Today (Tuesday), Israeli venture capitalist firm Glilot Capital Partners announced that it has raised $170 million for its first growth fund, Glilot+. The new fund was financed by major institutional investors from Israel, Europe, and the U.S.

Once again, thanks to COVID

Glilot explains that the new fund will invest in close to 15 startups that are after  their Series A funding. The growth fund is expected to lead or participate in rounds, pledging anywhere between $5-$20 million a round.

Glilot+ will operate alongside Glilot Capital’s Seed focused VC, which has been very active over the last few months with six Seed investments in early-stage startups running under the radar. However, the growth fund has also dipped its toes in the investment pool, but co-founder and Managing Partner, Kobi Samboursky explains in a conversation with Geektime that currently he cannot reveal which companies received funding. Samboursky also mentioned the reason that the new fund chose to focus on growth-stage startups over the early-stage startups they are accustomed to: “We decided to add growth stage focus based on limited past success, where we saw that we had a lot of value to add to the scale process.”

Samboursky continued to explain that the Glilot+ is not limited to the Israeli startup ecosystem. Nevertheless, even in cases of non-Israeli investments, Samboursky notes that Glilot+ won’t have access to the same spending power as set for investment in Israeli startups.

Glilot Capital Partners enjoyed a successful 2020, with 2 portfolio company acquisitions (Polyrize and CyberX) - Which portfolio company are you betting on in 2021?

Samboursky: “It’s hard to say. We are extremely happy with our portfolio. Naturally, when you have stake in solid companies offers are coming in at every moment. We join the entrepreneurs in focusing on the true goal - building major game-changing companies. We can assume that more acquisitions will happen, but right now it’s pretty hard to predict.”

Samboursky tells us that just like how COVID impacted startups’ fundraising efforts, the global pandemic also affected VC fund financing. He surprises by noting that ongoing crisis actually accelerated the funding efforts: “Last year clearly highlighted the digital transition process, which we have been enjoying for years now - cloud computing, cyber, data, and more. For us, this confirmed that growth stage startups can create real value in times like these, making both us and our investors realize that it’s the perfect time to expand our investment model.”

Glilot Capital was founded in 2011 by Kobi Samboursky and Arik Kleinstein, with both serving as Managing Partners in the fund. The experienced duo were joined by General Partner Nofar Amikam, and now welcome Lior Litwak as Managing Partner of Glilot+. Litwak arrives at Glilot after previously serving as Partner at Microsoft’s investment arm, M12.