Seasoned VCs Fiona Darmon and Merav Weinryb launching new fund focused on secondary opportunities
Based on a recent SEC filing, Darmon and Weinryb intend to raise $100 million
Fiona Darmon and Merav Weinryb, two of the most recognized female investors in Israel’s VC scene, have launched a new venture capital fund, Calcalist has learned. According to an SEC filing published on August 2, the new fund, titled Sunvest Capital Partners, plans to raise $100 million.
Sources close to the matter said that the fund’s initial investors include Israeli tech investor, Jonathan Kolber, coming in as anchor investor, alongside other notable names such as seasoned venture capitalist Eddy Shalev.
In February this year, Calcalist published that Darmon, then General Partner with Jerusalem-based VC fund JVP, and one of the more visible figures on the Israeli VC scene, was leaving the firm to set up her own investment firm. Weinryb was until last month Vice President and Managing Director of Qualcomm Ventures for Europe and Israel, and is recognized as one of the leading VC investors in Israel with numerous exits to her name including SentinelOne, Cellwize and CrazyLabs. Furthermore, looking at Linkedin, the team also includes seasoned venture credit investor Momi Karako, as CFO. According to the same network, the new fund is expected to focus on secondary investments in VC funds and portfolio companies.
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The secondary market for private equity investments has been heating up in recent years. Last year, secondary transactions topped 111 billion Euro, second only to 2021 volumes of 134 billion Euro (according to secondaries advisor Greenhill). Last month, it was announced that Tiger Global was in final discussions with Lexington Partners to sell its entire Fund of Fund portfolio, in a transaction rumored to be around $400 million, and in recent weeks it was leaked that Tiger was also looking to sell part of its stakes in private companies.
According to a recent report by Evercore, secondaries transactions have been down so far this year, falling short of the forecast $140 billion for the year, yet this is primarily due to the divide between the valuations investors are looking to achieve for their portfolio and the discounts the secondary investors are offering.
Sunvest Capital Partners would not comment.
