Genesis Partners

Genesis Partners

Eddy Shalev and Eyal Kishon established Genesis Partners in 1996, making it one of the first institutional venture capital firms in Israel's then-nascent technology ecosystem. The firm launched its debut fund during the mid-1990s privatization wave that unlocked Israel's state-held technology assets, betting that engineering talent from military intelligence units and the Technion could build global software companies. Genesis built its portfolio through four successive funds, culminating in Genesis Partners IV, and established itself as a mainstay of the Herzliya venture corridor that anchored Israel's rise as a startup nation. Genesis Partners deployed capital primarily through early-stage and growth-equity venture investments, targeting Israeli-founded enterprise software, semiconductor, and internet infrastructure companies. The firm's portfolio produced several marquee exits that defined Israel's technology export story: ClickSoftware, a workforce optimization platform, went public on Nasdaq before being acquired by Salesforce for $1.35 billion in 2015; PrimeSense, the 3D-sensing company whose technology powered Microsoft's Kinect, was acquired by Apple for a reported $345 million in 2013 (public record). Additional exits included Radvision, an early videoconferencing pioneer, and AudioCodes, which went public on Nasdaq. The firm invested across Israel and selectively in Israeli-connected companies in the United States. Genesis operated with a tight-knit partnership anchored by Shalev's financial discipline and Kishon's technical network, growing the team to include partners who went on to lead major funds — Eden Shochat, who later founded Aleph, and Liad Agmon, who launched Dynamic Yield (acquired by McDonald's). The firm wound down new investing after its fourth fund, with Shalev later co-founding 10D, a growth-stage vehicle, while Kishon maintained his profile in Israel's early-stage ecosystem. As of 2024, the firm manages its remaining portfolio positions but does not actively raise new blind-pool funds. Genesis Partners distinguished itself by operating with the discipline of a late-1990s vintage firm through two market cycles — the dot-com crash and the 2008 financial crisis — without pivoting to stage-agnostic or sector-agnostic strategies. The firm maintained a deliberate pace, raising funds roughly every four to five years, and concentrated on the enterprise and infrastructure themes that its partners knew best. Unlike many Israeli firms that rushed to raise rapid succession micro-funds during the 2010s boom, Genesis wound down with its reputation intact, and its founders trained a generation of Israeli VCs who now manage over $2 billion in successor vehicles.