Yozma Group

Founder and Chairman Yigal Erlich sets the strategic direction and maintains ultimate investment committee authority for the Israel-headquartered entity. Yozma Group Korea, the Seoul-based arm established in 2015, is operationally led by co-CEOs Lee Byung-woo and Won Joon Lee, who manage the Korean fund vehicles and cross-border deal pipeline under the group umbrella.

The Yozma Initiative was an Israeli government program launched in 1993 with $100 million in public capital. It created 10 hybrid public-private venture funds, each receiving matching government money and an option for private partners to buy out the state's stake. The program succeeded in catalyzing Israel's VC industry, and the private management entity that administered it — led by Yigal Erlich — evolved into today's Yozma Group. The government exited all funds by 1997, and Yozma continued as a fully private asset manager.

Yozma entered South Korea in 2015 through a joint venture with the Korean Development Bank and the Korean Ministry of SMEs and Startups. This government partnership provides privileged access to policy-backed startup accelerators, government R&D pipelines, and Korean corporate partners seeking Israeli technology. The firm operates a bilateral accelerator that funnels pre-vetted startups between the two markets, creating deal flow that originates from government screening and corporate strategic needs rather than open-market competition.

Yozma Group does both. The original model was a fund-of-funds that anchored external VCs. Today, the group makes direct venture and growth-stage investments out of its own vehicles while also managing partnership funds with government institutions like the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund. The Korean arm operates committed fund structures backed by institutional LPs, and these funds deploy into both direct company equity positions and co-investments alongside other cross-border vehicles.

Yozma's historical sweet spot spans late-seed to growth-stage technology companies, with an emphasis on commercial-stage enterprises expanding internationally. The early Yozma funds were known for nurturing seed and Series A companies (including Waze), but more recent Korean vehicles target early-stage deep-tech and green-tech startups through the accelerator program alongside later-stage cross-border scale-ups seeking Asian market entry.

Yozma actively co-invests, particularly when bridging capital between Israeli startups and Korean strategic investors. The firm's architecture as a public-private partnership platform means it frequently syndicates deals with government-linked Korean funds, corporate venture arms of Korean chaebol, and select global VCs with complementary geographic or sector strength.

Yozma Group Korea was established as a joint venture between Yozma Group and Korean institutional partners, including the Korea Development Bank. It operates with its own co-CEOs and local fundraising mandate but draws on the Israeli parent's deal sourcing network, brand, and cross-border integration expertise. The two entities share the Yozma Group umbrella but maintain separate fund governance and limited partnership structures.