Israeli-UK VC firm 83North closes $400m fund

• Author: Assaf Gilead
• Published date: 02 October 2022
• Publication title: Globes (Rishon LeZion, Israel)

Last year 83North closed two funds totaling $550 million and the venture capital firm now has $2.2 billion under management

Despite the difficulty of attracting investors to new venture capital funds these days, due to the rise in interest rates, which makes investing in risk-biased instruments less viable and due to the geopolitical uncertainty, the fund managed to raise capital from those limited investors who have invested in the past.

A series of exits

Estimates are that a series of exits over the past 18 months have brought the fund some of the highest returns in the venture capital industry. Due to inflationary fears last year, the fund preferred to sell its stakes in companies holding IPOs including ironSource, Payoneer and Marqeta. Although the fund was not a partner, for example, in the giant merger of ironSource, valued at $11 billion last year, it saved itself the large decline in values of public companies in the last 18 months.

The fund also benefited from mergers and acquisitions between private companies and tech giants. 83North was a prominent partner in the sale of the delivery app Wolt to US rival DoorDash for $8.2 billion, and the sale of Israeli cybersecurity Siemplify to Google for $500 million in January, and was the only external investor in Gigi Levy's Israeli mobile games company Beach Bum of Gigi Levy, which was sold at the end of last year for $275 million to French company Voodoo.

However, not everything has been rosy in the fund: data storage and backup company Zerto, which was previously considered one of the most promising startups in...