Israel has emerged as a world leader in high technology and is considered the next “Silicon Valley” or the “Silicon Wadi”. Israel boasts the highest per capita ratio of scientists and engineers in the world with approximately 13.5 engineers per 1,000 residents. More than 25 percent of the Israeli work force is employed in technical professions and Israel ranks first in the world in its amount of scientific publications per capita. Israel is home to thousands of high-tech companies and technological incubators sponsored by the Office of the Chief Scientist, which are located in or around more than twenty Israeli cities and towns. Technology giants such as Microsoft, IBM, Motorola, Intel, Cisco, 3Com, HP, Sun and many others have substantial development facilities in Israel. Israel is second only to the United States (in absolute terms) in the number of start-up technology companies and third after Canada in the number of publicly traded companies on NASDAQ. Today, Israel is known to be the largest non-US beneficiary of US-based venture capital and private equity investments. Israel is also considered a “cellular hub” with some of the most advanced technology oriented cellular operators in the world and a cellular penetration rate of over 85%. Multinational cellular infrastructure and handset manufacturers utilize this unique market as a testing center for advanced cellular and telecom technologies.
Despite the ongoing "Technology Meltdown", Israel is still considered to be an attractive place for venture capital investments and many multinational VC funds and private ("Angel") investors continue investing or are looking to invest in this market. As there is already in Israel VC capital in excess of $2 billion, a lot of capital is running after a limited number of quality companies and it is getting harder and harder for international VC funds and Angels to identify the "next big idea". Founded in 2000, Israel Technology Ventures (ITV) does the following:
- Conducts comprehensive technical due diligence of Israeli telecom companies for both Israeli and International VC’s and Angel investors.
- Introduces early stage Israeli telecom companies to Israeli and international VC’s and Angel investors for the purpose of capital investments.
- Are founders of Israeli telecom companies by identifying opportunities in the telecom space, recruiting management and funding start-ups.
- Invests its own capital in early stage telecom companies.
As ITV has an extensive understanding of the international cellular and telecom arena, it targets companies with broad technological foundations, unique or cutting-edge products, strong management teams, attractive potential markets and a clear exit strategy. Prudent screening processes are conducted by technical, marketing and financial professionals, and investments are selected by an investment committee. ITV gives its portfolio companies a broad base of contacts to cellular providers, system integrators, infrastructure and handset manufacturers and various cellular executives around the globe.
Since inception, Israel Technology Ventures has invested over $40 million both as agent and as principle in promising Israeli and American cellular companies and continues it's search for attractive opportunities.
The Principals of ITV have built reputations for their value-added involvement with venture-stage technology companies both as entrepeneurs, consultants and investors. ITV has also developed an extensive network of professional and personal relationships with many senior technology executives and corporations in the cellular arena and a wide array of financial and professional services firms such as venture capitalist firms, investment banks, Telecom consultants and law firms. This extensive network of relationships both in Israel and abroad, are an important factor in generating an attractive deal flow.
Marc L. Seelenfreund:
Born in the U.S. and raised in Israel, Marc has developed a broad understanding of both Israeli and U.S. business cultures. Marc served as an officer in an IDF tank unit from 1988-92 and received his law degree from Bar Ilan University. From 1995 to 2000, Marc was a Vice President at Sunrise Securities Corp., a boutique investment bank in New York with investments of over $500 million in over 60 technology companies. At Sunrise, Marc’s responsibilities included sourcing, conducting due diligence, raising capital and creating corporate partnerships for public (NASDAQ) and private technology companies in the U.S. and Israel. In 2000, Marc was one of the founding entrepreneurs of Celerica Inc. and he serves as a board member in various Israeli technology companies.
Pini Sabach:
Born in Israel, Pini has a strong background in the wireline and wireless telecom arena. From 1987-1994, Pini served as an officer in various computer and communication units in the IDF and was involved in the assessment, deployment and training of highly sophisticated communication systems used by the IDF. In 1994 Pini was part of the initiation and implementation group for Pelephone, Israel's first cellular company. In this position Pini oversaw the engineering team of the cellular network. Since 1997 Pini has been in charge of a wireless solutions company for an Israeli private telecom group that manages wireless telecom projects in various countries around the world. Pini holds and BA in business management from Manchester University an advanced Electronics Engeenering degree from Tel Aviv University. Pini is currently the President of Celerica Inc.which was founded by the ITV partners.
