Israel’s F2 Capital Is Raising $75M To Invest In Homegrown Startups

Israel’s first pre-seed technology accelerator, F2 Capital, is raising a $75 million fund to invest in Israel-based startups, according to an SEC-filing. So far the accelerator has raised around $55 million for the fund, the filing said.

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F2 Capital touts the tagline of “backing Israel’s top founders before others are ready”,  but did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

F2 Capital was spun out of Genesis Partners, another Israeli venture firm, in 2016, with Jonathan Saacks and Barak Rabinowitz as the two managing partners.

F2 Capital took with them Genesis Partners’ pre-seed program: The Junction. The firm, taking on the role of accelerator as well, offers guidance, networks, and $100,000 in capital to each startup that joins the program. It has coached over 5,000 alumni and over $500 million has been raised by the startups born out of it.

F2 Capital’s business partners include Deloitte, Facebook, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Google Cloud Platform, according to its website.

In 2016, the company told TechCrunch that it would “not invest in any business to consumer apps, content, or biotech companies.” Instead, it is focusing on frontier technology.

Tel Aviv jumped onto our radar last month when workplace collaboration company Monday.com raised $150 million at a $1.9 billion valuation. A few other startups also raised nine-figure rounds within the past year: Innoviz Technologies, which delivers the vision and intelligence required for the mass-production of autonomous vehicles, raised $132 million, and Gett, a ride-hailing company, secured $120 million.

F2 Capital’s raise tells us that despite late-stage sector activity in Tel Aviv, early seeds are also being planted.

Illustration: Li-Anne Dias.