Israeli investment activity to continue despite Comcast Ventures being folded in

American telcom giant Comcast is shutting down its investment arm Comcast Ventures and shifting all of its startup investment activities to its business development division to focus only on startups that support the company’s strategic initiatives. The move is expected to prompt the departure of some of the fund’s partners. The company is represented in Israel by Daniel Czertok who is expected to stay on as part of the business development division and lead the company’s strategic investments in Israel.

Among Comcast’s Israeli investments are BigID, which is active in the field of privacy protection. The fund has also registered a number of exits including the sale of Houseparty to Epic last year.

A Comcast spokesperson confirmed the move in an interview with CNBC.

“We are aligning our approach to venture investing more closely with our business units and repositioning Comcast Ventures and its fund under the strategic business development team at Comcast Cable,” the spokesperson confirmed. “Our business development teams across the company continue to invest in new technology and businesses, which we believe will yield more strategic opportunities and benefits for Comcast and the companies in which we invest. We will continue to support our existing portfolio companies through investment and strategic partnership.”