For the first time in Israel, "Globes" has rated the best venture capital fund for 2008. "Globes" sought to check a soft point of the industry: the relationship between venture capital and its target audience - the entrepreneur. The "Globes" ranking found that Genesis Partners is considered the best venture capital fund in 2008, and that Carmel Ventures founder and general partner Shlomo Dovrat is considered the best and most respected partner.

Genesis is one of Israel's oldest venture capital funds, founded in 1997 by managing partners Eddy Shalev and Eyal Kishon. Shalev was general manager of Oscar Gruss & Son Israel and Kishon was an executive at Polaris Fund. Genesis manages $515 million in three funds. It invests in consumer electronics, media, solar energy, telecommunications equipment, IT, and semiconductor companies.

Commenting on the win, Kishon said, "On our flag it is inscribed to be an entrepreneur-friendly fund. Working with entrepreneurs is the most important thing in the industry, and requires us to treat them with suitable dignity and to help them, both during due diligence and before and after an investment. We believe that it's possible to minimize the friction between the funds and the entrepreneurs."

The Genesis I Fund, which had $100 million, generated handsome yields from the sale of Butterfly to Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN) for $50 million, and the IPOs of AudioCodes Ltd. (Nasdaq: AUDC; TASE: AUDC), Fundtech Ltd. (Nasdaq: FNDT; TASE: FNDT) and ClickSoftware Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq: CKSW).

Genesis is now raising $150 million for its fourth fund.

"Globes": An analysis of the voting shows that Israeli entrepreneurs don’t greatly appreciate venture capitalists. Is this a function of necessity?

Kishon: "There's a big problem of the interests of the two sides, which do not always coincide. Entrepreneurs often find it hard to accept a 'no' answer to an idea that's their baby. Our statistics show that we invest in about 1% of all the companies that we review for investment, and naturally 'no' is not well received and causes problems. Nothing can be done about this; it's natural."

Kishon added, "I'm pleased that Israeli venture capitalists got a high score for interpersonal relations."

On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest, venture capitalists received an average score of 8 for interpersonal relations.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 15, 2008

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