Yozma, Yozma Program, or Yozma Fund was a venture capital organization in Israel that initially started out as a government funded program in 1993 to help kick start venture capital, angel investing, and private equity in Israel's economy. $20 million of government subsidies went to the Yozma Fund, the other $80 million the government provided went to match other foreign and domestic firms, at 40%, to create their own venture capital funds in Israel. The VC companies could buy-back the governments equity stake over a 5 year period, and most did. The Yozma Fund privatized in 1997 and became the Yozma Group.[1]
See also: Israel Innovation Authority. Inbal is a government owned insurance company that underwrote and guaranteed up to 70% of losses for venture capital firms from 1992-1998. The Israeli Government helped start and fund business incubators and an R&D cluster during the 1990s. Many immigrants came to Israel during the fall of the soviet union in the 1990s post-Soviet aliyah and about ⅓ of them were skilled enigineers and scientists.[2]
| Name | Est. | Capital | Foreign LP | LP Country | Portfolio | Exits | Exit Rate | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eurofund | 1994 | $20M | Daimler-Benz, DEG | Germany | 14 | 7 | 50% | |
| Gemini | 1993 | $36M | Advent Venture Partners | USA | 25 | 13 | 52% | |
| Inventech | 1993 | $20M | Van Leer Group | Netherlands | 33 | 16 | 48% | |
| Jerusalem Venture Partners | 1993 | $20M | Oxton | USA | 12 | 10 | 83% | |
| Medica | 1995 | $15M | MVP | USA | 10 | 5 | 50% | |
| Nitzanim | 1994 | $20M | AVX, Kyocera | Japan, Japan | 13 | 7 | 54% | |
| Polaris (Pitango) | 1993 | $20M | CMS | USA | 19 | 13 | 68% | |
| Star | 1993 | $20M | TVM, Siemens | Germany | 27 | 15 | 56% | |
| Vertex Holdings | 1996 | $39M | Vertex Int., Singapore tech | USA, Singapore | 29 | 16 | 55% | |
| Walden | 1993 | $33M | Walden International | USA | 21 | 10 | 48% | |
| Yozma | 1993 | $20M | None | Israel | 16 | 10 | 63% | |
| Total | $263M | 217 | 122 | 56% |
In 2024, the Israel Innovation Authority has launched a Yozma 2.0 with government funds of $155 million, looking to raise $700 million from private institutional venture capital investors, at a 30% match.[4] [5]
Yozma translates from Hebrew to English as initiative.[6]