FutureFirst launches $50 million fund targeting Vertical AI startups and faster exits
Founded by Hila Rom and Tammy Mahn, the fund has secured roughly half its capital and begun Seed investments.
Investors and entrepreneurs Hila Rom and Tammy Mahn are launching FutureFirst, a new venture capital fund targeting $50 million. So far, the founders have secured commitments for about half of the fund’s target. In a conversation with Calcalist, Hila Rom, a partner at FutureFirst, said: “We have received commitments for about 40% of the fund. Brooks Keret is our anchor investor and strategic partner, and as part of our collaboration they will be full partners and share with us the companies that come to them. The other investors are senior figures in the American finance and healthcare industries.”
Rom said the fund is adapting its strategy to a changing technology landscape, where building massive standalone companies is not always necessary to generate strong returns. “We are looking for companies that build solutions that, after a Series A round, can be sold to larger companies in exits that are currently considered medium-sized,” she said. “A company that is sold for several hundred million dollars after two or three years is a great outcome for a fund like ours. We are currently in the capital-raising and investment phase and have begun making initial investments of about $1.5 million per company.”
Rom also outlined the fund’s thesis around Vertical AI. “When Claude trains on information, it trains on what is publicly available, whereas vertical companies train on private information, insurance company files, internal corporate conversations, and proprietary operational data. This creates real, not hypothetical, advantages,” she said. “It makes no business sense for a large general-purpose LLM to handle small niche problems that vertical AI companies can address more effectively. Many companies will not survive if LLMs can bypass them. The next generation of companies is focused on solving deep, complex problems that cannot be addressed by general-purpose models alone.”
FutureFirst will focus on Seed-stage investments in Vertical AI companies, one of the fastest-growing segments in technology, which is expected to reach a market size of approximately $100 billion by 2034. The fund’s strategy centers on specialized solutions embedded in critical organizational processes, fundamentally changing how companies in sectors such as finance, healthcare, and manufacturing operate and make decisions.
Rom, a lawyer, serial entrepreneur, and investor, has more than 20 years of experience founding and leading companies as CEO, VP of Business Development, and board member, including at unicorn Tipalti. In her most recent role, she founded and managed RUNI Ventures.
Tammy Mahn is a senior investor and venture capital executive with more than two decades of experience backing technology companies. She has led investments in firms that achieved major exits and IPOs, including Varonis, Cellwize, Iguazio, Vdoo, and VideoSurf. Most recently, she served as Managing Partner at Verizon Ventures, overseeing the telecommunications company’s investments in Israel and Europe. Previously, she was a founding partner at Moonscape Ventures and held senior investment roles at Pitango and Evergreen.
Joining the founders is Tomer Golan, who will serve as Principal, leading deal management and industry relations both locally and internationally. Golan previously served on the investment team at RUNI Ventures, as CEO of the Momentum accelerator at Reichman University, and as an officer in an elite military unit.
