Yoav Andrew Leitersdorf Launches YL Ventures, a Next-Generation Venture Capital Fund

YL Ventures is a boutique fund which combines value-added venture capital, business development and investment banking skills in order to facilitate medium-size acquisitions of high-technology companies in which it invests. Having recently had its first closing, YL Ventures has commenced investing throughout Europe and Israel.

Amsterdam, Netherlands and Hertzelia, Israel (PRWEB ) 8 May, 2007 -- YL Ventures is pleased to announce the formation and first closing of its high-technology venture capital fund. Following this initial closing, with plans to ultimately secure $30 million of capital in the coming months, the fund has commenced its investment activities, which are centered on early stage technology companies throughout Europe and Israel. YL Ventures is focused on investing in the internet, telecommunications, and digital media software sectors via a unique and active approach to "mezzanine" venture capital.

The fundamental investment strategy of YL Ventures is investing in software companies within its sectors; accelerate their evolution via value-added governance and business development activities; and arrange their "medium size" acquisitions within six to twenty-four months, mainly by US-based corporations. It is intended that exit strategies are conceived (and potential acquirers identified) prior to YL Ventures investing in the company.

With representative offices located in Europe and Israel, the venture capital fund will be headed by Mr. Yoav Andrew Leitersdorf, a successful entrepreneur, investor and advisor in the technology and new media fields for the past 15 years.

"YL Ventures has been founded to address the changing venture capital financing landscape," stated Mr. Leitersdorf. "We are investing in high technology start-up companies and within a reasonably short timeframe prepare these enterprises to be merged and integrated with global strategic acquirers that we know. We have unique and differentiated deal flow within Europe and Israel, facilitated by hundreds of individual contacts and acquainted organizations. We combine our capital with deep technology and market expertise, thereby facilitating a highly efficient model for technological innovation.

"YL Ventures achieves this strategy by identifying suitable portfolio companies with promising and advanced research and development projects which may fill product gaps and/or provide time-to-market advantages to a set of acquirers known to the fund," continued Mr. Leitersdorf. "We seek to obtain substantial equity positions in each portfolio company by offering its shareholders and management team not only capital, but also a clearly-identified path to liquidity which is far more certain than those offered by traditional venture capital firms."

As a value-added investor, YL Ventures accelerates the evolution of its portfolio companies by providing business development, technical and financial support and leadership. The venture capital fund locates potential acquirers as early as possible; helps groom its investee company with an eye toward its purchase; and negotiates acquisition terms (such as earn-outs) which facilitate the relatively early sale of the portfolio company. In almost all cases, YL Ventures aims to conceive exit strategies concomitantly with its initial investment, and in many cases acquirers will have been identified prior to going in.

YL Ventures achieved its first closing in record time due to investor confidence in its management team and the pillars of its highly-differentiated strategy, which include proprietary deal flow, short investment holding periods, significant company value-add, and predefined exit strategies.

About Mr. Yoav Andrew Leitersdorf
Mr. Leitersdorf is the cofounder and was the Managing Director and CEO of Movota Ltd. (London), a mobile service provider to the broadcast media industry that he sold to Bertelsmann AG, Europe’s largest media conglomerate. Previously, Mr. Leitersdorf was the cofounder and chief technology officer of ExchangePath Ltd. (New York), an Internet payment technology company that was acquired by internet conglomerate CMGI for over $25 million. Mr. Leitersdorf was also the founder and CEO of PcEntertainer Magazine, the world’s first online multimedia magazine publisher, and worked as an associate at Draper Fisher Jurvetson Gotham Ventures (New York). Mr. Leitersdorf holds an MBA from Columbia University (Beta Gamma Sigma) and has studied International Business at the International Institute of Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne, Switzerland.

About YL Ventures' Investment Team
An outstanding investment team is being assembled by Mr. Leitersdorf, one emphasizing an array of complementary backgrounds and talents. Joining Mr. Leitersdorf as founding partners in the establishment of YL Ventures is a pair of individuals who together bring many years of experience in venture capital investing and the founding and growth of high-technology enterprises: John G. Quigley, a veteran U.S. private equity investor whose seminal experiences were in the 1980s LBO arena, and was most-recently a founder and managing partner of Nassau Capital, the firm established in the mid-1990s to manage the private portion of the Princeton University endowment; and Boaz Misholi, one of the founders of the Israeli high-tech industry, with over twenty five years of experience in founding, managing and investing in high-tech companies, including having been founder, CEO and Chairman of Comverse Technology (NASDAQ: “CMVT”). Advisors to the fund include a selection of captains of industry and senior executives at technology and media corporations, many of which represent potential acquirers of YL Ventures portfolio companies.

About YL Ventures
YL Ventures is a venture capital boutique that was founded to address the changing venture capital financing landscape. The fund specializes on investing in high technology start-up companies and within a short timeframe merges and integrates them with global strategic acquirers that are known to the fund. YL Ventures has unique and differentiated deal flow within Europe and Israel, facilitated by hundreds of individual contacts and acquainted organizations. The fund combines its capital with deep engineering and market expertise, thereby facilitating a highly efficient model for technological innovation. The firm has representative offices in Amsterdam, Netherlands and Hertzelia, Israel. For more information, please visit http://www.YLVentures.com or email pr @ YLVentures.com.