SA国际传媒

New York-based venture capital and private equity firm聽is setting up shop in Tel Aviv, Israel, marking its first office outside of the United States.

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Since its inception in 1995, Insight Partners says it has put more than $700 million into Israeli companies. It currently has 15 active investments in the country. Portfolio companies include app developer , application security solution , management software startup (which we covered here), and digital adoption platform .

One of its success stories in the region lies in , which has developed a popular cloud-based web development platform. Insight Partners co-led its $40 million in 2011 and says it 鈥渟upported鈥� the company 鈥渢hrough to IPO.鈥�

Insight Partners Senior Associate has relocated to Tel Aviv from New York with his family to head up the office.

I was curious if the opening was an intentional move by the firm to expand outside the United States. But , a managing director of Insight Partners, told me that the decision stemmed from the growing tech hub鈥檚 appeal.

鈥淲e didn鈥檛 really approach this from the perspective of wanting to open an office somewhere,鈥� Wardi said, calling the decision a 鈥渂ig deal.鈥� 鈥淚t was driven by the fact that we鈥檝e been investing in Israel for quite a while. There鈥檚 been a rapid ramp up in pace in the last few years, and we鈥檙e seeing tremendous opportunity in the market.鈥�

By being on the ground there, it鈥檚 Insight鈥檚 goal to be better able to support its portfolio companies, and also get exposed to other opportunities 鈥渁t an earlier stage鈥� than it would have been able to otherwise, according to Wardi.

With over $20 billion under management, Insight Partners is focused primarily on software investments, mainly B2B software in its different forms. Through its Onsite operation group, it aims to support its portfolio companies with sales and marketing, customer success and talent recruitment efforts.

Insight intends to not compete with local VCs but instead plans to 鈥渄ouble down鈥� on working with earlier-stage funds in the region, Wardi said.

I was also curious if having a presence in the region meant that Insight would be looking to invest in the Middle East as a whole. Wardi said the office would 鈥渟trictly鈥� be focused on Israel.

In September 2018, our own Joanna Glasner took a look at the country’s startup scene. In August, Natasha Mascarenhas covered how 飞补蝉听raising a $75 million fund to invest in Israel-based startups.

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