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GTS Conferences
Mark Gerson and Erel N. Margalit launched the Global Tech Symposium in 2015 as a curated forum designed to connect Israel's most promising technology...
GTS Conferences
Mark Gerson and Erel N. Margalit launched the Global Tech Symposium in 2015 as a curated forum designed to connect Israel's most promising technology companies with North American allocators, family offices, and strategic acquirers. Gerson, a New York-based entrepreneur and investor, and Margalit, a veteran Israeli venture capitalist and former Knesset member, positioned the event not as a broad conference but as a highly selective venue where dealmaking replaces panel filler. The summit concentrates on growth-stage and late-stage Israeli companies across enterprise software, cybersecurity, AI, digital health, and mobility. Participating firms have included Waze, Mobileye, Monday.com, and Check Point Software, with current cohorts typically numbering roughly two dozen companies per event. GTS does not function as a fund or manager itself. It operates as a matchmaking layer — vetting presenting companies, curating one-on-one meeting schedules, and maintaining a closed network of roughly 200 US-based family offices and institutional investors who attend annually in New York and, in certain years, Tel Aviv. Deal flow moves bilaterally, with both direct equity placements and follow-on co-investment rounds originating from introductions made at the event. The organization is small. The core team operates from New York, with program and scouting support in Tel Aviv. The network's disclosed aggregate deal value surpasses $12B since inception, though GTS itself takes no carried interest. In 2024, the symposium returned to its flagship New York format after a pandemic-period hiatus from in-person gatherings, renewing direct investor-founder meetings that had been suspended or virtual from 2020 through 2022 (per The Jerusalem Post, January 2024). Margalit's parallel venture platform, Jerusalem Venture Partners, occasionally sources presenting companies, but the pipeline remains independently curated. What distinguishes GTS from a standard conference business is its operating model: it earns no transaction fees, charges presenting companies a flat participation fee, and derives revenue from investor-side membership dues. That structure removes the incentive misalignment common in broker-dealer or placement-agent models, making GTS structurally closer to an ongoing institutional investor network than a one-time event promoter. The continuity of attendees — with family offices returning across multiple vintages — functions as a soft signal of sourcing value in an otherwise opaque private-market introduction economy.
General information
Firm type
other
Year founded
2015
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
New York
Corporate office
New York, NY, United States
Principals
Mark Gerson
Co-Founder and Chairman
Erel N. Margalit
Co-Founder and Chairman
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
How does GTS Conferences source the companies that present at the symposium?
GTS curates presenting companies through its co-founders' networks and a dedicated scouting team in Tel Aviv. The pipeline draws from Margalit's venture ecosystem, referrals from returning investors, and direct applications from growth-stage Israeli tech companies. Each cohort is vetted for product maturity, management quality, and capital-readiness before receiving an invitation to present.
Does GTS take carried interest or transaction fees on deals that come out of the symposium?
No. GTS operates as a membership network, not a broker-dealer. It charges presenting companies a participation fee and collects annual membership dues from the investor side. It takes no carried interest, finder's fees, or transaction-based compensation on any deal originated through its introductions, which structurally differentiates its incentives from placement agents.
What types of investors typically attend GTS?
The investor membership consists primarily of single-family offices, multi-family offices, and a small number of institutional allocators from North America. The network has grown to roughly 200 investor groups who attend annually, with many returning across multiple symposium vintages. The focus is on principals and decision-makers with direct check-writing authority, not gatekeepers.
Which sectors does GTS emphasize for presenting companies?
The symposium concentrates on enterprise software, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and machine learning, digital health, and mobility. These sectors map closely to Israel's historical technology strengths and the areas where GTS's investor network has consistently shown demand. Consumer-facing and hardware-heavy companies are rarely featured.
How is GTS Conferences related to Jerusalem Venture Partners?
Erel Margalit, who co-founded GTS with Mark Gerson, is the founder and chairman of Jerusalem Venture Partners, a prominent Israeli venture capital firm. JVP occasionally sources presenting companies for the symposium, but the GTS pipeline is independently curated and includes companies from across the Israeli tech ecosystem, including those backed by competing venture firms. GTS and JVP are separate legal entities.
What investment stages does GTS target with its presenting companies?
GTS focuses on growth-stage and late-stage private companies, typically those that have achieved product-market fit and are raising Series B through pre-IPO rounds. The investor network is oriented toward direct equity placements and co-investment rather than seed-stage risk, though earlier-stage companies occasionally appear when they demonstrate outsized commercial traction.
Has the symposium produced publicly disclosed deal outcomes?
GTS reports over $12B in aggregate deal flow facilitated since inception in 2015, but the organization does not publish deal-by-deal attribution. Because introductions are made bilaterally and transactions close privately, specific outcomes are rarely disclosed. The returning-investor rate — with family offices attending across multiple annual vintages — serves as the primary observable signal of matchmaking quality.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
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