Cyhawk Ventures
Cyhawk Ventures is an Israeli early stage investment and entrepreneurship fund focused at new media, Internet technologies, digital marketing & advertising. Headquartered in Tel Aviv, Cyhawk Ventures acts as an incubation launch pad for the Israeli start ups. Established in 2001 as a small start-up itself, Cyhawk became an investment fund in 2010.
History
Early history
Kfir Moyal and Assaf Ben Asher met online at the age of 13. Together they founded Cyhawk Ventures, and launched some of the companies that are part of Cyhawk's portfolio today. Cyhawk has become one of the known names in Israel in the digital marketing and advertising arena. Their first projects were in the fields of email marketing, display media, worldwide affiliate programs and development of business intelligence technologies. With time, these projects became separate entities, ready to leave the incubator and go on their own.
First Exit
During 2005, Matomy[1](formerly AdsMarket) was conceived. Matomy[2] is a global affiliation market place for online advertising, and generates over $100M in revenues with 10% /EBITDA, and presently has over 120 employees. Matomy provides performance marketing solutions across 45 geographies in Europe, North America, Latin-America and Asia-Pacific with a reach of over 30 billion monthly ad impressions. Matomy signed a strategic partnership with McCann Erickson and IPG, in order to expend globally.
From start-up to accelerator
In 2011, Cyhawk Ventures opened its doors to external investors. Along with an investment of millions,[3] came a change in Cyhawk’s business model. From a start-up, Cyhawk became an accelerator[4] for young and disruptive Israeli start-ups, among them BI Science, OnGage, iAlbums, Pluralis, and Appoxee.[5] In 2010 Yuval Cohen of StageOne joined the fund as a managing partner.
Companies
Adsmarket (Matomy)
See First Exit.
BI Science
BI Science was founded by Kfir Moyal as an answer to the need of analyzing advertising trends. The company's first product was GeoSurf toolbar, and in early 2011 the company's flagship product, AdClarity, was introduced to the market. etc.[6] In 2011, BI Science recruited Orey Gilliam, former head of AOL Messaging (AIM) and CEO of ICQ, as their new CEO[7]
Xertive Media
Xertive Media is one of the top israeli ad-networks, developing solutions for full management of display and video campaigns for digital agencies, advertisers and publishers.
New additions
- iAlbums takes advantage of the digital devices available today and bridges the gap between the traditional music industry and new media consumption trends,[8]
- OnGage develops a new and technology in the email marketing arena;
- Appoxee
- Pluralis
Strategy and Investment Focus
Cyhawk acts in most cases as the founder of its new ventures, generating new companies based on research of market needs. After an investment in a company, a member of Cyhawk team leads the new idea and supports the company until it is mature and sails away from Cyhawk incubator to its own facilities. In general, it follows the Accelerator model. At that stage or earlier, Cyhawk would recruit management team members to the company and continue to help build the company, develop its product and reach the phase where the company begins to sale and scale. Cyhawk’s model is based on the synergy between its companies and on the opportunities they create from working together and sharing their customer base and industry knowledge.
References
- ↑ Matomy Could Go Public in 2012
- ↑ Matomy Media
- ↑ Letting investors in: Israeli Company Cyhawk Ventures raises 10 Million Dollars
- ↑ Three New Micro Venture Capital Funds To Be Invested In The Israeli Market
- ↑ Appoxee raises funding, helps mobile app developers boost user engagement
- ↑ Tells Advertisers Exactly What The Competition Is Up To
- ↑ Head of AOL Messaging (AIM) and CEO of ICQ Named CEO of BIScience
- ↑ Apps Rush: Skype, Opera Mini Next, Barbarian, iAlbums, CodeRunner, The Social Radio and more