Thursday, May 29, 2025, at 6 PM Israel Time • 11 AM EST
Sarit Firon, Managing Partner at Team8, who spearheaded the launch of Team8’s venture capital arm, speaks with Jake Laznik, Senior Breaking News Desk Manager, The Jerusalem Post.
Firon, one of the most influential figures in Israel’s tech investment landscape, began her journey in the tech industry 30 years ago. She spent ten years working in New York and Silicon Valley, the two major tech hubs in the US.
In her view, AI is one of the most significant changes in the tech industry today. “What excites me about AI,” she says, “is that I see how it changes industries much faster than in the past. I see what it does to digital health, fintech, and cyber.
“AI is a horizontal, and it affects every industry and every person in the world. I think that as investors, our biggest challenge is to identify the companies that have a chance of succeeding in this era. When we make an investment decision, we need to ensure that they not only have the capabilities and understanding and talent in AI, but that they have another mode that will protect them from competition down the road.”
In her years of experience, Firon has worked with many companies from their early stages until IPOs or exits. “One of the things that I see as my role when investing,” she shares, “is to make sure that the companies hire the right people at the leadership level, who can help the founding team take the company a long way.”
In response to a query about how the war has affected Israeli hi-tech, she says that in the last year and a quarter, there has been a steady increase in foreign investment. “I think that what’s happening is that eventually they see the resilience of the Israeli market. I think that when the war ends, we’ll see another uptick in their investment in Israel.”
Firon says that her studies at Tel Aviv University helped her make vital contacts in the tech and business worlds. “The friendships that I created at Tel Aviv University were some of the most important friendships, and helped me to navigate through the tech and business ecosystems”.
The Tel Aviv University Alumni Organization
Tel Aviv University has 220,000 alumni who are among the leading figures in Israel, holding key positions in the legal field, the high-tech industry, hospitals, the media, education, culture and academia.
More than half of our alumni are actively involved in the Aviv University Alumni Organization.
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This article was written in cooperation with Tel Aviv University.