report: - $9.3B in private tech funding, up 54% from H2 2024 - Median round size up 28%, reaching $9M - 32 mega-rounds ($50M+), up from 20 - Global investors participated in 69% of deals - Signs of recovery in early and mid-stage activity, including a 60% jump in Series B/C capital Link to the full report in the first comment.

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Most startup stories begin with the exit. This one begins with a shutdown. Most founder stories start with the win. This one starts with the wrong bet. It began inside The Zell Entrepreneurship Program at Reichman University, where Or Briga met the co-founder who would define the next eight years of his life, alongside Shai Arnon, also a Zell grad, and unknowingly lay the groundwork for both failure and reinvention.  In 2019, eSports was exploding. The narrative felt obvious: build the largest online training platform and academy for competitive gamers.  So they built NOVOS games - a data-driven training platform for gamers. Six years. $7M raised. A category built from scratch. Their first investor? A Zell mentor who backed them the moment they graduated. Then reality intervened. The market didn’t mature the way everyone predicted. Adoption stalled. Growth slowed. And eventually they faced the hardest founder truth there is: the hypothesis was wrong. So they did the rare thing: 𖧹 They shut the company down. 𖧹 Returned the remaining capital. 𖧹 And asked the terrifying question: what now? What survived wasn’t the product - it was the partnership. Instead of walking away, they doubled down on what actually worked. That customer came from a conversation with SuperPlay’s CEO, who offered to be their first buyer if they built better payments infrastructure for direct-to-consumer gaming. 𖧹 They moved fast. 𖧹 Didn’t raise capital. 𖧹 Built with scars instead of slides. Within a year, Galleon (acquired by Stash) was processing hundreds of millions annually. And recently, it was acquired by Stash. The speed wasn’t luck. It was compound learning. And Or is clear about one thing: the second company only exists because the first one failed. That’s the part of founder stories we should talk about more. - - - - - - What lesson from a “failed” chapter ended up being the foundation for your next win? Ori Schnitzer Naomi Scheinman Liraz Sharabani Reichman University Reichman University Alumni Association American Friends of Reichman University (IDC) American Friends of Reichman University (IDC Herzliya)

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