From Seed to Success: JVP in JLM
Not Your Ordinary VC
Before coming to Jerusalem, I would have expected an investment firm to be just that: an investment firm. But on Sunday, July 15th, I returned to the Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP) Media Quarter for their Jerusalem Summer Tech Party, where hundreds of people from the Israeli tech scene gathered to watch the 2018 World Cup. I realized that JVP is no ordinary VC. I spoke to Pnina Ben Ami, VP of Marketing at JVP, to hear a bit about the VC, the Media Quarter, and the organization’s relationship to Jerusalem and the State of Israel.
A Company’s Builder
JVP was founded in 1993 by Dr. Erel Margalit, former head of Business Development at the Jerusalem Development Authority. Together with then-Mayor Teddy Kollek, Erel played a large role in recruiting hi-tech multinational companies to establish branches in Jerusalem, planting the seeds for the ecosystem that has developed today. Since then, JVP has become a world renown venture capital fund that has raised $1.3 billion to date. It has been ranked consistently by Preqin as “one of the top-ten consistently performing VC firms worldwide,” has helped to build over 120 companies, and has overseen 12 IPOs on NASDAQ. The JVP Media Quarter has developed into a key “magnetic hub” for entrepreneurial activity in Israel and the world.
What’s Inside
The JVP Media Quarter is home to hundreds of passionate entrepreneurs. The building hosts the offices of the Siftech accelerator, a technology incubator, Presentense, startups, investment companies, non-profits, and research organizations. It “gives everyone the opportunity to network. We’re like a small family that sits together,” Pnina explains.
JVP Play
One of the exciting divisions of the Media Quarter is JVP Play, a new platform run in partnership with Tesco, Barclays, PepsiCo, Deloitte, and Microsoft. Using this platform, JVP “matches early-stage startups with leading multinationals,” having global corporations “define pain points” and streamline startups with promising solutions. It is a whole new model of a startup growth platform, a “win, win, win” for all players, a JVP representative said to me. Businesses have more resources to develop, and JVP can monitor companies closely before deciding whether or not to invest in them. The program is very selective; last year alone, JVP Play received 170 company applications and only selected 9 to join the cohort.
Delegations
JVP hosts about 300 international delegations per year. When visitors come to the Jerusalem tech scene, the Media Quarter is often their first stop. Pnina told me that as Mayors and public officials exit the building after tours, she frequently overhears phone calls placed to their home cities talking excitedly about implementing similar collaborative workplace designs. According to Pnina, Jack Ma, founder and chairman of Alibaba, and 35 executives of the company visited JVP on May 1st of this year, celebrating two years of strategic partnership between the two organizations.
Openness
Something very telling about the JVP Media Quarter is just how open it is, Pnina says. The courtyard is open to the public, and there is a coffee shop for everyone to enjoy. In the courtyard, teens and families can come and chat with entrepreneurs who work in the building. The building is not one hundred stories high, it is modestly sized, and this contributes to the overall feeling that the Quarter hopes to cultivate. The Media Quarter is also right in the middle of a cultural hub in Jerusalem, next to the “First-station” outdoor recreation and shopping area. JVP also hosts the music club, Zappa Jerusalem in the Lab, and Bakehilah, a non-profit organization working to promote community support systems across the nation.
An Ecosystem Influencer
Pnina told me about a few of the many roles that JVP has played in the Jerusalem ecosystem.
They were the first to host a business conference for Haredi men, and hosted an “East Jerusalem pitch day,” opening the entrepreneurship scene in the city to previously uninvolved populations including both Jewish and Arab Israelis. JVP employees act as mentors for accelerator programs throughout the city, giving lectures and advice to startup companies. Many of the “founding fathers” of the Jerusalem ecosystem had their beginnings in JVP. Advancing the Jerusalem ecosystem is a large part of what JVP does, as Pnina phrases it, “we create value to share with others.”
II2020
Because of Dr. Erel Margalit’s success in founding the Jerusalem Media Quarter, and subsequently in establishing the Be’er Sheva Cyber Park, he has decided to start a new initiative: Israel Initiative (II) 2020. The project aims to establish seven “centers of excellence” across the country, taking the strengths of various regions and focusing specifically on them in an effort to create new companies and thousands of jobs. The centers will include foodtech in the Eastern Galilee, precision manufacturing in the Carmiel region, digital health initiatives in Haifa, and urban planning in the Druze community.
On Jerusalem
The exciting thing about Jerusalem, Pnina remarks, is that today everyone “speaks in the same language — the language of innovation.” She expounds on this, saying that “despite the challenges, barriers, and cultural differences, entrepreneurs from all parts of the city, from east and west, crossing every sector, age, and gender, they all speak in the language of technology. The technology connects people and creates an exciting magic in a city like Jerusalem. A magic that brings new opportunities, a bright future, and above all, a lot of hope.”
