Chemi Peres

Nechemia "Chemi" Jacob Peres (born July 17, 1958) is a venture capital and high-tech entrepreneur. He is co-founder and managing general partner of Pitango Venture Capital.

Biography

Born July 1958 in Tel Aviv, Chemi Peres is the youngest son of Sonia and Shimon Peres, a brother to Tsvia Walden ("Tziki") and Yoni Peres. He is named after Nechemia Argov, the Military Secretary to the Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, and a friend of his father. The family lived in a modest flat in the old Northern part of Tel-Aviv. Many of Peres' classmates were children of major figures of the Israeli society, including his father, who was already the Minister of Defense.

In 1976 Peres graduated from ORT Technicum high school in Givatayim. He enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces, and started the flight course at the Israeli Air Force Flight Academy. His participation was suspended due to asthma, his medical profile was reduced to 45, which meant that he could not serve in a combat duty. Insistently, Peres managed to up his profile, and joined the Armored Corps. After completing the basic and advanced training as a tank crew member, he transferred back to the flight academy. After finishing the basic flight course, Peres considered to discontinue the flight course. After six months as a non-commissioned officer, he returned and concluded his training and became a helicopter pilot.

Business career

In 1986 Peres joined Israel Aerospace Industries as an adviser, working on the IAI Lavi project, in the engineering division preliminary design, using his background as an Air Force pilot and a technologist. In 1988 Peres joined Decision Systems Israel, now known as DSIT, a high tech company engaged in military and civilian software and systems development, and was responsible for new business development.

MOFET Israel Technology Fund

In 1992, together with DSIT and others, Peres co-founded "MOFET Israel Technology Fund" (MOFET is Hebrew acronym for "Industrial R&D"), one of the first venture capital funds listed on Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, operating according to the guidelines for early stage investments, issued by Inbal, the Israel Government Insurance firm. The fund initially raised $6 million on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange in 1993. Later on, it grew in size, as outstanding warrants and convertible debentures were exercised. In August 1993, the fund invested (with others) $1.5 million in VocalTec, the world's first company to transmit Voice over Internet Protocol. Peres was chief executive officer of MOFET until 1996.

MOFET invested in several high-tech companies, among them are Netro Corporation, Precise Software, Paradigm Geophysical and Orckit Communications (later named Orckit-Corrigent). All of them went public on Nasdaq. In addition, other companies in the MOFET portfolio were acquired by multinational corporations, among them Nicecom (sold in 1994 to 3Com for $58 million, one of the first in a wave of Israeli High-tech sales); "Shani Computers", sold to Intel Corporation in 1994; and Scorpio, sold to USRobotics in August 1996, for $72 million.[2]

Pitango Venture Capital

In 1996 Peres left MOFET, and along with Rami Kalish, they co-founded Polaris Fund II, in partnership with the Dovrat-Shrem Group. The fund raised $125 million, and by 2000 had already covered the investment and generated a profit of $200 million.

The success of "Polaris II" led to the founding of a follow-up fund, Pitango Fund III, with $500 million in committed capital, and made Peres one of the most prominent venture capitalists in Israel. Since 1996, he is the co-founder and managing general partner of the firm, which invested in a portfolio of some 230 global high tech companies, including Graphcore, eToro, Riskified, Taboola and Via, with over $2.3 billion in committed capital.[3][4]

In 2009, Dun & Bradstreet rated Pitango the largest venture capital fund in Israel, with $2 billion managed capital.[5]

native name	חמי פרס
native name lang	he
birth name	Nechemia Jacob Peres
birth date	July 17, 1958
birth place	Tel Aviv, Israel
alma mater	Tel Aviv University
occupation	Technology entrepreneur, businessperson
known for	Co-Founder and Managing General Partner of Pitango
years active	1986–present
title	style=text-indent:-1em; margin-left:1em;
boards	Via Transportation, Taboola, Venn.city, Radwin, Duda, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Idomoo; In the past: Aladdin Knowledge Systems, AudioCodes, BackWeb, Koor Industries, Precise Software, VocalTec
father	Shimon Peres
mother	Sonia Peres
website	http://www.chemiperes.com/

Biography

Business career

MOFET Israel Technology Fund

Pitango Venture Capital

Non-profit organizations

Education

Family

References