Verizon Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of telecommunications company Verizon, has opened an Israel-based office to harness the innovation coming out of the country.
Managing director Merav Rotem-Naaman will lead Verizon Ventures Israel, with support from director Roni Burrell and investment director Gal Ringel.
Prior to joining Verizon, Rotem-Naaman and Burrell were respectively MD and investment director at Nautilus, an Israel-based early-stage investment subsidiary of internet and media company AOL.
Verizon Ventures’ current portfolio companies span commerce and advertising, connected devices and hardware, data and analytics, infrastructure and networking, and media and entertainment.
Verizon said in 2016 alone, Israel-based startups resulted in a total of $10bn of exits across 104 deals, consisting of 93 merger and acquisition deals, eight buyouts and three initial public offerings.
While it had previously invested in Israel, Verizon Ventures has never had a dedicated team of professionals interacting with the local startup space.