$35 million VC fund launches thanks to reservist’s chance encounter on the Gaza border
Israeli investor David Citron bumped into NY-based venture capitalist Alan Buch while serving in the Israel-Hamas war. Their resulting fund for startups born in combat launches Monday
Sharon Wrobel is a tech reporter for The Times of Israel
David Citron was drafted to reserve duty on the morning of October 7, 2023, following the brutal onslaught by Hamas terrorists on Israel’s southern communities.
Since then, along with hundreds of thousands of fellow reserve soldiers, Citron has performed extended military duty as Israel waged war on Hamas in Gaza with the stated goals of removing the terror regime and returning the 251 hostages kidnapped to the Strip. Citron served a total of 200 days in Gaza as a combat paramedic in the IDF’s 401st Armored Brigade.
At the peak of his first round of reserve duty in December 2023, Citron briefly exited at the Zikim crossing to escort a military troop convoy on its way into the Strip. While waiting at the crossing for some 40 minutes, Citron was asked by his unit to speak to an “American” man who had flown in from New York to deliver supplies to soldiers. The unit was hoping to raise funds towards purchasing better equipment, a common practice in the early chaotic days of the war when the IDF’s supply chain was not at peak efficiency.
That “American” was Brazilian-born Alan Buch — Citron’s distant friend of almost a decade. The brief exit from Gaza was, for Citron, a seasoned venture capitalist, a “wild and unexpected chance” encounter. The meeting ultimately led to a new $35 million fund for investments into very young startups established under extraordinary circumstances while its founder was on reserve duty in Gaza.
“Since the outbreak of war, it has been a back and forth between being a soldier, a venture capitalist, a father, and a husband,” the 34-year-old Citron told The Times of Israel.
“When you’re deep in combat in Gaza, you completely forget what normal life looks like — everything revolves around the mission,” said the Israeli-born Citron, who lives in the central city of Ra’anana with his wife and three children. “That random surprise encounter with Alan at a time when you are removed from your ‘normal life’ was a pretty crazy and unforgettable story.”
Citron first met Buch in New York in 2016 in a random social interaction. Buch, who studied in Sao Paolo and Austria before building a career in global wealth and alternative investment management, had been living in Brooklyn in recent years.
“After October 7, I couldn’t just sit in Brooklyn doing nothing,” said Buch, who also lived in Israel for two years in his early teens. “I got on a plane to Israel and traveled across the country to find ways I could help.”
“I raised donations, delivered gear to soldiers, and one day, at the Zikim crossing, I suddenly saw David,” he said.
During the chance reunion, Buch told his friend that he wanted to increase his involvement in Israel. Then Citron reentered Gaza.
“We started hanging out together more when Alan was traveling back and forth from New York to Israel, and I was in between reserve duty rounds,” said Citron. “We began talking about how we could join forces as Alan wanted to do more in Israel, not just from a philanthropic perspective but also from a business perspective.”
“We wanted to combine both fashions, investing in tech companies and investing in Israel,” Citron added.
Citron built up his investment career at Israeli VC fund OurCrowd and Flint Capital, a Boston-based VC firm that has invested in Israeli technology for more than a decade. He also launched Sheva, a VC fund he co-founded with former Israeli NBA player Omri Casspi, which he still manages. His notable investments include Eon, Upwind, PointFive, Flow Security (acquired by Crowdstrike), CyberX (acquired by Microsoft), and Cyolo.
“Since we’re both investors, we decided to channel our energy into a new fund focused on supporting Israeli innovation,” said Buch.
The two started to develop the idea of raising a tech fund in July last year, but Citron shared that the biggest challenge for advancing their new venture were the long stretches of reserve duty in Gaza.
“Going back and forth between reserve duty and your normal life is incredibly disruptive, and it gets exponentially more difficult to recover after each discharge,” said Citron. “It is exhausting, mentally and physically.”
After being released from reserve duty in the middle of this past December, Citron and his partner started fundraising, and within three months they managed to raise the $35 million fund.
Officially launched on Monday, TBD VC, short for “To Be Determined Venture Capital,” captures the spirit of early-stage investing in Israeli startups and ventures that are still forming, and that need investors to support and influence their journey, said Citron. The fund also plans to participate in seed fundraising rounds of startups founded by Israeli entrepreneurs.
TBD hopes to funnel about $1 million apiece into 20 young startups focused on cybersecurity, enterprise software, and infrastructure. The fund is backed by a mix of institutional investors from Israel and the United States, family offices, and Israeli cyber entrepreneurs.
“We are looking for startups where the mindset of the entrepreneurs is scrappy but efficient, able to communicate even in the most intense situation,” said Citron. “It ties back to my mindset and how it’s evolved since the war, what it means to be in a war zone, and the people you have got in the battlefield.”
Citron said one of the fund’s targets is to “focus on making the tech world more accessible to combat veterans.”
“As a paramedic during the war, I chatted with thousands of soldiers, many of the best warriors I have ever met, and sadly, most weren’t connected to tech,” said Citron. “When you ask them about what they will do after being discharged, they find it challenging to get their footing from a career perspective.”
“We’re now working on creative ways to help,” said Citron.
The venture capitalist said that one of the initiatives is to donate a portion of the fund’s profits to Gav Lalohem, a nonprofit organization that helps released soldiers build skills for careers in tech and other professional sectors.
“If you’re a fellow [reserve soldier] who is trying to find your footing, please reach out to me,” Citron wrote on his LinkedIn profile. “The least I will do is buy you a cup of coffee and leverage my network.”
The Times of Israel Community.