U.S. hedge fund Third Level opens Tel Aviv workplace to scout investments By Reuters

By Svea Herbst-Bayliss

NEW YORK(Reuters) – Billionaire investor Daniel Loeb is trying to find extra promising startups and is setting his sights on Israel to search out them.

Loeb’s $14 billion New York-headquartered hedge fund Third Level LLC is opening an workplace in Tel Aviv on Monday, creating an outpost in a metropolis identified for its booming expertise sector.

For Third Level, one of many hedge fund business’s most profitable corporations, the Tel Aviv workplace will change into its first worldwide location. For Third Level Ventures, Third Level’s enterprise capital arm, will probably be a second hub, along with its Menlo Park workplace in Silicon Valley, to scout investments specializing in knowledge infrastructure, cybersecurity and enterprise software program, Loeb stated.

Third Level Ventures (TPV), run by Loeb and Robert Schwartz, presents early-stage capital and hands-on assist to arrange for a public inventory itemizing. It has made six investments in Israel since 2015, together with in cybersecurity firm SentinelOne (NYSE:) and AI transcription and captioning firm Verbit.

“TPV’s everlasting presence in Israel is a pure extension of the dedication we’ve needed to the nation for a few years, evidenced by earlier early-stage investments constituted of our hedge fund,” Loeb stated.

Sapir Harosh, who labored in army intelligence and joined TPV from Israeli agency Pitango earlier this yr, will head the Tel Aviv workplace.

Many U.S.-based hedge funds have lengthy had places of work in London and Asia, however Tel Aviv has change into a magnet not too long ago for corporations to search out new investments as an alternative of recent buyers and to faucet right into a booming early-stage funding scene.

In April, New York-based Common Atlantic, opened its Tel Aviv workplace.

Whereas a number of hedge funds, together with Tiger World Administration and Coatue Administration, turned highly effective and public gamers within the enterprise capital business, Loeb has largely stored mum in regards to the investments in startups that he is made for many years.

Solely not too long ago has Loeb, higher identified for activist funding campaigns at firms together with Nestle SA (SIX:) and Walt Disney (NYSE:) Co

and worthwhile credit score investments, begun highlighting the enterprise staff’s contributions to the agency’s general success.

Third Level completed elevating its first devoted enterprise fund in 2021 and is at present taking in money for its second enterprise fund, an individual conversant in the fundraising stated.

Whereas Third Level is nursing double-digit losses for 2022, fueled partially by a unload in expertise shares together with SentinelOne, its TP Companions fund has delivered an annualized return of 16% over its 27-year lifetime. That compares with a median 9.3% return for the .