| 14 Tammuz 5761, Thursday Jul. 5,
2001 Last updated: (12:48)
Hi-tech philanthropists announce
formation of tmura
By Buzzy
Gordon
July 3, 18:40 -- Representatives of leading venture capital (VC)
firms in Israel announced today in Tel Aviv the official launching
of Tmura -- The Israeli Public Service Venture Fund.
The
goal of the fund is "to increase the involvement of the hi-tech
community in non-profit activity in Israel, with a focus on
education and other youth initiatives."
The translation of
the Hebrew word tmura is "change/metamorphosis," and also "value for
money." The root is similar to truma, which means contribution,
or donation.
"The mission of Tmura is to support
charitable initiatives in Israel, with a special emphasis on
educational activities and youth opportunities," said Yadin
Kaufmann, a founding partner of Herzliya-based Veritas Venture
Capital. "In this way, we hope to develop a culture of giving within
the hi-tech sector, and share the wealth that is being created by
the country's technology industry.
"We recognize the need to
give back to the community, especially in light of widening social
gaps between the richer and poorer segments of society," Kaufmann
continued. "Tmura also wishes to strengthen the societal base from
which future entrepreneurs and thus potential portfolio companies in
whom we could invest will emerge."
Joining Kaufmann in
launching the initiative were venture capitalists Shlomo Kalish of
Jerusalem Global Ventures and Zeev Holtzman of Giza Venture Capital.
Other VC firms that have already announced their support are Walden,
Gemini, Tamir Fishman and individual venture capitalists Arad Naveh
(of Benchmark Israel), Amos Bar-Shalev (of TDA) and Daniel Barkan.
Other entities donating their services on behalf of the
effort are the law firm of Gross, Kleinhendler, Hodak, Halevy,
Greenberg & Co., as well as the accounting firm of
PricewaterhouseCoopers. The latter is negotiating with the tax
authorities for tax-deductible status for Tmura, which is planning
to register as a non-profit organization and "serve as a bridge
between hi-tech and non-profits," according to Kaufmann. The public
relations firm Ruder, Finn is also donating its services, as have
Web site designers Yaniv Dvir and Tanya Roitman.
Kaufmann
said that the model for Tmura is one that is already operational in
the US, by the Silicon Valley and Austin Entrepreneur Foundations.
Holtzman noted that the same model was actually introduced by Israel
Seed Partners of Jerusalem, under venture capitalist Jon Medved.
The way the process works is that VC funds will ask hi-tech
start-ups to set aside 0.5 percent to 1% of their equity for the
charitable work of Tmura.
When a liquidity event or exit
occurs -- such as an investee company going public, or being
acquired -- the value of that amount of stock will be transferred to
Tmura, whose board of advisors will then allocate money to projects
that will have been identified as worthy.
Kalish said Tmura
hopes to make grants of $5 million within five years.
"Jewish
tradition teaches that we must be a world leader in this area," he
said.
Tmura has begun a capital campaign to underwrite the
operating expenses of the organization, so that as close as possible
to 100% of the eventual proceeds can go directly to the charitable
activities. VC firms, professional service firms, corporations
donors and individuals have begun making commitments, Kaufmann said,
in order to cover such expenses as hiring a director, publishing
promotional literature, maintaining a Web site (www.tmura.org) and
organizing fundraising events.
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