Israel, experimentation
Yozma, the venture capital catalyst
Israel put 100 million dollars of public money into ten hybrid venture funds from 1993, with foreign partners and a buy-out option, and by 2002 the country had 131 venture funds with around 10 billion dollars under management.
10,000,000,000 US dollars, capital under management by israeli venture funds, 2002. 100,000,000 US dollars, government capital that started yozma, 1993. OECD, Venture Capital Policies in Israel, STI working paper 2003/3, retrieved 2026-08-27.
The move, and what it needed
The state capitalised new private funds rather than picking companies, required each fund to bring a foreign venture firm as partner, and sold the government's stake cheaply to the private partners once a fund worked, so the subsidy was the upside, and it expired by design.
Preconditions
- A stock of investable technology and founders already present
- Foreign venture firms willing to teach the craft for cheap equity
- A government able to exit a working programme instead of scaling it
Where else it has been used: Yozma is the most copied venture policy in the world, and most copies fail on the same two points: no credible foreign-partner requirement, and no willingness to sell the state's stake at the moment of success.
Limits: Attribution is the weak joint: the ten funds were one cause among several, alongside a million-person skilled immigration wave, military technology spillovers and a US stock market that wanted Israeli listings, and the OECD paper credits Yozma as catalyst rather than cause. The 10 billion figure is capital under management, not investment made or returns earned, and roughly 70 percent of it was foreign money. The programme was deliberately closed once private capital led, which is why the status is concluded.
This record describes what Israel delivered. It is linked to Venture deals because no comparable dataset measures that capability. It does not affect the score or confidence.
More from Israel
6 other deliveries from this country.
Seawater desalination under private concessions
Israel's Water Authority contracted private operators to build and run large seawater desalination plants under long-term concessions, and by 2022 the five largest held concessions for about 596 million cubic metres a year and supplied 33 percent of the country's fresh water, with the state buying 540 million cubic metres from them that year for about NIS 1.5 billion.
Israel's government approved the Red Line in December 2010 at an estimated NIS 10.7 billion, and NTA, the state-owned company delivering it, began the main construction works in 2015. By October 2021 the cost estimate had reached NIS 18.71 billion, about 75% above the original, and the completion date had been postponed six times, by about five years in total. The 24 km line opened in August 2023, and in December 2025 the State Comptroller put its construction cost at NIS 18.8 billion.
National COVID-19 vaccination campaign
Israel started COVID-19 vaccination in December 2020 through its four health funds and had fully vaccinated about 70 percent of adults by April 2021; at the end of April 2021, 55 percent of its population was vaccinated, when coverage in most OECD countries was between 11 percent and less than one percent.
Israel Railways electrification and the Jerusalem express line, and their delays
Israel Railways began electrifying the national network in 2000 and opened the electric express line to Jerusalem in September 2018, but by May 2020 only about 64 of 480 planned route kilometres were electrified, and the forecast completion date had moved from 2019, set in 2013, to the end of 2025, on an estimated cost of ILS 12.1 billion.
Ministry of Labour Vocational Training Division adult courses
Israel's Vocational Training Division, in the labour ministry, trained about 61,000 people in 2022, against about 55,000 in 2019 and 59,000 in 2021, according to the Knesset Research and Information Center.
Bank of Israel COVID-19 small-business credit programme
After the Monetary Committee decided on 6 April 2020 to lend banks three-year fixed-rate money for credit to small and micro businesses, the Bank of Israel had NIS 1.2 billion outstanding under the programme by 30 April 2020 and NIS 28.1 billion by 31 March 2021.
The same indicator elsewhere
2 deliveries linked to Venture deals in other countries.
British Patient Capital, a public venture-capital catalyst
The British Business Bank reported that government-owned British Patient Capital had committed £2.287 billion through 80 fund commitments, 10 co-investments and 18 Future Fund deals by 31 March 2024, with an underlying portfolio of 1,350 companies.
Portugal Ventures, a public venture-capital bridge
Portugal Ventures, the public venture-capital company in the Banco Português de Fomento group, reports €233.2 million invested in 256 new companies since 2012 and €283 million under management.