VC Survey 2026
“The correlation between headcount growth and company success is fundamentally broken”
Pitango Venture Capital managing general partner Eyal Niv joins CTech to share his investor's outlook for Startup Nation, from the selective reopening of the IPO window, to why the next decade belongs to the "picks and shovels" of AI, as part of CTech's VC Survey 2026: The Next Leap.
“The correlation between headcount growth and company success is fundamentally broken,” says Eyal Niv, managing general partner of Pitango Venture Capital. In the AI era, Niv argues "the winning companies of 2026 will optimize for output per employee, not organizational size."
Following the turbulence of recent years and the stabilization of 2025, the Israeli tech ecosystem is entering a new era: The Next Leap. Niv 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.
Niv predicts that while cybersecurity will remain a core pillar of Israel’s export engine, “the next leading domain by 2030 is likely to be AI infrastructure and applied AI systems,” determining that Israel’s strength is in building the “picks and shovels” of AI. Further, while he believes Israel’s VCs are structurally capable of funding deep tech, they are adapting to the high-CAPEX demands of the sector “by syndicating earlier, staying involved longer, and underwriting technical risk more deeply.”
You can read the entire interview below:
Fund ID
Name of Fund: Pitango Venture Capital
Total Assets Under Management (AUM): ~$3B
Partners/Managers: Chemi Peres, Rami Kalish, Eyal Niv, Ittay Harel, among others
Notable Portfolio Companies (Active): AAI, AppsFlyer, DriveNets, Finout, PsiQuantum Corp., QuantHealth, Riskified, Taboola, Tomorrow, Master School
Notable Exits: Via's IPO, Neptune (acquired by OpenAI), Vertos
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?
After two years of capital discipline, 2026 is likely to mark a selective reopening of the IPO window rather than a broad-based one. High-quality, revenue-driven companies with clear paths to profitability – particularly in infrastructure, AI, and cybersecurity – will be able to go public.
That said, M&A will remain a dominant liquidity channel, especially for companies that offer strategic differentiation to global incumbents. The next cycle will reward readiness and fundamentals, not timing alone.
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'?
Israeli tech in 2026 is increasingly positioned not just as a source of innovation, but as an asset class defined by extreme resilience. Global LPs now recognize Israel’s ability to build enduring companies under constant volatility – economic, geopolitical, and technological.
The narrative has matured: from “startup nation” creativity to execution under pressure, capital efficiency, and deep operational rigor.
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?
Israel’s VC ecosystem is structurally capable of funding deep-tech and high-CAPEX ventures, particularly where defense tech, semiconductors, cyber and AI infrastructure intersect with proprietary IP.
What has changed is collaboration: these companies increasingly require blended financing models – VC paired with strategic partners, government programs, and long-term capital. Israeli VCs are adapting by syndicating earlier, staying involved longer, and underwriting technical risk more deeply.
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 correlation between headcount growth and company success is fundamentally broken.
AI has reshaped how value is created, allowing small, elite teams to build products, reach markets, and scale revenue at unprecedented speed. The winning companies of 2026 will optimize for output per employee, not organizational size.
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?
While cybersecurity will remain a pillar, the next leading domain by 2030 is likely to be AI infrastructure and applied AI systems including compute, data platforms, and verticalized AI solutions embedded in critical industries such as healthcare, finance, and logistics.
Israel’s strength lies in building the “picks and shovels” of AI – not just applications, but the systems that make AI reliable, scalable, and secure.
Finally, what are 2-3 startups that, in your opinion, are likely to make a leap forward in 2026?
1. DriveNets (Pitango portfolio company) - DriveNets has moved beyond being a promising disruptor to becoming a vital pillar of global AI and telecommunications infrastructure. While their milestone of $1B in bookings and reaching profitability is significant, the real story is their displacement of legacy hardware giants. By deploying high-performance Ethernet fabrics in the world’s largest AI clusters, they are proving that the future of networking is software-defined, cloud-native, and infinitely scalable.
2. Volumez (Pitango portfolio company) - Volumez are the first AI-native storage platform to solve the massive I/O bottlenecks that typically stall GPU performance. This means they enable enterprises to move from AI pilots to full-scale "AI factories" without being held back by legacy infrastructure, which is a game changer.
3. Eon - Led by serial entrepreneur Ofir Ehrlich, is rapidly redefining the "Cloud Backup" category into one focused on data activation. Their platform creates a "backup autopilot" that turns dormant data into an active, queryable data lake for AI and analytics. They have proven that even the most established infrastructure categories are ripe for disruption when solved with deep cloud-native expertise.
