The largest insurance companies, banks, and pension funds in Israel invested in Fortissimo II
Published in Globes on October 5, 2008
The private equity group, Fortissimo Capital, managed by Yuval Cohen, held its first closing of its second fund today, Fortissimo Capital Fund II, raising $100 million. Most of the investors in Fortissimo I participated, including the largest insurance companies, banks and pension funds in Israel. Fortissimo intends to raise an additional $50 million from foreign investors in the near future.
Fortissimo Capital Fund II will employ the same strategy as that of its predecessor fund. Fortissimo II targets Israeli-related private and public companies that are technology oriented, focus on global markets, have reached significant sales, yet are at a point of inflection or in a “special situation” due to the lack of certain key fundamentals and require strategic capital in order to become leaders in their respective fields.
Fortissimo usually takes a significant stake in its portfolio companies so that it can control and influence the decision making process. Fortissimo also focuses on structuring a financially attractive deal that creates a win-win situation for its investors and the management of the company.
Yuval Cohen, the managing partner of Fortissimo stated: “We are excited to be able to hold the first closing of Fortissimo II, despite the current market climate. We believe that current market conditions create interesting opportunities for us, and we will be able to deploy capital at very attractive valuations.”
Fortissimo I, its predecessor fund, managed $80 million and invested in Nur Marcroprinters (sold to HP for $123 million), Telrad Networks Ltd, Soda Club, Crow Technologies, AOD and RadView Software Ltd. The partners in Fortissimo are: Yuval Cohen, Eli Blatt, Marc Lesnick, Shmoulik Barashi.
