The Entree Capital cofounder soars to the highest of the Midas Record Europe because of homegrown hits like Monday.com and international trotting picks like Coupang and Stripe.
By Iain Martin, Forbes Workers
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n 2015, Entree Capital’s Avi Eyal made a wager with Monday.com cofounder Eran Zinman: construct a barebones mission administration cellular app — instantly. If it did not take off, he’d choose up the $50,000 tab. “The very subsequent day we began with the primary model of the app,” says Zinman. “Was it good? No, however we realized a lot from it.”
Eight years later, Monday is value $8.2 billion, its iOS cellular app has had 8 million downloads and Eyal’s $50,000 cafe guess has confirmed remarkably prescient. It isn’t the one one. The Entree Capital cofounder’s investments in Korean ecommerce web site Coupang, Stripe and Spanish meals supply startup Glovo paid off as effectively. And along with a handful of others, they’ve earned the Tel Aviv-based Eyal the highest spot on the Midas Record Europe, the particular rating of the main enterprise capital traders in Europe, Israel and the Center East.
Eyal has steadily climbed the rankings of each the Midas Record Europe, and the worldwide Midas listing, because of an eclectic, high-energy technique, that has seen his fund again homegrown Israel-based expertise on the seed stage, but additionally write checks for growth-stage startups from San Francisco to Seoul. “Avi is likely one of the finest pickers and hunters within the enterprise,” says 20VC founder Harry Stebbings, whose present and prior funds have been backed by Eyal. “He’s only a hound for locating nice offers.”
Eyal is one in every of 4 Israeli traders to make this 12 months’s Midas Record Europe, together with newcomer Gili Raanan of Cyberstarts, Michael Eisenberg of Aleph and Gil Dibner of Angular Capital. Laurel Bowden additionally has sturdy ties to Israel with greater than half of the 83North crew (initially Greylock Israel) based mostly in Tel Aviv.
That milestone comes amid a tricky 12 months for the “startup nation.” Enterprise traders and tech corporations turned main voices in protests towards Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bid to weaken Israel’s supreme court docket. Then got here Hamas’ horrific October 7 assault, the deadliest assault on Israel since 1948, and the navy’s marketing campaign in Gaza that adopted.
A number of Entree Capital crew members have been drafted, colleagues from portfolio corporations have been killed or injured, and Eyal — like many Israeli VCs and entrepreneurs — has pitched in to assist, coordinating volunteers, discovering houses for the displaced and organizing help for these impacted by the battle. “I’m a giant advocate of peace however you’ll be able to’t have peace with out safety,” he says.
Eyal, nonetheless, takes an extended view. He had been a vocal backer for Israel’s transfer to normalize relations with the United Arab Emirates (UAE
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Although he was born in Israel, when Eyal was 6 years previous his father resigned his Israeli Air Power fee to work as an engineer in Durban, South Africa. It was there that Eyal first met his future Entree cofounder Martin Moshal, who would go on to again what would change into New York Inventory Trade-listed on-line playing large Tremendous Group. Whereas in school in Johannesburg, Eyal used a scholarship grant to start out his first enterprise, a software program and networking infrastructure developer that he offered for $8 million to a London Inventory Trade-listed enterprise 9 years later. Over the subsequent decade, he began, or led, one other 9 companies hopping from South Africa, to San Francisco to London.
Eyal reconnected with Moshal when his former grade college classmate made an angel funding in his tenth startup, a compliance software program enterprise. When that enterprise was acquired for $19 million by an Indian tech firm in 2009, the pair determined to formalize their relationship as Entree Capital.
“One among our rules is that when the valuations change into ridiculous, promote a 3rd.”
The preliminary capital for the fund got here from the duo’s private fortunes — Eyal’s from profitable firm exits and Moshal’s investments. He now owns a 46% stake within the now NYSE-listed Betway on-line on line casino that’s presently value about $879 million. Moshal, who’s reportedly now the most important donor in South African politics, retains a low profile however has been deeply concerned in Entree, in accordance with Eyal. “I don’t make funding selections with out talking to him first, we focus on the whole lot,” says Eyal.
To study the ropes of enterprise capital, the pair purchased stakes in main VC funds like Founder Collective, Iconiq and Stride VC. “There’s no college of VC so we invested in some funds and realized from them,” says Eyal.
The relationships they developed in doing that helped them win spots in scorching rounds like Stripe’s Collection C, and Coupang’s Collection E — a few of Entree’s star offers. “Avi got here to our annual conferences like each different LP however the distinction was that… Avi made a degree of attending to know these founders,” says David Frankel, managing accomplice of Founder Collective, who additionally backed Coupang. “Any one of many LPs may have accomplished that however Avi… was simply working it more durable.”
Entree Capital, its title a nod to Eyal’s ardour for cooking, has some home-baked winners like Monday.com. The Tel Aviv-based enterprise, which listed on the New York Inventory Trade with a $7 billion valuation in June 2021, had struggled early on to search out its area of interest. And not using a bailout from Entree Capital, it might have run out of cash. “That vote of confidence was pivotal again then,” says cofounder Zinman.
Exterior of Monday.com, and mega offers like Stripe and Coupang, Eyal has racked up a collection of extra modest wins just like the sale of environmental startup Breezometer for a reported $200 million to Google
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Buyers and founders which have labored with Eyal credit score his entrepreneurial expertise (“two depressing failures” and eight exits, in his personal phrases) as sharpening his investing — and galvanizing him to slash administration charges. “Sadly, quite a few VCs have gotten massive funds, they usually’ve change into fats, they usually dwell off the administration charges. And our view is, we do not want the administration charges,” he says. Identical goes for taking cash out, even from rocketship investments like Stripe. “One among our rules is that when the valuations change into ridiculous, promote a 3rd.”
Monday.com is one exception to that rule. Unusually for a seed investor, Eyal invested at each spherical on the way in which to its IPO, sits on the board and nonetheless holds inventory in his personal title (Entree cashed out some inventory pre-IPO). “Avi is the weirdest VC in how he invests,” says Zinman. “Extra historically funds solely do seed or late stage rounds however Avi’s construction is extra versatile… he calls the photographs so it’s simpler.”
