Greylock takes $150m for Israeli high-tech

Greylock Partners, a US venture capital firm, has held a final close of its Greylock Israel fund with $150 million (€120 million) of commitments.
 
The fund, managed by Greylock partners Moshe Mor, Erez Ofer and Yoram Snir, focuses exclusively on Israeli early-stage technology companies. 
 
Mor and Snir recently relocated from Greylock’s US base in Massachussetts to join Ofer in the firm’s Hertzelia office.
 
Greylock has traditionally invested in Israeli companies from its US funds, including Greylock XII, which closed on $500 million last November.
 
Since 2001, the firm has invested in eight Israeli hi-tech businesses, the most recent being Imperva, a data security company which raised $17 million in May. Greylock joined existing investors Accel Partners, US Venture Partners and Venrock Associates in the Series C financing.
 
Greylock’s fundraising follows a busy second quarter for Israeli high-tech companies. According to data from the IVC Research Centre, capital raised by Israeli high-tech companies in the second quarter of 2006 reached $404 million, up 12 percent on the first quarter.
 
However, foreign investors were responsible for the lion’s share of investments in the second quarter. Israeli VCs invested $154 million in local companies, a decrease of 13 percent on the previous quarter and six percent below second quarter 2005 figures. The Israeli VC share of the total amount invested in Israeli high-tech was 38 percent, with the remainder from both foreign investors and non-VC Israeli investors.