State of Mind Ventures

State of Mind Ventures

State of Mind Ventures was founded in 2014 in Tel Aviv by Yuval Baharav, Pinhas Buchris, and Nir Adler. Baharav brought experience as a serial entrepreneur and early-stage investor, while Buchris served as Director General of Israel's Ministry of Defense and later as a General Partner at Magma Venture Partners. Adler, a former naval officer, co-founded the cybersecurity startup Sentrix before moving into venture. The trio configured the firm as a thesis-driven seed fund, anchored in the belief that Israel's military and intelligence ecosystem reliably produces founders with high execution fitness. The firm writes initial checks at seed and occasionally pre-seed, reserving capital for follow-on rounds up to Series A. Its portfolio spans enterprise software, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, financial technology, and digital health — the densest sectors in Israel's technology economy. Reported portfolio companies include Dataloop, a data-annotation platform for AI; Salv, an anti-money-laundering startup; and RiseUp, a financial-wellness platform. The firm typically leads or co-leads rounds, often syndicating with other Israel-focused early-stage investors. Its geographic focus remains overwhelmingly Israel, with many portfolio companies serving global enterprise markets from their Tel Aviv headquarters. State of Mind Ventures has operated from its first fund, SOMV I, through subsequent vehicles — deployment totals and precise team size have not been publicly disclosed. Its governance rests with the three founders, who make investment decisions collectively. In September 2022, portfolio company Dataloop raised a $33 million Series B co-led by NGP Capital and Alpha Wave Ventures (per CTech, 2022), signaling the fund's ability to back companies that graduate into later-stage syndicates. The firm's structural distinction lies in its partnership composition — pairing a former defense ministry director with two repeat founders creates deal flow that conventional financial-first venture funds in Israel rarely access. This configuration gives SOMV early visibility into companies emerging from the same national-security and enterprise-IT networks that produced Israel's most consequential exits. The model resembles a small, high-conviction seed practice rather than a capital-aggregation platform, making it more comparable to an operator-led angel syndicate with institutional discipline than to a multi-stage asset manager.