Juan Delgado, Co-CEO of Hamilton Lane, told attendees at The Jerusalem Post Conference in New York that the firm, the largest private market investor in the world, is the largest foreign investor in high-tech in Israel. Hamilton Lane has more than $950 billion in assets and has been investing in Israel for 20 years. “Part of why we are here,” said Delgado, “is to tell you a story of how Israel is a world-class investment destination in high-tech.”
Delgado explained that private market investing, which is a specialized skill, refers to investments in areas such as venture capital, buyout, growth, private credit, infrastructure, and real estate. Hamilton Lane’s Israel office was the third office established by the US-based company, which has grown to 22 offices worldwide throughout North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East since its founding 34 years ago.
Limor Beker, head of Hamilton Lane’s Israel office, then joined Delgado onstage, where they were interviewed by Dr. Efraim Chalamish. Beker discussed the firm’s beginnings in Israel in 2005, when the Bachar Reforms, a set of financial reforms in Israel’s capital markets, allowed Israeli institutions to invest globally.
Beker had been exposed to the world of private equity and private markets in her previous work and realized the opportunities that existed in Israel. “We started working with large Israeli institutions,” said Beker, “and over the years, we built amazing private equity portfolios for them. I’m very proud that Israelis today are on par with parallel institutions around the world.”
Beker added that private market investing is in the midst of a revolution, which will enable private investors to invest in private markets, something that until recently was only available to institutional investors. In recent years, Hamilton Lane has been one of the pioneers in providing simple solutions with shorter liquidity for individual investors.
Delgado noted that Israel offers growth, global trade, and engagement. Those three factors, he said, combined with its innovation in high-tech, make the country an important target of Hamilton Lane’s global strategy.
Twenty years ago, Hamilton Lane opened its Israel office out of a deep belief in the strength of the country’s economy, its future, and its people. The company has supported top-performing Israeli funds, industrial companies in the north and south, and many of the country’s most innovative tech firms.
Continuing to invest in Israel
Since October 2023, said Beker, Hamilton Lane has continued to invest in Israel, closing almost a quarter of a billion dollars into Israeli private equity, venture capital funds, and leading Israeli tech companies, including Classiq, FundGuard, Finout, and more. A longtime key investment partner in Israel has been the New York State Common Retirement Fund.
In November 2023, one month after the war started, Delgado contacted Beker and told her he wanted to visit Israel. “I said to him, ‘Are you serious?’ He said to me, ‘If it’s safe for you here, it’s safe for me.’ I will never forget that. No one came to Israel at that time.” Following the call, he boarded a plane and arrived in Israel at the height of the war. “He supported our team,” said Beker. “We have a team in Israel. He supported our clients. He supported the company, Israel, and the economy, and we continued investing.”
Responding to a query from Chalamish about the advantages of the Israeli market, Delgado mentioned that the company is looking into tokenization and digital assets and the monetization of gaming technology that Israel pioneers. “It can be applied to fintech,” he said. He also cited cybersecurity as another valuable part of the Israeli market. “It’s hard to overemphasize how Israel leads the world [in that area].”
Beker predicted that the vintage of investments in Israel after the war would be particularly outstanding, adding that “The younger generation, with their drive, their passion, and their resilience, is outstanding. We have doubled down on Israel.”
This article was written in collaboration with Hamilton Lane.