Firstime

Managing Partners Jonathan Benartzi and Nir Tarlovsky lead investment decisions at Firstime. Benartzi is a serial founder who co-founded and led LATTO and Netking, while Tarlovsky brings 30 years of investing experience and co-founded RSLCOM and Nielsen BuzzMetrics. Keren Kopilov oversees digital health investments and serves as COO and CFO.

Firstime functions as a venture firm, but its third fund is structured entirely around the UN Sustainable Development Goals, making sustainability the core investment mandate rather than a sidecar strategy. The firm explicitly states that the next thousand unicorns will be climate-tech startups, and it allocates capital accordingly across renewable energy, agriculture, food security, circular economy, and digital health.

The firm targets early-stage companies, primarily at Seed and Startup phases. It does not outline later-stage growth equity or public-market exposure. Firstime complements its early-stage venture equity strategy with a credit arm, Firstime Credit, which can support portfolio companies through blended funding as they scale.

Firstime invests in climate adaptation and accessibility sectors aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Its stated areas include AI for renewable energies, IoT and data-driven agriculture, food security, clean and circular economy solutions, net-zero carbon technologies, and affordable digital health. The firm defines itself by these positive thematic constraints rather than negative exclusions.

Firstime Credit operates as an in-house credit vehicle alongside the flagship venture funds. The credit team includes professionals who previously served as Head of Credit at Altshuler Shaham and as Head of Credit Department at Citi Israel. This structure lets the firm provide both equity and credit to climate-tech companies, an unusual blended-capital design for a venture platform.

Firstime is headquartered in Tel Aviv and focuses its venture activity on Israeli startups, though the firm targets companies with global scalability. Its portfolio of over 30 companies serves markets beyond Israel, consistent with the Israeli venture model of building locally and scaling into North America, Europe, and Asia.

Managing Partner Jonathan Benartzi chairs the Yitzhak Rabin Center, and Partner Keren Kopilov chairs JDRF Israel, indicating active involvement in social and disease-focused philanthropic boards at the principal level. However, the firm's venture funds are commercial investment vehicles, and there is no disclosure of a direct philanthropic arm integrated into the fund structure.