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Time: |
Sunday 4.5.2003, 17:00 |
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Place: |
Taub Building room 337-8, Technion |
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Speaker: |
Ms. Chemi Peres |
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Subject: |
The Israeli start up story - realizing the dream |
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 Mr. Chemi Peres
Chemi Peres is a true pioneer of the venture capital industry in Israel. In 1992, he founded and managed the Mofet Israel Technology Fund, which invested in several companies that went public, including Netro Corporation, Orckit Communications, VocalTec, Paradigm Geophysical, Precise Software, and BreezeCOM. Other Mofet startup's were acquired by US corporations, including Scorpio (US Robotics), NiceCom (3Com), and Shany Computers (Intel).
Prior to Mofet, Chemi was Director of Business Development and Marketing at Decision Systems Israel (DSI), and a Senior Consultant to Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI). He also serves on the board of Niragongo and Koor Industries.
In 1996, he co-founded the Pitango Venture Capital partnership, which has been instrumental in building an in-house portfolio of services to help startup companies at the various stages of their development. True to his pioneering spirit, Chemi opened a Pitango office in the Silicon Valley in 1998 and personally ran the day-to-day operations during its first year.
Chemi is one of the founders of the Israel Venture Association. He holds an MBA degree and a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering and Management from Tel Aviv University. He also served as a pilot in the Israel Air Force for 10 years.
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Summary of the meeting:
The TechIA forum was honored to host Mr. Chemi Peres to speak about the Israeli start up story. Chemi gave an overview of the venture capital industry and specifically the accounts of the Israeli VC industry from the early Yozma fund days through the bubbly high tech years until present day.
Chemi described the obstacles VC funds face at the moment - preserving their existing investments, looking for new investments while being scrutinized by their investors. On the day of the lecture, local Israeli media published, for the first time, information on the performance of the Israeli VC's in which the largest American pension fund is invested. This demonstrated that VC's have a responsibility to their investors.
Chemi continued with a depiction of the difficulties of creating a start up and specifically an Israeli one.
A company located in Israel cannot reinvent itself as it continues to grow. The R&D stage is the only stage that can be done in Israel with little difficulty. The rest require a presence in countries around the world, where the customers, suppliers and manufacturing exist. These are only the straightforward location difficulties. To that you need to add the terror threat, security instability and strategic threats like the Iraqi tactical missiles.
Chemi indicated that Israeli innovation is the key advantage of the Israeli high tech industry and it should continue to play a leading role.
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Chemi shared his belief that creating a successful company that develops a commodity product, like Nokia, is difficult in Israel, because of the small local market. The Checkpoint model of selling to large enterprises is more likely to succeed.
Several questions were raised on the responsibility VC funds have in regenerating growth by investing in new start-ups and the fact there are hardly no investments in new companies. Chemi responded that indeed the VC's have raised the requirements from start-ups. There is no magic entrepreneur recipe but indeed experienced entrepreneurs with proven managerial abilities and demonstrated success will find it easier to raise funds.
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