30 Best Business Leaders of the Year 2019 30 Best Business Leaders of the Year 2019 | Page 20

Rami Kalish, Pitango Venture Capital Managing
General Partner and Co-founder:
‘Our Team Has More Than 100 Years of
Accumulated Experience in Building Companies
into Category Leaders’
“We invest in core technology across all stages, via two parallel funds: Pitango Early Stage and Pitango Growth.”
V
enture capital firms are
without a doubt the muscle
behind innovation as they
support the company they may
invest in, from the early stages, all
the way to IPO — especially those
with larger funds that have billions
of dollars under management.
In light of the foregoing,
we’re thrilled to present
Pitango Venture Capital.
Pitango operates as a venture
capital firm. The company invests
in software, communication,
networking, wireless, internet,
healthcare, and technology sectors.
Pitango serves customers in Israel
and the United States.
The company was incorporated
in 1993 and is headquartered in
Herzliya, Israel.
Pitango Venture Capital:
Synopsis
Rewind: Taking Flight
20
Pitango was founded as Polaris
Venture Capital in by Rami Kalish,
september 2019
as part of a government initiative
named the Yozma program
(“Initiative” in Hebrew); which
offered attractive tax incentives
to any foreign venture-capital
investments in Israel and offered to
double any investment with funds
from the government.
In 1996, Kalish was joined by
Chemi Peres, son of former Israeli
president Shimon Peres, to create
Polaris Fund II, which raised more
than $100 million, Polaris II invested
in 35 high-tech companies. Some
were partially funded by another
Israeli VC firm, Eucalyptus Ventures.
When the investments proved
successful, Polaris II and Eucalyptus
merged into Fund III in early 2000.
In 2000, Rami Beracha, who
joined Pitango in 1996, Became
a managing general partner. He
resigned in 2018.
In 2001, Polaris Venture Capital
changed its name to Pitango Venture
Capital; to avoid confusion with
Boston based Polaris Venture
Partners (even though the Boston
firm was founded after Pitango
in 1996, the Israeli firm chose to
change its name). Pitango takes its
name from the semi-wild Surinam
Cherry that grows in Israel.
Pitango Venture Capital Fund IV
followed in 2004 and in 2007,
Pitango V.
In 2010, with the support of
the Israeli government, Pitango
established the first fund in the
country focused on investment in
the Arab-Israeli sector, called Al-
Bawader (Arabic for “early signs”).
Elements: That Make
Pitango Outshine
Competition
Pitango has been investing in
exceptional founding teams and
disruptive ideas since its inception.
Its team has more than 100 years of
accumulated experience in building
companies into category leaders.
With over $2 billion under
management and investments in
over 250 companies, Pitango
invests in core technology across
all stages, via two parallel funds:
Pitango VC and Pitango Growth.