IL Tech in NY
“We see Israel as an incredible market with exceptional founders”
Lerer Hippeau joined CTech as part of its IL Tech in NY series in collaboration with Israeli Mapped in NY.
“We’re seeing valuations determined entirely independently of metrics right now,” says Ron Zori, venture partner at Lerer Hippeau. “Individual quantitative measures are less indicative of a company’s fundraising success just now than hype and good storytelling.” He adds: “We can debate the value of hype and whether it’s all fair, but most of the premium markups in this market emerge from premium story. For us though, the core remains about building a great business set to redesign an entire industry.”
Lerer Hippeau joined CTech as part of its IL Tech in NY series in collaboration with Israeli Mapped in NY, a project spotlighting New York-based VCs and their perspectives on the Israeli tech ecosystem. Operating since 2010, LH is a generalist fund exclusively focused on seed and pre-seed investing across enterprise and consumer landscapes, particularly in cyber, fintech, healthcare, hardware, robotics, and SaaS.
“We have a natural pull toward and affinity for Israeli founders,” Zori continues. “LH and I have backed five Israeli companies over the years. Three of them are unicorns, and the other two are on great trajectories and growing quickly. That track record, combined with my background as a born and raised Israeli, makes me continue to see Israel as an incredible market with exceptional founders.”
You can read the entire interview below.
Fund ID
Name and type of VC: Lerer Hippeau - Early stage generalist fund
Main sectors of investment: Generalist. LH invests equally across the enterprise and consumer landscapes, with special interest in cyber, fintech, healthcare, hardware, robotics, SaaS.
Names of managing partners: Ben Lerer, Eric Hippeau, and Graham Brown
Year of founding/start of NY operations: 2010
Total assets under management: $1.4B
Notable portfolio companies: Health, Augury, Databand.ai, Zipline, Warby Parker, Guideline, Blockdaemon, Palmetto, ZenBusiness, Crexi, Prose, Hungryroot. Prior to joining LH, Zori managed his own early stage fund and has backed companies including Public.com, Erebor, OpenWeb, and Voyantis.
General background on the VC, its managers, founders and partners:
Lerer Hippeau is an early stage venture capital firm founded and operated in New York City. Our Managing Partners are Ben Lerer, Eric Hippeau, and Graham Brown, and they’re joined by a team of nearly 20 early stage specialists. I’m Ron Zori, and I joined LH last year after two zero-to-unicorn journeys as a growth leader and managing my own fund.
We have a natural pull toward and affinity for Israeli founders: LH and I have backed five Israeli companies over the years. Three of them are unicorns, and the other two are on great trajectories and growing quickly. That track record, combined with my background as a born and raised Israeli, makes me continue to see Israel as an incredible market with exceptional founders. We are well positioned to be their best partner to support rapid growth and expansion into the US.
The VC Vision:
Since 2010, we’ve aimed to be our founders’ first and most aligned institutional partner. We’re generalist, investing equally across the enterprise and consumer landscapes, and exclusively focused on seed and pre-seed investing. Our investment and portfolio support approach is deeply informed by our team’s experience as operators.
Following the turbulence of recent years and the stabilization of 2025, the Israeli ecosystem is entering a new era: The Evolutionary Leap. For the "Israel Tech in NY 2026 project” CTech is challenging top investors to identify the critical leaps ahead – financial, technological, and mental – as we create a roadmap for a matured innovation hub, ready to redefine its impact on the global stage.
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?
We’re seeing a lot of appetite for Israeli listings, and expect that to continue, particularly as the US market right-sizes. The past year was hampered by several dynamics, not least of which was the overhang of US tariffs. We’re optimistic that the IPO window in the US will open up in 2026, and expect to see Israeli listings follow. The tech sector is leading the way, of course, precipitated by amazing advancements in AI. And the backlog of IPOs is huge, in large part due to the fact that many companies have opted to remain private for longer. As a result, there’s a lot of build-up in investor demand. Already, SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic, to name a few major players, have alluded publicly to plans to go public.
Moving past the market correction, what is the single most critical metric (e.g. EBITDA, NRR, Rule of 40) that will drive premium valuations in 2026?
We actually think we’re seeing valuations determined entirely independently of metrics right now – individual quantitative measures are less indicative of a company’s success just now than hype and good storytelling. We’re seeing companies that are financed on the basis of core metrics being undervalued, and many of those financed on the basis of good storytelling being overvalued. That isn’t to say that there won’t be great venture outcomes on both sides– we think there will be. But we don’t think fundamentals are currently driving the market. We can debate the value of hype and whether it’s all fair, but to get a premium markup in this market, you need a premium story. For us though, the core remains about building a great business set to redesign an entire industry.
How is the 'Israeli Tech' asset class being effectively rebranded to global LPs in 2026? Are we shifting the narrative from 'Innovation' to 'Extreme Resilience'?
It’s clear that the Israeli tech market has reached a point of maturation and is no longer considered fledgling by any stretch. Those who have been observing the market from the outside have seen exactly that combination of innovation and resilience – we see it in cyber, defense, B2B, and even consumer. As Israel’s tech scene was growing, I think some LPs backed Israeli tech because they wanted to support the region – but the region has long-since proven itself as an incredibly rich and vibrant place for tech growth.
As we transition from 'Copilots' to autonomous 'Agents,' which specific vertical will be the first to fully trust AI with independent decision-making and execution?
It’s undeniable that certain horizontal AI solutions (applications across customer service, marketing, etc.) are becoming the first to saturate the market, but they won’t necessarily have moats big enough to insulate them as they grow and new entrants add competition. Deep vertical penetration will be much more challenging. We’re seeing early vertical AI breakouts across legal and finance, but they’re very much built with humans in the loop, and we’re not seeing major institutions relinquish control entirely. Generally, the verticals that carry the lowest risk and the highest potential value will begin trusting AI sooner – and that threshold point for trusting will be determined by firms with the best data (firms that can prove with enormous specificity that their AI forays are working). Tools for areas with low risk, plus low complexity, plus high value will become most trusted most quickly.
With the rising focus on hardware-heavy sectors (Defense, Climate, Quantum), is the Israeli VC model adapted to fund high-CAPEX ventures, or will the ecosystem remain focused on capital-efficient software solutions?
Israel’s ecosystem is well above the software layer. It always had an enormously good and distinct talent pool and unparalleled battlefield experience, which has given it a strong advantage in building certain high-CAPEX businesses, especially across defense, hardware, cyber, etc. US Investors know about Israel’s advantages in those areas and interest in backing projects in those spaces will only continue to grow in coming years.
As Israeli founders in New York shift from 'Survival Mode' to 'Sustainable Scale,' is the famed Israeli agility and improvisational DNA still a competitive advantage, or does 2026 demand a radical shift towards disciplined, American-style corporate governance to win a check from a NYC based VC?
Improvisation and agility will always remain major assets for tech businesses – the longer the ecosystem can stay improvisational, the better. Companies need to stay agile enough to ride out waves and pivot, if necessary. Getting bogged down in governance structures too early can be disastrous. That’s one of the major reasons why we’re seeing many large American tech companies opting to stay private rather than deal with the regulatory and compliance burdens that accompany being public. And now, with private capital so readily available, it’s easier to remain at the early stage for longer periods. That said, founders need to be rigorous and disciplined in their behavior and ensure financial hygiene – but they don’t need to do that at the expense of what really makes them spark.
