Israeli VC Launches $110M Venture Fund To Invest In Early-Stage Startups

Israeli venture capital firm 10D, formerly Ofek Ventures, announced the launch of a $110 million venture fund for early-stage startups, including seed and Series A companies.

The VC, founded by Yahal Zilka, Rotem Eldar, and Itay Rand, who have separately invested in Israeli companies like Waze and WalkMe. 10D provides seed and Series A investments in startups that disrupt markets by using deep technologies, creating new business models, and featuring exceptional entrepreneurial teams. It typically makes $1 million to $5 million initial investments and follow-up investments of up to $10 million.

Since it’s inception, 10D has already made six investments in various tech ventures. Its current portfolio companies include Seebo, a startup that develops artificial intelligence tech for industrial plants; StuffThatWorks, a Tel Aviv-based company creating a healthcare database based on crowsourcing; DayTwo, the Israeli company providing customized nutritional guidelines based on gut microbiome for the purpose of lowering blood sugar levels, and other additional investments.

Zilka and Eldar are experienced and recognized investors in the VC industry. Zilka is a twenty-year veteran and served as an investor, consultant and board member in companies such as Waze, Argus, Onavo, Replay Technologies, DesignArt Networks, Phonetic Systems, Magisto, Indegy and OptimalPlus, acquired by Google, Continental, Facebook, Intel, Qualcomm, Nuance, IAC, NI and others.

“Innovation in the technology world is continuously changing and evolving,” Zilka said in the announcement, “Therefore we chose not to define a rigid set of areas of investment focus for the fund. We understand that we must listen to the ideas entrepreneurs bring to us and recognize trends early so we can learn about them in-depth and develop the necessary strategic relationships to support us in making informed investment decisions and more importantly – help our portfolio companies succeed.”

Eldar has over twenty years of experience in building technology companies, starting out on the operational side, and for the last ten years as an investor. As a partner at Gemini Israel Ventures, Eldar invested in and served as a board member and observer at WalkMe, Moovit (acquired by Intel), MinuteMedia and Implisit (acquired by SalesForce).

“We founded the fund after realizing that we share the belief that entrepreneurs, not investors, are the most important and central factor in the success of both companies and the technology industry. Our role as investors is to support them and help them be the best version of themselves throughout the lifecycle of the company,” said Eldar. “In addition, we come from different backgrounds and have different professional experience which is complementary in many areas,” he added.

Itay Rand has experience as an investor at 83North and Founders Group, as well as vast operational and business experience, both as a consultant with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and as the CEO of a technology company. 10D expects to add new members to its investment team in the coming year. 

“At 10D we do things a little differently. In our work culture, in each of the investments we review, the entire investment team spends a lot of time with the entrepreneurs. This approach helps to build meaningful relationships with the entrepreneurs and creates an openness based on deep business acquaintance with each one of the team members. So in practice, the entrepreneurs get a whole fund that works with them and for them,” Rand said.