IBEX raises $87 million for new Israel-focused secondary fund

U.S.-based venture capital firm IBEX Investors has raised $87 million for an Israel-focused fund that will specialize in secondary investments, purchasing shares from founders, employees and early investors in growth-stage companies.

The new vehicle is IBEX’s second Israel-focused secondary fund. The firm raised its first such fund, worth $40 million, in 2024.

IBEX manages a range of Israel-focused investment vehicles. These include Ibex Israel VC II, an early-stage venture capital fund that raised $106 million in 2024; Ibex Israel VC I, which raised $100 million in 2020; a fund launched in 2020 focused exclusively on publicly traded Israeli companies; and a hybrid evergreen fund that invests in both public and private companies. The latter was launched in 2012, marking the beginning of IBEX’s operations in Israel.

IBEX manages more than $400 million in assets through its Israel-focused strategies.

The new secondary fund will be managed by Osnat Velingard, who joined IBEX after five years as a growth investor at Susquehanna Growth Equity, where she invested in growth-stage companies across Israel and Europe and across a range of sectors. She will be based at IBEX’s Tel Aviv office.

Velingard joins the firm’s two local partners, Aaron Rinberg and Adi Dangot-Zukovsky, as well as its Israel-based investment team.

Justin Borus, founder and chief investment officer of IBEX Investors, said the firm’s investors recognize the opportunity in Israel and noted that IBEX has raised $267 million for Israel-focused funds since October 7, 2023.

Borus founded IBEX in Denver, Colorado, where the firm is headquartered. The firm manages more than $1 billion in assets globally.

The new fund will provide liquidity to shareholders of growth-stage Israeli companies without requiring those companies to conduct a new funding round or go public. Secondary transactions allow founders, employees and early investors to sell part of their holdings while the company remains private.…Read more by Sophie Shulman