Haim Saban, the Israeli-American media magnate, has announced on Sunday launching a $100 million venture capital fund for Israeli startups. Seed and early stage enterprises in mobile, social networks, ecommerce and digital media sectors will be the beneficiary of the Saban Ventures fund.
Saban Ventures doesn't automatically reject the probability of investing in other fields such as cloud computing and fintech. These two sectors have appeared as popular with venture capital investors, according to a report published in Globes.
Barak Pridor, former CEO of the Tel Aviv based Thomson Teuters tech subsidy ClearForest, will act as the fund manager. Pridor hints that the firm will be open for investment in Israeli companies or companies linked to Israel or Israelis, reports Haaretz.
Pridor observes Saban Ventures as a partner with deep pockets, patience and capable of helping opening doors and accessing markets. Partner Communications, has invested in a handful of startups through Saban Capital Group, before the latter decided to create a dedicated venture capital fund. According to Forbes' statistics, Saban is one of the richest billionaires of Israel. The US based businessman owns assets worth $3.5 billion. He is a partner and former major stake holder in Bezeq Israeli Telecommunication Co. Ltd., reports Virtual Jerusalem. Saban has attained success with children's TV show Mighty Morphin Power Rangers into Fox Family Channel, a joint venture with News Corp. Disney has bought the channel in 2001 for $5 billion. He has secured $1.7 billion from the sale proceed. Saban's new Spanish language TV network, Univision, has gone for IPO in July. The world's 497th billionaire in 2015, according to Forbes, has purchased the broadcaster for $13.7 billion in 2007 with a group of private equity investors. Saban acts as Chairman of the TV network which is now an asset of $20 billion. Saban and his wife, Cheryl, have supported Hillary Clinton and held a fundraiser for her in May last year at their Beverly Park mansion. The Saban couple has contributed $2,046,600 to support Hillary's election campaigns and at least $10 million more to the Clinton Foundation. The couple is generous supporters of the overall Democratic Party infrastructure, donating a total of $16.1 million since 1989 to Democratic candidates.
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