Uri Levine, cofounder of site visitors navigation app Waze, which was acquired by Google for $1.1 billion in 2013, is organising a $40 million new enterprise capital fund. He’s founding the fund with former Hanaco Ventures accomplice Pasha Romanovski, who managed the investments in corporations like Lightricks, Redefine Meat, and Vesttoo, which is beneath investigation by the US authorities for fraud. Romanovski was a director of the corporate however will not be beneath any suspicion within the affair. He left Hanaco final yr after the affair blew up and after he was sued by the singer Omer Adam and investor Ran Nussbaum over allegations of deceiving traders at foodtech firm Infarm.
Levine, who at present lives in Madrid, is a serial entrepreneur that raises cash for his personal corporations. The brand new fund referred to as Double Down Can be for funding in Levine’s corporations and can give attention to progress stage startups which have reached the income threshold of tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars}, a few of that are even working profitably. “Globes” has discovered that members of the brand new fund won’t be a part of the boards of administrators of the businesses following investments.
Launch of operations – in direction of the tip of 2025
Double Down is a chance fund elevating capital to help current portfolio corporations, and won’t make investments in new corporations. To this point, it has raised, in keeping with estimates, about $20 million of its goal, and the launch of its operations is deliberate in direction of the tip of 2025. Levine and Romanovski will not be working to boost capital from establishments in Israel, however are specializing in non-public traders and rich households (household workplaces) in Europe, the US and South America.
Among the many corporations focused for funding by the fund: Pontera (previously FeeX), a pension plan administration platform for brokers and monetary advisors within the US – which raised $60 million 18 months in the past at an organization valuation of $550 million, in keeping with PitchBook; Oversee (previously Fairfly,) which gives organizations with a platform that tracks modifications in airfares for ticket bought for workers and managers – and re-tickets when the value falls. Oversee has overcome challenges posed by the Covid pandemic and warfare, and is now a rising firm.
Different funding targets are: the WeSki tourism platform, which organizes holidays at ski resorts and at present generates thousands and thousands of {dollars} in income – within the ski tourism market price $100 billion yearly; Cahun Medical, which buildings medical data for Gen-AI use; farming administration firm Citrii, which gives AI-based info on agricultural produce; software program firm Dynamo; and the parking app Pumba.
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Levine was Waze CEO on its founding, and later determined to relinquish the place in favor of employed CEO Noam Bardin, who ran the corporate till the sale to Google. He then served as president and shortly after the exit, left the corporate to discovered corporations with younger entrepreneurs and lift capital for them. Amongst different issues, he was one of many early traders in Moovit and its first board member, earlier than it was bought to Intel. Levine lectures on entrepreneurship at a college in Madrid, and he has written a guide on technological entrepreneurship.
No response has been forthcoming from both Levine or Romanovski.
Printed by Globes, Israel enterprise information – en.globes.co.il – on August 12, 2025.
© Copyright of Globes Writer Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2025.
