The war in Gaza has not deterred global investors from backing Israeli startups, according to Sergey Gribov, a venture capitalist at Flint Capital. Out of nearly 70 companies in Flint’s investment portfolio, 40 are Israeli. “There were maybe a couple US VCs who had questions, but most of us remained very, very positive towards [the tech sector in] Israel,” Gribov says.
However, the war has impacted Israeli startups, with many left short-staffed due to reserve duty obligations. Gribov, an Israeli citizen living in Boston, is well-versed in the local tech developments. He moved to Israel in 1990 from the Soviet Union, went to university, did army service, and worked at Israeli biotech drug discovery company Compugen.
Flint Capital, established in 2014, invests in companies in Israel, the US, and Europe.
Israeli startups demonstrate tech resilience
In Israel, the fund prefers investing in the cybersecurity sector.
Over the past 10 years, Flint has opened three funding rounds, with $360 million worth of investments. Gribov believes the Israeli high-tech market is unique because it “delivers no matter what.” He says that investments in the Israeli high-tech sector this year are evident by the fact that valuations of the tech ecosystem in Israel right now are higher than those in the US. “One of the most important characteristics of a good startup is resilience.
Israeli high-tech proved it is very, very resilient. Despite the war, despite some startups having 15 percent of their workforce drafted to reserve duty, the system was still working well,” Gribov notes. The war has also contributed to new technologies being spun out of different think tanks.
“At the start of the war, there were a lot of different groups which tried to figure out how to help, and we are already seeing a lot of interesting startups emerging out of all of it,” Gribov says.
