Irit Kahan, DTCP: A strong team is needed to scale

“As long as the current funding environment persists, the current upsurge in wages will continue. It creates more competitive pressure in the short term, it’s long-term impact is yet to be seen. We need to make sure that government policies and regulatory adjustments are being made to bring the economy in general into recovery, the distribution of tax capital needs to be carefully assessed to minimize an economic gap,” says Irit Kahan, Managing Director and head of DTCP Israel.

Kahan shared her views in CTech’s exclusive investor survey conducted with participants of the Poalim Hi-Tech and Calcalist Road Show event. The event brought together dozens of startups who pitched their venture to more than 20 leading Israeli investment groups and investors.

What trends are you most excited about investing in?

The acceleration in the digital transformation that we have experienced in the past 18 months significantly increased the markets of cloud infrastructure and software, cyber, data, AI.

Fintech is an exciting market that is supported by good market tailwinds; based on the key trend above, as the more regulated markets are opening towards innovation, software is being embedded into financial technologies via API based infrastructures. Another market is blockchain that currently attracts a lot of industry awareness and readiness, both from a technical and operational perspective.

Which industries seem well-positioned to thrive long term? What companies are you excited about (whether in your portfolio or not), which founders?

Companies that are built to scale in the new normal, where remote / hybrid, automation, data-driven and AI approaches go first.

What areas are either oversaturated or would be too hard to compete in at this point for a new startup? 

Cybersecurity is a crowded market, and some areas are oversaturated, but we will continue to see huge winners in particular segments of this market.

What are you - as an investor - looking for in an entrepreneur or a startup?

Clearly Team. A strong team is needed to scale. We are growth stage investors, so we are looking for strong execution supported by good KPIs, big markets and companies that are made out of the right DNA to become category leaders.

What is your approach to VC involvement in the management of the companies they invested in?

We build a trusted partnership with our founders, take board seats, and work on being helpful, mostly on GTM by unlocking additional markets in Europe.

Where will the solution to the HR crisis come from?

There is a short term (outsourcing, remote R&D centers) and long-term path (education). To make a meaningful impact, things will need to change early on in education to train the next generation of high-tech leaders.

How long will the current upsurge in wages continue?

As long as the current funding environment persists the current upsurge in wages will continue. It creates more competitive pressure in the short term, it’s long-term impact is yet to be seen.

We are fortunate that we have such a strong and thriving tech market which has been a huge contributor to the country’s economic recovery during Covid-19. We need to make sure that government policies and regulatory adjustments are being made to bring the economy in general into recovery, the distribution of tax capital needs to be carefully assessed to minimize an economic gap.

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