Yuval Cohen
Yuval Cohen is the Founding and Managing Partner of Fortissimo Capital. He serves as the Chairman of Soda Club Holdings Ltd. (“Soda Club”), Telrad Networks Ltd (“Telrad”) and Nur Macroprinters (Nasdaq: NURM; sold to HP) and is also on the board of Emblase Group (LSE: BLZ). Prior to founding Fortissimo Capital, Mr.Cohen was a General Partner at Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP), an international venture capital firm with over $650 million under management. Mr.Cohen led investments in, and served on boards of numerous companies, including: Precise Software Solutions, Inc. (sold to Veritas Software Corporation. Nasdaq: PRSE), PowerDsine Ltd. (Nasdaq: PDSN; sold to Microsemi), T.sqware Inc. (sold to Globespan Inc. Nasdaq: GSPN), Sheer Networks (sold to Cisco, Nasdaq: CSCO), Teleknowledge Group (sold to MTS Nasdaq: MTSL), Celltick Technologies, and XMPie (sold to Xerox, Nasdaq :XRX).
Prior to joining JVP, Mr. Cohen held various executive positions in the Silicon Valley. Mr. Cohen was the Vice President of Business Development and also served as the General Manager of the licensing division at DSP Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: DSPG). In addition, Mr. Cohen served as the Vice President of Marketing at VDOnet Corporation and as the Assistant to the President of Intel Capital at Intel Corporation (Nasdaq: INTC).
Mr. Cohen received an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a B.Sc. in Industrial Engineering from Tel Aviv University
Eli Blatt
Eli Blatt is a partner at Fortissimo Capital and serves on the board of directors of the following Fortissimo portfolio companies: Soda Club, Telrad, RadView Software Ltd (“RadView”) and AOD Holdings, Inc (‘AOD”). Mr. Blatt possesses more than 15 years of professional and managerial experience in the fields of finance and business operations for leading high-tech companies. Prior to joining Fortissimo, Mr. Blatt was the CFO and Vice President of Finance & Operations of Noosh, Inc., a supplier of cross-enterprise e-business software solutions. At Noosh, Mr. Blatt was responsible for the general management of Finance and Operations and managed its financing and M&A activities.
Prior to joining Noosh, Mr. Blatt was the Director of Operations at CheckPoint Software Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: CHKP), the worldwide leader in securing the Internet, where he was responsible for OEM operations, product licensing and customer service. Mr. Blatt was previously the Operations Controller at Madge Networks (sold to Avaya). Prior to joining Madge, Mr. Blatt held senior finance and operations positions at Intel Corporation (Nasdaq: INTC) and Israel Chemicals.
Shmoulik Barashi
Shmoulik Barashi is a partner at Fortissimo Capital. Mr. Barashi serves on the board of directors of the following Fortissimo portfolio companies: Soda Club and Emblaze. Prior to joining Fortissimo, Mr. Barashi was a senior partner in BDO Ziv Haft, one of the largest accounting firms in Israel. At BDO, Mr. Barashi specialized in corporate finance, initial public offerings, due diligence evaluations, deal structuring, business consultancy, auditing and tax (both international and local), and valuation analysis. Mr. Barashi managed the Jerusalem branch of BDO Israel. Prior to BDO, Mr. Barashi established his own accounting firm, which he merged into BDO Ziv Haft in 2000. Mr. Barashi received an MBA from Hebrew University (specialty-finance), an LLM from Bar Ilan University and a BA in economics and accounting from Hebrew University. Mr. Barashi held certification as a public accountant in Israel.
Marc Lesnick
Marc Lesnick is a partner at Fortissimo Capital. Mr. Lesnick serves on the board of directors of the following Fortissimo portfolio companies: Soda Club and Telrad. Prior to joining Fortissimo, Mr. Lesnick was the Managing Director of Jerusalem Global, a boutique investment bank that specialized in raising capital for Israeli based technology startup companies. Mr. Lesnick managed a team of 16 professionals and was instrumental in raising in excess of $250 million for 35 companies, several of which later went public or were acquired. Mr. Lesnick was also part of the founding team of a spin-off of Jerusalem Global, which raised $74 million from institutional investors and specialized in raising private equity for technology startup companies. The company was sold in 2001 to a US based incubator.
Prior to moving to Israel and joining Jerusalem Global, Mr. Lesnick served as a senior corporate attorney at the New York offices of Weil, Gotshal & Manges. As a lawyer, Mr. Lesnick led 16 Israeli related transactions and represented many of the leading financial institutions with respect to public and private financings as well as M&A, buyouts, restructurings, reorganizations and securities related activities.
Mr. Lesnick received a JD from the University of Pennsylvania and a BA from Yeshiva University.
Yochai Hacohen
Yochai Hacohen is a partner at Fortissimo Capital. Mr. Hacohen currently serves on the board of directors of the following Fortissimo portfolio companies: RadView, AOD and Cadent Holdings, Inc. Prior to joining Fortissimo, Mr. Hacohen held various managerial positions with Israeli based technology companies. Mr. Hacohen was previously the General Manager of a US division of Magal Security Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq: MAGS), a leading provider of hardware and software solutions for the security market. Prior to Magal, Mr. Hacohen served as the Director of European sales and Marketing at Nice Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq: NICE) Video division, a leading provider of digital video and audio recording solutions.
Mr. Hacohen received an MBA in marketing and a B.Sc in Biotechnology from Tel Aviv University.
Shimrit Erez joined Fortissimo as the office administrator in February 2006. Prior to joining Fortissimo, Ms. Erez worked with the former Prime Minister of Israel, Mr. Ehud Barak, as the senior assistant and office manager from 2001 to 2006. Prior thereto, Ms. Erez worked in the Prime Minister’s office in an administrative position.