VC Survey 2026
“The winners won’t be the loudest or the most ambitious but the most focused, efficient, and boringly profitable”
Nadav Shimoni, Managing Director at A² Ventures, joined CTech for its 2026 VC Survey.
“In 2021, we saw broad, capital-heavy platforms trying to 'own healthcare' with massive teams and negative, unscalable unit economics. But now there is an opportunity for something different,” said Nadav Shimoni, Managing Director at A² Ventures (formerly Arkin Digital Health).
Asked what trend has the opportunity for a high-value surge in 2026, Shimoni pointed to the return of tech-enabled health care delivery.
“We believe highly specific care-delivery services (one condition, one workflow, one buyer) can be built from day one as scalable, tech-centered operations. In other words, companies that are using AI to fundamentally change cost structure: fewer health specialists per patient, more efficient workflows, better triage, etc. The market is still scarred by the last cycle and broadly questions anything that resembles ‘care delivery.’ That’s exactly why the opportunity exists,” he explained.
“The winners here won’t be the loudest or the most ambitious but the most focused, efficient, and boringly profitable.”
Following the turbulence of recent years and the stabilization of 2025, the Israeli tech ecosystem is entering a new era: The Next Leap. Shimoni joined CTech to share insights for its VC Survey 2026, which invites prominent investors to discuss the topics, trends, and “leaps” expected in the year ahead.
You can read the entire interview below.
Fund ID
Fund Name: A² Ventures (formerly Arkin Digital Health)
Total Assets Under Management: ~$60M (Fund I + II)
Partners/Managers: Nadav Shimoni, Sam Cronin
Notable Portfolio Companies: Eleos Health, Rhino Health, Laguna Health, Siftwell, NoBarrierAI, Revisto
Notable Exits: Fund I has already returned a significant portion of the capital via secondaries.
The Valuation Leap: Moving past the market correction, what is the single most critical metric (e.g., EBITDA, NRR) that will drive premium valuations in 2026?
Durable Net Revenue Retention (NRR), adjusted for AI cost structure.
EBITDA will matter as people are starting to become more conscious of expenses, but it’s table stakes. The real separator will be NRR as different AI-based products are being commoditized (example in healthcare – Scribes or chart summarization). The best companies will demonstrate that customers do not churn or reduce expenses on their product rather than actually expand. If NRR survives pricing pressure and vendor consolidation, it is an incredible sign of strength.
The Agentic Leap: As we transition from 'Copilots' to autonomous 'Agents,' which specific vertical will be the first to fully trust AI with independent decision-making?
First vertical to fully trust AI with independent decision-making:
Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) and back-office healthcare operations.
While clinical decisions seem still far in terms of ability to automate with agentic tools, the administrative use cases seem to be here, also given the financial pressures on both providers and payers. These domains already run on clear rules and probabilities, and the risk of mistakes is not high (to the extent it isn’t a mission-critical function).
The Sovereign Leap: Have the geopolitical lessons of recent years pushed Israeli startups to build independent, 'sovereign' tech stacks to reduce reliance on global platforms?
Yes, but selectively with a blended (and de-risked) operating model.
Israeli startups are increasingly designing for contingency and resilience while still leveraging IL talent. Core IP, architecture, security, and tech decision-making remain anchored in Israel, leveraging the unique depth of Israeli technical talent. Yet in parallel, offshore and distributed teams are used to create redundancy, scale execution, and reduce single-point-of-failure risk (both operationally and geopolitically).
The Efficiency Leap: In the era of AI-driven hyper-productivity, is the traditional correlation between 'Headcount Growth' and 'Company Success' permanently broken?
YES.
The best companies are already proving this. Small teams can reach and serve more customers. We see this with different companies and it currently seems like the biggest benefit of AI, i.e., improving the internal (as opposed to external) functions of companies. The number of tasks a company can perform more efficiently (or even automatically) is growing rapidly, and therefore differentiates the best teams from others as they are becoming much more efficient, faster and scalable. In other words, headcount for us is starting to indicate inefficiency.
Finally, what are 2-3 startups that, in your opinion, are likely to make a leap forward in 2026?
Prefer not to answer, will let actions determine this!
