By Doreen Hemlock
An online platform that helps tech startups get funding from individual investors is looking to set up in Miami to expand its reach across the Americas.
Israel-based Catalyst Investors’ Club, known as CIC, lets accredited investors join funding rounds led by venture capital groups to finance later-stage startups. The individuals can co-invest, sometimes as little as $25,000, in tech companies that already have international sales. The platform showcases the startups through short video-reels. So far, more than 300 ventures are listed, hailing from Israel, Europe and beyond, said Edouard Cukierman, CIC’s founder and a longtime VC investor from Israel.
“You can click on the videos, select the ones you like, and when those companies have a lead VC, we offer those investors to join the Club and co-invest in a specific deal,” Cukierman told Refresh Miami. He visited Miami recently to speak at a conference organized by Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post.
CIC launched two years ago, initially showcasing only Israeli tech companies. From Miami, it aims to grow across North, Central and South America and the Caribbean, attracting both startups seeking funds and professional investors interested in deals, Cukierman said.
“The US is the most sophisticated market in the world for investment in technology companies. So, we are looking to set up an office in the US, and to do so, with strategic partners,” the financier said. “We’re looking to Latin America as a strategic market and Miami as a gateway to Latin America.”
The group could partner in Latin America and establish a presence in the region too, he added.
Going virtual to trim the need for travel
Cukierman has been financing businesses since 1993, with his varied companies in Israel handling more than $10 billion in deals to date. From Israel, he first expanded into Europe, where he was born and where his father Roger led Edmond de Rothschild Bank in Paris and headed up many Jewish organizations. His companies focused mainly on “mid-market” financing, typically raising $20 million to $50 million for Israeli startups, and opting not to compete with big banks and mega-funders.
He began CIC modestly, but the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel by Hamas and subsequent war limited travel to and from Israel. Many Israeli ventures turned to the online platform to reach overseas investors who could not fly to Tel Aviv, said Cukerman.
“The platform has become an enabler for Israeli deal flow,” he said, much as Zoom and other forms of videoconferencing kept business going amid travel restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cukierman estimates CIC so far has helped drive “a few millions” in funding from individual investors in deals led mainly by Israel-based VC groups, with more deals now in the works.
Miami as a growing hub for Israel tech
CIC’s move comes as more Israeli tech companies set up in South Florida, lured by several factors: Miami’s growing role as a tech hub and Latin American gateway, weather similar to Israel’s, and a vibrant Jewish community, the third largest in the US after New York and Los Angeles.
“In the last two years, momentum has picked up,” said Rakefet Bachur-Phillips, co-executive director of the Florida-Israel Business Accelerator program based in Tampa. “Florida is on the map for Israeli startups.”
Cukierman says in Miami, he envisions a small CIC team “of three or four people” serving the “large and growing community of private investors, some from Israel and many in the mid-market” and tapping new opportunities in Latin America. He’s excited by Latin America’s fast-rising tech ecosystem and new leaders including Argentina’s pro-business president Javier Milei, the first head-of-state to meet with President-elect Donald Trump in South Florida in late 2023.
“We need to internationalize the platform,” adding companies and investors across the globe, said Cukierman, who co-wrote the book “Israel Valley” about Israel’s high tech sector, soon to be released in English. His short-term goal for CIC: reels showcasing 500 companies, mostly from outside Israel.
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