Speaking last Monday at The Jerusalem Post Annual Conference, iAngels Founding Partner and Co-CEO Mor Assia said that “although Wall Street is going through turmoil … and it seems counterintuitive to invest, history shows that the best investor returns, and many of today’s Fortune 500 companies were founded in a down cycle.”

The best companies and the most passionate entrepreneurs are going to get funded even in 2022, although what the market is likely to see is a form of “natural selection,” where only those who are truly committed keep running toward the finish line.

iAngels, for example, executed 56 transactions in 2021, with over 40 companies in its portfolio transacting follow-on rounds, an additional 10 new deals and 13 exits last year, but  many companies raised large rounds in 2021 still on the promise of what they will be able to do.

Companies who raised funds have to focus now on building and achieving significant milestones so that by their next round, they will have delivered on their promise or be faced with raising at suboptimal terms,” she said, adding that companies will have to be able to show a path to profitability, as this will be the expectation from a future growth fund.

As a mother of five, I am constantly considering what my children’s future will look like, and how technology will define their lives differently from ours today.

I see what is happening in Israel every day. When I meet entrepreneurs today, I hear the same sentiment over and over. They are not stopping at soonicorn or unicorn status or merely going public. These milestones are just a stepping stone along their journey to build a company that will truly impact the world and bring about change – that is what really inspires me.  

We have been very active this past year, but as valuations come down and performance prevails as an indicator of value, we believe the upcoming year will be a vintage to reckon with, and that is exactly what our new fund will be focused on.