Viola Ventures' next fund to be led by Zvika Orron and Omry Ben David, together with founder Shlomo Dovrat

Venture capital funds in Israel and worldwide often struggle to establish a next-generation leadership that will carry the fund forward. A major challenge is the reluctance of founding partners to relinquish control. Today, Viola Ventures announced the implementation of a continuity program to address this issue. Calcalist has learned that Viola Ventures' next fund (the seventh) will be led by Omry Ben David and Zvika Orron, who joined the firm in 2017 and are currently General Partners. They will lead with group co-founder Shlomo Dovrat, who will continue as a General Partner in the seventh fund to complete the leadership transition.

Danny Cohen, who joined in 2014 and specializes in the consumer sector, where he also led the investment in Lightricks, will not be part of the next fund due to the shift in investment focus. Danny remains a General Partner in the current funds, and future collaboration opportunities are under consideration.

Omry Ben David, Shlomo Dovrat and Zvika Orron.

Avi Zeevi, co-founder of the Viola Group, will remain active in the fund as a mentor, member of the investment committee and board member of portfolio companies, but will not make new investments in the next fund.

Cybersecurity investments in the fund will be led by Lior Akavia, former CEO of one of the fund's portfolio companies and a Matzov alum, who has joined Viola Ventures as a partner. In addition, Alex Shmulovich, a graduate of INSEAD and BCG, has joined the investment team as a principal, together with Roni Kahn, associate.

As part of these strategic changes, the fund is also announcing its core investment areas for the coming years: Vertical AI (i.e. disrupting traditional industries such as pharma or legal through AI), FinTech (in which it has made dozens of investments to date), and AI infrastructure/cyber (with a focus on opportunities arising from AI developments, from chips to cloud infrastructure and cybersecurity).

Founded in 2000, Viola Ventures has made over 150 investments to date, including IronSource, which merged with Unity, Payoneer and Pagaya, both of which went public, Redis, Immunai, ProteanTecs, Faye, PayZen, and more. Viola Ventures entered most of these companies at the seed stage and remained a leading and active investor through their scaling stages. The fund is currently investing from its $260M sixth fund.

Shlomo Dovrat, co-founder of Viola, stated: "Viola continues to fulfill its vision of backing leading global technology companies from Israel also in the new AI innovation cycle. Part of our commitment for both investors and entrepreneurs is to create continuity for future generations. I am proud to have Omry and Zvika lead with me the next Viola Ventures fund and excited with their ability to lead the fund into the future.”