Yoni Schiff:
Born in Germany, Yoni is one of Israel's leading experts in telecom, radio frequency, cellular, digital voice processing software and hardware with over 20 years of experience in these fields. From 1984 to the present, Yoni has acted as consultant to the Israel Government and the Israel Standard Institute on radio communications and electromagnetic compatibility. Yoni is currently President of Galsafe Ltd., an Israeli engineering company that provides consulting and various telecom services to all the Israeli cellular and radiation companies. Yoni obtained his BA degree in International Business Administration from Humberside University and an advanced Engineering Electronics degree from Tel Aviv University.
Dror Yagil:
Born in Israel, Dror served in the IDF in an Airborne Intelligence unit. Dror spent three years working as head of finance at Satec, an Israeli high tech group specializing in energy-management and advanced materials. In this position, Dror was responsible for business and economic aspects as well as development of new ventures for the group. At his last position, Dror was a senior member of the Strategic Planning Department of Bezeq--The Israeli National Telecom Company. At Bezeq, Dror worked on financial and business development projects, technical and financial analysis to ensure Bezeq's future competitiveness and the implementation of the strategic plan of the company. Dror holds a BA in Economics and an MBA in Finance and Marketing from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and is currently the CFO of Celerica.
Yirmi Hauptman:
Born in Israel, Yirmi holds a MSc. in Electrical Engineering and specifically in the field of Signal Processing. Yirmi served for six years as an officer in the I.D.F in the fields of EMC, radio frequencies, wireless communication channels analysis, antennas measurements and design. In his work, Yirmi designed and build various electronic devices including RF sensors, electro optical devices, power supplies, active antennas drivers, field detectors and high voltage devices. For the high voltage project, Yirmi received the IDF communications Award for creative technical ideas for building a unique lightning simulation device. Yirmi also has five years of experience in research and development in the field of statistical noise immunity algorithms in speech recognition.
Celerica eases the process and lowers the cost of urban network expansion for the cellular industry.
Today, wireless carriers face the challenges of
expanding urban network capacity to meet demands
of a rapidly growing subscriber base; escalating
minutes of use and availability of high bandwidth
and Internet mobility. Celerica's innovative technology
allows carriers to multiply capacity quickly; leverage
existing infrastructure and fully capture subscriber
revenue growth.
Building on existing infrastructure, Celerica's
unique distributed cell site architecture allows
the flexibility to maximize urban network capacity
quickly and cost-effectively. The Celerica 500 System
uses bi-directional wireless links to facilitate
deployment of new sites, and improve mobile service
speed and quality for subscribers. In this way,
Celerica's technology makes it possible for wireless
carriers to fulfill their commitment to their customers
for continuous wireless coverage.
Together, the performance, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness
of Celerica's RF-based optical wireless technology
will lead wireless carriers through present expansion
challenges, to meet the communications demands of
the future.
www.celerica.com
Coming Soon!
WaveIP is an emerging and innovative leader in
powering wireless broadband access. WaveIP develops
a revolutionary wireless technology with unmatched
spectrum efficiency and bit rates to meet the needs
of the next-generation broadband wireless Internet
access.
WaveIP designs, manufactures, and markets innovative,
leading-edge digital networking transmission products
and solutions for the worldwide broadband wireless
local distribution and access markets. WaveIP provides
a benchmark for broadband systems with highest-capacity
throughput, embedded IP networking capabilities,
modulation agility, SNMP network management, software
configurable functionality and Fiber-Class performance.
WaveIP's proprietary technology includes scalable
architectures that are leveraged by ASICs to yield
lower manufacturing costs, and improve reliability.
www.waveip.com
By enabling mobile developers to create versatile
multimadia content, and carriers to distribute content
intelligently to handsets, Vimatix is the only company
offering an end-to-end solution for delivering rich
content over today's networks.Vimatix's breakthrough
mobile multimedia technology (MMS) introduces a
new standard of mobile multimedia creation and delivery
that enables any type of rich media content to be
delivered over existing and future wireless networks
and handsets.
www.vimatix.com
Coming Soon!
Cellular in-building coverage is one of the technological challenges of operators worldwide. As data services enter the wireless arena together with the subscriber population growth, the in-building coverage aspect will become more and more significant. Cellvine Ltd. develops a unique in-building system, based on strong core technology that well answers the needs of cellular operators today and for their next generation networks. Cellvine's technology allows cellular operators to provide full indoor coverage while enhancing their technological performances and with substantial economic benefits.
www.cellvine.com
| ITV Ltd. |
| 21 Yagea Kapayim St. 6th Floor |
| Kiryat Arye, 49130 |
| Israel |
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Phone: |
+972 3 9221771 |
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Fax: |
+972 3 9221774 |
