Venture Capital · Profile from Venture Capital Research Companion
Pitango Venture Capital
Israel's largest and longest-running domestic venture franchise: founded in 1993 as Polaris under the government's Yozma programme, it grew with the Israeli tech sector through the telecom bubble, the 2000s exit drought and the cybersecurity, adtech and AI booms, and split itself into separate early-stage, growth and healthtech funds under one brand.
At a glance
- Founded
- 1993, Israel, as Polaris Venture Capital; renamed Pitango in 2001
- Founders
- Rami Kalish (founder, 1993); Chemi Peres joined as co-founding managing partner of Polaris Fund II (1996)
- Headquarters
- Tel Aviv (Sarona district), Israel; partners also spend time in Silicon Valley / New York
- Ownership / structure
- Private partnership; since the mid-2010s run as a family of funds: Pitango First (seed to Series A), Pitango Growth (expansion and pre-IPO), Pitango HealthTech (medtech, digital health, life-science tools)
- Leadership (2026)
- Co-founders and managing GPs Rami Kalish and Chemi Peres; Pitango Growth led by Isaac Hillel and Aaron Mankovski; Pitango First partners include Eyal Niv, Ayal Itzkovitz and Rami Beracha; Pitango HealthTech partners include Gad Huldai and Yair Cassuto — roster indicative (verify)
- AUM / capital raised
- 14 funds raised; firm states "over $3bn" under management (2025). Recent raises: HealthTech II first close ~$175m (2023); a combined ~$300m for Pitango First IX and HealthTech reported in 2025 (verify)
- Stage focus
- Seed to Series A (First), Series B to pre-IPO (Growth), healthtech across stages; Israel-linked founders, increasingly global (UK, US)
- Signature investments
- Forescout, Varonis, Anobit, Check (Pageonce), AppsFlyer, Riskified, Taboola, Zerto, DriveNets, Graphcore, AI21 Labs, Formlabs, PsiQuantum, LiveU, Celeno, Optimal Plus; instructive outcomes: Graphcore (unicorn sold to SoftBank at a reported fraction of peak value), the 2000-vintage telecom/optical cohort
9 deals and moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
2001
Forescout
Series A
2005
Varonis
Early-Stage Round
2006
Anobit
Series A
2008
Pageonce
Early-Stage Round
2014
AppsFlyer
Series A
2016
Graphcore
Series A
2017
Riskified
Series C Growth Round
2019
DriveNets
Series A
2020
AI21 Labs
Series A