New VC fund plans to bring tech to traditional professions

$80m-$100m fund will invest in early-stage Israeli AI and big data startups that seek to transform agriculture, education, construction, healthcare, industry

By Shoshanna Solomon 3 December 2019, 3:36 pm 0 Edit

Shoshanna Solomon is The Times of Israel's Startups and Business reporter

Crescendo Venture Partners' management team, left to right: managing general partner Yuval Avni, general partners Zvi Schechter and Tal Mizrah (Courtesy)

Tel-Aviv based venture capital firm Crescendo Venture Partners said Monday it is setting up a new fund and planning to raise $80 million to $100 million by the first half of 2020.

The fund will invest in early-stage Israeli software startups in fields such as big data, AI and machine learning with an emphasis on software that has the capability of transforming traditional and age-old professions such as agriculture, education, construction, healthcare and industry, Crescendo said in a statement.

The new fund has completed its first closing, meaning it has already raised a significant part of the funds, the firm said on Tuesday.

Crescendo Venture Partners was founded in 2018 by Israeli venture capitalists. It partners with the Switzerland based-Crescendo Group, which manages client assets of over $3 billions of dollars from its eight global offices, including in Geneva, London, New York, Miami and Madrid.

Crescendo Venture Partners is led by Zvi Schechter, Yuval Avni and Tal Mizrahi, formerly partners at Giza Venture Capital, together with Mark Kavelaars.

Schechter is a veteran of Israel’s venture capital industry and was the co-founder of Giza Venture Capital in the 90s.