Israel’s Viola Ventures Raises $100 Million For FinTech Fund

December 7, 2017 | Israel-based Viola Ventures, the investment arm of Viola Group, has raised over $100 million, the company announced this week, for the creation of a dedicated FinTech investment fund, Viola FinTech. Some of the fund’s backers include Scotiabank, a Canadian bank with operations worldwide and Israel’s Bank Hapoalim. Founded in 2000, Viola Ventures invests in Israeli early-stage companies with “transformational ideas.” With close to three billion dollars under management, the group has invested in 200 tech companies. The fund will be run by Daniel Tsiddon, a former deputy CEO of Bank Leumi, who said it will provide financial institutions “with the optimal response to cope with the fast-changing environment. Viola FinTech accelerates the integration of innovative ideas into financial institutions while providing the necessary resources to FinTech companies as they scale to transform the financial sector.” Scotiabank’s Ignacio Deschamps says the bank is “delighted to partner with Viola Group to accelerate the bank’s digital transformation and find the most promising FinTech companies across the globe. He said the “partnership will allow us to access Israel’s innovation ecosystem, including well-established cybersecurity and anti-fraud expertise by leveraging Viola’s unique access to relevant companies and technologies.”