We are sure everyone is asking what is next? What is 2021 really going to look like? Well, we cannot tell the future but as a seed-stage fund, we believe the answer to that comes from the early-stage companies, the founders who envision the future and have the passion to disrupt a market. This newsletter presents a look into what has been done in the last few months, but also what we believe the future of seed investing will look like, from the number of VC-led early-stage deals to later rounds, the larger checks for early-stage rounds, and additional VC money flowing into the various investment stages. Take a look at our latest article 2020 Israel Funding Market Summary and where are we Heading in 2021 written by Nate Meir, Principal at StageOne.
As always, please feel free to reach out with any questions or feedback.
If you haven’t already it’s never too late to subscribe to our newsletter!
A big congratulations to Otonomo, as it merges with Software Acquisition Group Inc. II (Nasdaq: SAII) at a $1.4b post-money valuation (SPAC). Some might not know but this is our second time backing up CEO Ben Volkow, after having the honor to back Ben in his previous company Traffix, which became a home run for StageOne’s first fund. We were honored to back Ben again as his first investors in Otonomo, which evolved over the years to become a true category leader in the car data monetization market.
StageOne continues to push new investment focus boundaries and is happy to welcome on board two new companies: R-Go and Canditech.
R-Go Robotics pioneering an artificial perception technology that enables mobile robots to understand complex surroundings and operate autonomously just like humans.
Canditech is the first online job simulation platform that allows companies to evaluate candidates for any position, and dramatically reduce chances of a bad hire, by creating tailor-made job simulation tests, which are the best predictor for job suitability.
Our portfolio companies CommonGround, Theator and vHive closed follow-on funding rounds in the last two months with a significant appreciation:
CommonGround completed a $19M A Round led by Matrix Partners, with participation from StageOne Ventures. CommonGround, a software solution that delivers the benefits of face-to-face meetings and developing technology for what its founders describe as “4D collaboration” has emerged from stealth.
Theator completed a $15.5M Series A Round to scale its Surgical Intelligence Platform. The round was led by Insight Partners with participation from StageOne Ventures. Theator is a Surgical Intelligence platform leveraging AI and computer vision to improve surgeon performance.
vHive secures a $4M extension to its Series A, led by Deutsche Telekom with participation from StageOne Ventures to accelerate expansion in the enterprise drone hive software market.
vHive developed a software solution that enables enterprises to digitize their field assets and operations using autonomous drone hives.
A huge congratulations and such an honor to StageOne Venture Partner Professor Meir Feder as he received an Academy Award for Scientific And Technical Achievements! Together with Dr. Zvi Reznic, Guy Dorman, and Ron Yogev, they received an award for the development of the Amimon wireless chipset, which enables untethered, high-quality on-set, encrypted digital video monitoring with sub-frame latency.
Avanan has been recognized as the 2021 Gartner Peer Insights Customers’ Choice for Email Security
Coralogix Recognized in the Gartner “2020 Cool Vendors in Performance Analysis” Report
Varada Named a ‘Cool Vendor in Data Management’ by Gartner
Minerva Labs named as a Gartner Cool Vendor for 2020 in Network & Endpoint Security
Avanan is ranked Number 171 Fastest-Growing Company in North America on Deloitte’s 2020 Technology Fast 500™
Silverfort is recognized as one of the 10 Hottest Cloud Security Startups of 2020
Coralogix is recognized as one of the top 10 Israeli leading startups (link in Hebrew)
Mamram Space Partnership — we have joined forces with the Mamram Alumni Association Space Program to empower founders to lead incredible start-ups, a program that is unique and tailor-made per company. We are coming close to ending cycle #1 and beginning cycle #2, and already mentored great entrepreneurs in various parts of their business, including marketing, building a company, finance, and helping achieve their biggest goals. Learn more about the program.
New Offices — In December StageOne moved into new offices, and we are looking forward to hosting you face to face!
New Website — Take a look at our freshly updated website with new information on our team, portfolio, news, blog, and more.
In the past few months, we continue to meet incredible female founders, 60 now, across many different investment areas, and we will be more than happy to meet you as well! To book a meeting, click here.
“We all get the exact 365 days. The only difference is what we do with them” Hillary Depiano
StageOne continues to look for new investments, so the next time you run into passionate Israel-related founders in the Deep-Tech, B2B enterprise space looking for a partner to join them in becoming category leaders, we hope you’ll have us in mind.
