SoftBank Investment Advisers has appointed Dr. Irit Idan, the former E.V.P R&D of Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and deep-technology researcher, as an investment advisor to its growing investment capabilities within Israel.
Israeli-born Investment Director Amit Lubovsky, who's been working at SBIA in San Francisco for the past three years, will also relocate back to Tel Aviv to support its local investment activity, engaging exclusively with Israeli companies.
Both Idan and Lubovsky will report to Yossi Cohen, the former director of the Mossad, who is now the Head of SoftBank Investment Advisers' (SBIA) Israel activities.
SoftBank runs the world's largest technology-focused investment fund with over $100 billion in capital. Vision Fund 2 has made investments into eight Israeli portfolio companies.
"Increasingly, we are seeing more and more Israeli companies taking center stage" in the "transformation from the industrial and digital age toward the information age," Idan said following the announcement.
"We believe there will be more Israeli unicorns in the coming years from a wide range of disciplines, including cybersecurity, bio-convergence, agri-tech, blockchain, fintech, and of course artificial intelligence," she said. "This is an exciting time and I’m thrilled to support SBIA in unearthing Israel’s next generation of global tech champions.”
Idan has a Ph.D. in Astrophysics from the Technion and received the Zonta International Amelia Earhart Fellowship Award, granted annually to women pursuing graduate degrees in aerospace-related sciences and aerospace-related engineering.
Cohen commented on Idan's appointment, saying: "This underlines SBIA’s conviction that the Israeli market has extraordinary potential as it transitions from a Start-Up Nation into a Scale-Up Nation. I’m excited to welcome Irit and Amit to the local team; their specialist knowledge and networks will be a great asset as we build our engagement with Israel’s hugely talented founder community.”
SBIA is a venture capital firm headquartered in London, UK. The firm invests in the enterprise, consumer, frontier tech, fintech, Edtech, health tech, real estate, transportation and logistics sectors.