AltaIR Capital, which specializes in investing in early stage start-up companies, is establishing AltaLab, an accelerator program for young entrepreneurs. The program will focus on identifying promising and interesting ventures at very early stages. The program aims at enhancing the concept behind a venture so that, within three months, it shall be ready for a seed investment by AltaIR and its business partners. The first cycle, comprising five projects, has recently begun.
During the three-month program, AltaLab professionals will closely accompany the selected ventures and offer them AltaIR’s extensive experience in locating and improving dozens of interesting investment targets. The program will be conducted in incubator conditions at offices allocated to the ventures.
AltaLab has also signed a unique cooperation agreement with Microsoft BizSpark, a Microsoft program for supporting startup companies. As such, the AltaLab startups will benefit from Microsoft and AltaLab support in creating connections with leading companies and potential clients. These options are provided in addition to various services that Microsoft offers to all the startups it supports, including free consulting, free access to the Azure cloud service platform (valued at $60,000) and more.
The array of services and means will be provided to the start-up companies at no cost. In return for its services, and provided the fund invests in the company following the acceleration program, the startups will allocate some of their shares to the fund.
The AltaLab program is managed by Igor Rabinovich who served in IDF technological units, and has extensive experience in technological and business development for start-up companies. He was also a co-owner of Savelt, a company developing monitoring and control systems for the defense industry, whose clients include Elop and Motorola Consist. In addition, he was a partner in several startup companies, where he worked on several R&D positions and served as a CTO. AltaIR has invested in dozens of companies around the world, including 13 in Israel, and reported many exits and has a strong record of improving company valuation.
Rabinovich said: “We are approached by many talented entrepreneurs with interesting ideas who want AltaIR to invest in their startups. Some have great ideas, but they require further development in order for us to invest. In many cases, there is no company, just an entrepreneur with an excellent idea. When we identify ideas that have potential but require development before we invest in them, we provide them with our expertise in improving product value, establishing human and other infrastructures, specifying the business model, preparing a sustainable business plan and everything needed in order to bring the venture to a stage that enables investment. Concurrently, we leverage our extensive global connections in order to kindle the interest of potential clients and other investors, enabling them to join us in a seed investment in the future. This is a win-win proposition for all, including the entrepreneur, the fund, the future clients and the investors."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 7, 2015
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