VC Survey 2026
“In a world where cash is king and fundraising cycles are longer, companies with strong retention will be rewarded”
TLV Partners associate Ophir Shay joined CTech for its 2026 VC Survey.
Ophir Shay, TLV Partners associate.
(Video: Orel Cohen)
“Startups are not moving away from hyperscalers, but they are building with more awareness around control and resilience,” said TLV Partners associate Ophir Shay.
“If anything, the past few years reinforced how strong and adaptive the ecosystem is, and founders are thinking more intentionally about having various options rather than dependency,” he added. “Many companies are still operating under uncertainty, with key team members in miluim [reserve duty], and consequently timelines are constantly shifting, which only strengthens the instinct for independence and robustness.”
After several years of turbulence and a measure of stabilization in 2025, the Israeli tech ecosystem is undergoing its Next Leap. Shay joined CTech for its 2026 VC Survey to share insights on how he sees Israeli tech advancing in the next year.
You can read the entire interview below.
Fund ID
Name of Fund: TLV Partners
Total Assets Under Management (AUM): $1.1B
Partners/Managers: Rona Segev, Eitan Bek, Shahar Tzafrir, Adi Yarel Toldeano, Brian Sack, Yonatan Mandelbaum
Notable Portfolio Companies (Active): Aidoc, Silverfort, Quantum Machines, Aqua Security, Buildots, Port, Qodo
Notable Exits: Next Insurance (acquired by Munich Re $2.6B), Run:ai (acquired by Nvidia), Granulate (acquired by Intel), Laminar (acquired by Rubrik)
The Valuation Leap: Moving past the market correction, what is the single most critical metric (e.g., EBITDA, NRR) that will drive premium valuations in 2026?
If we are looking at certainty and assume the market is rewarding certainty again: Annual Recurring Revenue quality will matter most. Not just the headline number, but revenue that is predictable, resilient, and able to grow efficiently. In a world where cash is king and fundraising cycles are longer, companies with strong retention, disciplined spend, and a path to supporting themselves through customer revenue will be rewarded. Speed of execution still matters, but speed with efficiency beats speed fueled only by burn.
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?
Credential-heavy sectors with standardized workflows look like early candidates to adopt autonomous agents. Legal, accounting, and certain engineering functions have structured processes, rigid compliance, and repetitive decision frameworks that make them well suited to hand off execution to AI, once reliability and auditability are proven. They may not move fast culturally, but structurally they are built for it.
The Efficiency Leap: In the era of AI-driven hyper-productivity, is the traditional correlation between 'Headcount Growth' and 'Company Success' permanently broken?
First of all, I am not sure if the traditional correlation between headcount growth and success is right in the first place. With that said, AI improves productivity, but scaling meaningful revenue, sales, support, and operations still requires people. I do think we will be able to see more “one-man shows” providing different types of services that previously required teams, I am just not sure about massive companies.
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?
Back-office automation for regulated, legacy-heavy sectors. Legal, accounting, construction, insurance ops, etc. These sectors deal with huge data volumes, manual workflows, and high compliance overhead. They are not flashy, but they have massive budgets, clear ROI triggers, and strong willingness to pay once trust is established. The next wave of adoption could be bigger than people expect.
Finally, what are 2-3 startups that, in your opinion, are likely to make a leap forward in 2026?
Spacial (TLV Portfolio): Copilots write drafts. Spacial gets things approved. They are building AI workflows that can carry engineering projects from schematic to permitting, not just help with the early analysis. If 2025 is the year companies stop experimenting and start delivering AI-driven outcomes, Spacial is well placed to lead that shift.
Metalbear (TLV Portfolio): Developer velocity is critical, and debugging in real-world environments is still messy and slow. Metalbear cuts that pain point sharply, improving feedback loops and productivity in a way engineers immediately feel. As AI coding ramps up, anything that speeds iteration will matter even more.
