VC Survey 2026
“Israeli tech post-October 7th could not be in a better position”
Eyal Bino, Founding Partner at 97212 Ventures, joined CTech for its 2026 VC Survey.
“Israeli tech post October 7th could not be in a better position when it comes to the strength of the ecosystem, the high quality of innovation coming from Israel, and the high success potential of its startups,” said Eyal Bino, Founding Partner at 97212 Ventures.
“LPs that I’m speaking with share a feeling of admiration and respect for Israeli founders, given everything they have gone through over the past few years and how they managed to come out of it. We would not be here without the resilience of Israeli founders which is unmatched by any of their peers in the US or globally,” he said.
“For me, we’ve taken a leap from innovation, or Startup Nation, to ‘Execution Nation’. Israel is no longer just where ideas are born and startups are being created, it’s where hard technical problems get solved end-to-end, and increasingly scaled globally.”
“Whether it’s AI, cyber, infrastructure, fintech or healthcare, Israel builds what others struggle to execute. In addition, Israel is shaping how AI is built and deployed given its military and academic AI roots. In the end, all this comes down to execution and the ability to not just innovate, but execute at the highest level on the global stage.”
Following the turbulence of recent years and the stabilization of 2025, the Israeli tech ecosystem is entering a new era: The Next Leap. Bino joined CTech to share insights for its VC Survey 2026.
You can read the entire interview below.
Fund ID
Fund Name: 97212 Ventures
Total Assets Under Management: $20M
Partners/Managers: Eyal Bino, Founding Partner
Notable Portfolio Companies: Remepy, Dig, CopilotKit, Ritual, TrialKit
Notable Exits: Connecteam, Duve, Dataloop, Suridata
The Liquidity Leap: After a period defined by cash preservation, will 2026 see the reopening of the IPO window for Israeli tech, or will M&A remain the sole viable liquidity event?
There is no doubt that 2026 will be a very active year when it comes to IPOs, as the market finally opens up. Macro conditions are improving with lower interest rates, investors betting on AI companies, and there’s a good chance that companies like OpenAI, Databricks, Stripe, and SpaceX will go public.
With that in mind, I believe most Israeli tech companies at growth will be careful going public and would rather look for M&A to generate liquidity. The Wiz acquisition by Google for $32B has shown other Israeli companies that there’s a better route than going public, which can be potentially much more lucrative and rewarding to growth companies and their shareholders.
Add to that, super high valuations for top Israeli companies, especially in cyber, and the low valuations of most Israeli companies that have gone public in the heydays of 2021, and it seems like staying private and becoming an attractive target for large corporates is the way to go for Israeli tech in 2026.
The Deep Tech Leap: With the rising focus on hardware-heavy sectors (Defense, Climate, Quantum), is the Israeli VC model adapted to fund high-CAPEX ventures?
My answer is yes - with a caveat. Israeli VCs have an exceptional eye for talent, but scaling the next generation of category-defining companies will increasingly require deep partnerships with top-tier US VCs that are already embedded in Israel and can unlock the capital, networks, and market access needed to truly scale.
In defense, climate, and quantum, the hard part isn’t just the technology, it’s building a real company around it. These businesses take longer, cost more, and require serious follow-on capital. Israel can absolutely build them, but to scale, you need strong US partners who can lead the bigger rounds and help open the right doors.
The Efficiency Leap: In the era of AI-driven hyper-productivity, is the traditional correlation between 'Headcount Growth' and 'Company Success' permanently broken?
Yes. We see companies becoming much more efficient in using and applying AI in certain areas. Especially when it comes to customer support, lead generation, content creation, marketing and operations.
However, there is no doubt that the core of building an enterprise business won’t change - you’ll need to speak with customers and convince them to use your service or product. This is being done best by face-to-face meetings, conferences, and to an extent, virtual meetings.
The Next Engine: Cybersecurity has been Israel's primary export engine for a decade. Which domain is best positioned to take the lead by 2030?
Cyber has been the driving force in Israeli tech and has had a great run. Given Israel’s deep tech talent, AI infrastructure is the natural successor to cyber. That includes areas like AI security, safety and governance, and data training.
While this is a natural extension of Israeli tech, I also have high conviction around applying AI to reinvent industries such as proptech, legal tech, supply chain, and healthcare, categories that haven’t traditionally been in the spotlight of Israeli VCs, but represent massive opportunities to build global market leaders as these industries become increasingly ready for disruption.
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Finally, name 2-3 startups that, in your opinion, are likely to make a leap forward this year.
Dig (portfolio company) - Dig is building a narrative-first AI that surfaces real-time insights into how narratives form and spread across social video and social platforms. The company already works with some of the top B2C brands from the US and around the world, looking for real-time coverage, context, and accuracy that legacy social-listening tools can’t provide. As social video makes up more than 50% of social posts, and with such great momentum and a super strong team leading the way, I believe Dig has the potential to become the global leader of the social listening industry.
Inner Balance (portfolio company) - Inner Balance was founded to provide women better information, better care, and better outcomes using HRT (hormone replacement therapy). What’s been amazing to see is the demand by women. Only a year after launching the company, there are tens of thousands of women subscribing to Inner Balance, and revenue is in the tens of millions. This is clearly not your typical early-stage startup phase, and I couldn’t be more excited about what’s ahead for this company.
CopilotKit (portfolio company) - CopilotKit is a next-generation AI infrastructure platform that empowers enterprises to launch and scale customizable AI copilots across their operations. It’s been incredible to see the growth in the usage of the platform, as the company is on a mission to become the default ecosystem for developers building user interactive agents and copilots. The team is backed by top-tier VCs, and this feels like a breakout year for them, given the exponential growth of copilot development and agentic AI.
