VC Survey 2026
“We’re entering a decade where intelligence extends beyond the screen into mission-critical, real-world environments”
Gili Elkin, Founder & Managing Partner at ICI Fund, joined CTech for its 2026 VC Survey.
“Autonomous physical systems like robotics, edge AI, and infrastructure safety are on track to be Israel’s next global export engine. Add quantum and space to the mix, and we’re entering a decade where intelligence extends beyond the screen into mission-critical, real-world environments,” said Gili Elkin, Founder & Managing Partner at ICI Fund, when asked which domain is best positioned to become Israel's primary export engine by 2030.
“These systems aren’t just about automation. They’re about security, compliance, and operating safely in volatile and decentralized infrastructure, making them highly attractive to U.S. defense, logistics, energy, and financial buyers,” she said.
Following the turbulence of recent years and the stabilization of 2025, the Israeli tech ecosystem is entering a new era: The Next Leap. Elkin joined CTech to share insights for its VC Survey 2026.
You can read the entire interview below.
Fund ID
Fund Name: ICI Fund
Total Assets Under Management: $50M
Partners/Managers: Gili Elkin, Tim Jones, Yaron Wolfsthal, Aviv Nizri, Mark Zitter, Ari Goldfarb
Notable Exits: Genda to Buildots, Eureka to Tenable, Suridata to Fortinet
The Global Leap: How is the 'Israeli Tech' asset class being rebranded to global LPs in 2026? Are we shifting the narrative from 'Innovation' to 'Extreme Resilience'?
Global LPs now view Israeli tech as a unique asset class, with high-throughput execution under extreme conditions. We’re no longer just the "Startup Nation"- we're the Sustainability Through Adversity nation. This shift is reflected in LP allocations that prioritize Israel for long-term returns in volatile global environments, backed by unmatched founder grit and executional precision.
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?
Yes. The model is evolving. ICI and others are designing capital structures and syndicates fit for frontier tech. From quantum sensing to space autonomy, we’re backing high-IP, high-conviction founders building enduring platforms with deep technical foundations. Israeli investors are moving beyond traditional SaaS playbooks-integrating government partnerships, strategic LPs, and industrial co-investors to de-risk and scale capital-intensive innovation.
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?
Startups are engineering for resilience across compute, data, and AI-not just in response to geopolitics, but because global enterprise buyers increasingly demand it. Israeli founders are building foundational technologies - the “sovereign stack” - to ensure that core capabilities remain insulated from geopolitical disruptions. The true strength of this approach is that it lives hand-in-hand with interoperability; it’s anchored in strict adherence to open, global standards, making these systems both sovereign and scalable.
The Dual-Use Leap: Israel has mastered Defense Tech. Which civilian industry (e.g., Construction, Agri, Logistics) will see the biggest disruption from adapting these battle-tested technologies?
Logistics. It’s already happening. Autonomous platforms, acoustic sensing, secure identity systems, and human-AI orchestration are transforming how assets move and decisions are made. The same systems that protect military operations are now optimizing the flow of goods, labor, and resources-bringing precision and resilience into fragile global supply chains. We're actively investing at that convergence point, where civilian adoption is no longer speculative-it's inevitable.
Related articles:
- “Israeli startup growth remains dependent on the US as investors, buyers, partners, and customers”
- “Foreign LPs who have waited on the sidelines are returning with increased appetite for Israeli tech”
- “The recovery of the Israeli IPO market in 2026 is fundamentally tied to the stabilization of US capital markets”
Finally, what are 2-3 startups that, in your opinion, are likely to make a leap forward in 2026?
Predicta Med (portfolio company) - is building autoimmune care through EMR-integrated predictive analytics. In 2025, the company transitioned from R&D into full commercial deployment, now serving real patients through health systems in North America. In 2026, they’re expanding into international systems, including a major agreement in Canada.
UrbanMix (portfolio company) - building an operating system for modern real estate operations. Currently deployed across multiple operators and portfolios; their expansion within U.S. urban portfolios in 2026 is accelerating via peer referrals and embedded feature usage.
RangersAi (portfolio company) - an AI-powered platform launching in 2026 that addresses one of the fastest-growing threats in financial fraud: social-engineering scams. Built for financial institutions facing mounting regulatory and reimbursement pressure, it applies large language models to identify scam signals and guide intervention before transactions occur, complementing legacy systems rather than reacting after the fact.
