CTalkSienna Venture Capital Partner: Now is the best time to invest in Israeli tech
CTalk
Sienna Venture Capital Partner: Now is the best time to invest in Israeli tech
Isabelle Amiel, Founding Partner of Sienna Venture Capital spoke to CTech during Israel’s Business Delegation to Paris led by Calcalist and Bank Hapoalim about how less investor competition and resilient entrepreneurs makes this the best time to invest in Israeli tech
“We started with a first fund focusing exclusively on Israeli tech. This is what we've been doing for the last 10 years and [we] became the biggest European investor in Israel. We invested in more than 50 companies,” says Isabelle Amiel in conversation with CTech at Israel’s Business Delegation to Paris led by Calcalist and Bank Hapoalim. “This is what we love to do. We're big believers in the ecosystem, in the Israeli hub.”
Amiel is a Founding Partner of Sienna Venture Capital, the Paris-based venture arm of Sienna Investment Managers, which is owned by the GBL holding company. Sienna focuses on early-growth ventures, and has been one of the most active investors in Israeli tech in the last decade.
Though she acknowledges that raising funds abroad for Israeli tech ventures has been more difficult since October 7, Amiel believes that the lower competition among investors makes this the best time for investors to be looking at Israeli tech. “We had to fight in 2021-2022 with big U.S. funds that were basically deploying a lot of money. [Now] there's less competition, and companies have shown their capacity for resilience and rebound. We really believe in the spirit of the Israeli entrepreneur, their capacity to rebound. So, we think it's the best moment to invest because valuations are lower.”
Amiel also referred to the dramatic rise in antisemitism that the French Jewish community has experienced since October 7 and her efforts to combat it. “I could never have imagined as a Jewish girl living in the diaspora that I would once experience in my life what I'm experiencing today.
“The 7th of October was a pogrom, and I couldn't have imagined that it would have raised more antisemitism. So, in France, we're struggling but we're fighting. We're trying to fight, to name and shame and to show the world the antisemites that are trying to hide themselves. People want us out of the country - not a lot of people but we have an extreme left party that is very active in antisemitism, so we need to fight and we will fight.”
You can watch the entire exchange in the video above.
