40% of Companies Will Be Gone in Five Years, Says Venture Capitalist

In a speech delivered Wednesday at Calcalist’s Mind the Tech conference in New York, venture capitalist and former Israeli lawmaker Erel Margalit tried to take stock of how technology is rapidly changing many different industries.

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Referring to former Cisco CEO John Chambers’ belief that 40% of companies existing today will disappear within ten years, Mr. Margalit called such projection “optimistic.”

“I think a lot more brands and companies will disappear in the next 5 years,” he said. “If you're not going to innovate and look at your business anew, you’re going to be obsolete.:

He also talked about the growing importance of small businesses, about the financial industry, and about the automotive industry. “We are not going to own cars in about 10-15 years,” Mr Margalit said.

He finished by talking about smart cities and food tech, noting that Israel is lagging behind in these areas.