VC Survey 2026
“Hype free, real growth is the most critical metric that will drive premium valuations in 2026”
Moshe Zilberstein, Partner at N47, joined CTech for its 2026 VC Survey.
The single most critical metric that will drive premium valuations in 2026 is “Growth. Hype free, real growth,” according to Moshe Zilberstein, Partner at N47.
“Consistent premium valuations will go to companies where growth is clearly driven by distinguished products in a durable market. In 2026 growth is expected to be amplified by AI, accelerating both product and go-to-market efficiency. We see examples of this in sectors like cybersecurity today, but this will spread to other sectors,” he said.
Following the turbulence of recent years and the stabilization of 2025, the Israeli tech ecosystem is entering a new era: The Next Leap. Zilberstein joined CTech to share insights for its VC Survey 2026.
You can read the entire interview below.
Fund ID
Fund Name: N47
Total Assets Under Management: $2B+
Partners/Managers: Lak Ananth, Matthew Cowan, T.J. Rylander, Moshe Zilberstein (Moshe leads Israel office)
Notable Portfolio Companies: VAST Data, Echo Security, Nominal AI
Notable Exits: Noname (acquired by Akamai)
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?
The IPO window has already reopened, selectively. We saw it in 2025 with eToro, and we’re likely to see more in 2026, but only for a narrow band of companies. The bar is high. Public markets are rewarding scale, efficiency, and durability, typically companies with $500M-plus in ARR, strong margins, and predictable growth.
The Israeli ecosystem does not have many companies at that level of revenues today, but it does have a small group of high-growth companies that are either there already or will get there in the near term. For everyone else, M&A will remain the dominant liquidity path, particularly as large platforms continue to buy proven operating businesses rather than build them internally. The market is not closed, it’s disciplined.
The Agentic Leap: As we transition from 'Copilots' to autonomous 'Agents,' which specific vertical will be the first to fully trust AI with independent decision-making?
It’s unlikely to be a single horizontal use case. What we’re seeing instead is a new wave of vertical and role-specific SaaS, where trust is built faster because the scope is tightly defined. Developers are leading the way by far, followed by customer support, marketing, and sales agents.
The next shift is happening in specialized functions - especially areas where SaaS leaves much to wish for. We’re seeing multiple AI agent startups in almost every category and the ones that will likely see early adoption are the ones used for paperwork-heavy industries such as health clinics, logistics, etc.
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?
Cybersecurity remains the most immediate and transferable dual-use bridge. Israel’s proven cyber capabilities are unmatched, and are sought after in the Government & Enterprise world. In the AI era, attackers easily scale in "multiply" their capabilities, helping them to attack quickly and forcefully. And as the threat grows, so does the demand for great solutions.
The Contrarian Leap: What is one sector or trend currently ignored by the herd that you believe represents the most undervalued opportunity for the coming year?
Quantum remains underappreciated relative to its long-term impact. It requires patience, deep innovation, and sustained capital, which makes it less attractive in short-cycle markets, but the upside is significant across computation, cryptography, science and defense.
In parallel, societal health and mental health are still structurally underserved. Demand is clear, the systems are broken, and technology adoption is accelerating, yet capital and talent allocation remain uneven. This gap represents both a commercial opportunity and a meaningful societal lever.
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Finally, name 2-3 startups that, in your opinion, are likely to make a leap forward this year.
VAST Data (portfolio) - a company that is already well established in the data infrastructure market, but I expect it to take another meaningful leap forward this year. As demand for AI and large-scale data infrastructure accelerates, VAST’s unified data platform positions it at the center of next generation compute. Strategic partnerships with leading AI infrastructure providers reinforce that momentum, and I see VAST benefiting as enterprises and cloud platforms deepen their investment in AI-driven workloads.
Echo Security (portfolio) - a group removing cloud security vulnerabilities at their source. I see this approach resonating with risk, compliance, and engineering leaders alike and believe it can redefine foundational cloud security this year.
Nominal (portfolio) - the team is building a, CFO first, AI-native platform that layers intelligent automation on top of existing enterprise resource planning systems to eliminate manual accounting work and accelerate financial operations. The company has seen steady traction with enterprise and mid-market customers.
