Banner photo taken by Ron Shoshani, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

500 Startups is proud to announce Adam Benayoun as a venture partner in Israel. As part of his role, Adam will be sourcing and investing in Israeli companies as well as supporting the existing 500 Startups network in Israel.

Adam is a Venture Partner at 500 Startups, covering the Israeli market. Prior to 500, Adam co-founded Binpress, a marketplace for software that helped thousand of developers sell licenses to enterprises and startups. Binpress was part of 500 Startups accelerator program in 2013, and raised 1 million dollars. Prior to Binpress, Adam co-founded a web development shop and incubator in Israel during the 2008 recession, and helped more than 15 startups successfully launch products. In his spare time, Adam helps founders with fundraising, building connections between Israel and Silicon Valley, and the many challenges of running startups.

Why Israel?

Israel – often dubbed as Silicon Wadi (Valley in hebrew) – has more startups and a larger venture capital ecosystem per capita than any other country in the world. In 2014, KPMG reported that 688 companies raised $3.4bn collectively and a total of 70 exits and IPOs worth netted the israeli industry more than $15bn.

However while the Israeli startup industry has been successful in accessing other mature markets such as the US, it faces significant challenges in building the same access with other emerging markets. 500 startups has a global network and will provide the israeli ecosystem with the needed experience to bridge between the israeli market and the rest of the world.

So far 500 Startups has invested in 10 Israeli companies and is looking to make between 10-20 additional investments here in the next 12 months.

Adam said “I witnessed first hand how 500 Startups altered the trajectory of our company after investing in Binpress. They gave us access to a large network of mentors and investors, helped us with distribution and provided the support we so much needed. I’m super excited I can bring that experience and knowledge back to Israel and give back to the Israeli community.”

“Israel is one of the most active entrepreneurial markets in the world — the pace of innovation here is astonishing, and more active on a per capita basis than Silicon Valley” said Dave McClure, 500 Startups Founding Partner.