Roman Gold

In our first years after aliyah, we lived in Jerusalem. A tiny apartment on King George Street, right in the city center. The whole building belonged to an old woman from an entirely different era, and her son, with his thick black beard, worked at the pizzeria on the ground floor. Hard times. And happy times. Almost embarrassingly happy. So many years have passed, and I still remember every stone. The other day I walked past that same pizzeria. Behind the counter stood an old man with a grey beard. Time had left its mark on his face, but his eyes were the same, still young. Just like our City. Happy Jerusalem Day.

@LeonidLifits Спасибо! Рад слышать.

@romangold Очень интересный подкаст! Частями, но послушал с удовольствием!

Два часа насыщенного диалога о том, как армия, наука, диаспора и культура несогласия превратили Израиль в одну из самых плотных deep tech экосистем мира. А еще — как устроен social due diligence на израильском рынке, почему deep tech сегодня все чаще строится под быстрый M&A, какие вертикали определяют новый цикл роста и что на самом деле мешает людям из академии превращать сильную науку в сильные компании. youtube.com/watch?v=Po17WG…

42 years on this planet, and I’ve landed in the most interesting epoch of the last two thousand years. And it seems we’re only at the beginning. L’chaim!

Passover begins today — the time of our freedom. We often forget that leaving Egypt didn't make us free. We were still slaves, just with the freedom of movement. The giving of the Torah did not make us free automatically either. It made us responsible — yes. But not free. Because freedom is never granted. It is won. The generation of the Exodus, which refused to fight for its freedom, remained in the desert forever. But their children took up arms — and won their land, their sky, and their freedom. And that process can never be reversed. Our freedom was burned, slashed, butchered, gassed, blown up on buses, and bombed. It didn't work. Freedom is already free. This year — in Jerusalem rebuilt!

@VentureIsrael is honored to be ranked #3 among the most active VCs in Israel out of 844 funds. Instead of a long self-congratulatory post, I’ll put our strategy in four words: Israeli Deep Tech. All-in. The real credit belongs to our portfolio companies, their founders, and their teams. They are the ones building, fighting, creating, and turning the impossible into reality. You make us proud every single day.

It’s Israel Space Week, and we’re proud to share that VentureIsrael has been ranked among the top 5 investors in SpaceTech in the country (out of 636 active VCs). Thanks to Startup Nation Central for mapping Israel’s SpaceTech ecosystem. A quick look at our "space" portfolio: one company was founded by the Head of Satellite Operations at Unit 9900, and another by the Director General of the Israel Space Agency. That’s all we can disclose for now. Currently, 7 out of the 11 startups in our VentureIsrael II fund are in stealth mode. While it may seem quiet from the outside, the work happening behind closed doors is groundbreaking. Our strategy is simple: less hype, more facts. We’ve always prioritized results over announcements. While others promise the future, we’re busy backing those who are already delivering it.

It’s an honor for me to invite you to Bridge Point Summit 2026 - January 29, 18:00, at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Honestly, I could just list the names on stage and stop there: @eyal_waldman, @yevgeny_dibrov, @Guy_Flechter, @HillaBrenner - and more. But what truly hooked me is the summit’s core idea, which deeply resonates with our vision: we need more bridges. Our society, our economy, our innovation ecosystem need them now more than ever. Bridges aren't built between institutions. Bridges are built between people. This summit is about people with different backgrounds, different life paths, different superpowers - united by one purpose: building a thriving Israel, not just for us, but for our children and grandchildren. At @VentureIsrael, we’re proud to support Bridge Point Summit as a VC Partner. If this summit helps build even one bridge that wouldn’t exist otherwise - it matters. See you on January 29. luma.com/g3k4yejn

Jewish school → coding → journalism → coworking → investment consulting → two venture funds. Seems like this interview really tried to fit it all in :) pulse2.com/ventureisrael-…

Happy to have added my two cents (well, shekels) to The Wall Street Journal piece on the ceasefire's impact on Israel's startup ecosystem. Featured both online and in print this time. TL;DR: All is well, and the best is yet to come. wsj.com/articles/cease…

Evyatar David was kidnapped by Hamas from the Nova festival. He’s being starved in Gaza. With @IsraelinNewYork , we brought his story to Times Square because the world can no longer look away. The hostages must be front and center on the global agenda. We will not rest until they’re all home. 🎗️

I’d love to be appearing in The Wall Street Journal for something more cheerful, but here we are, sending selfies from a bomb shelter. Since incorporating our second fund, VentureIsrael has been on fire — a new deal every single month. June won't break that streak: another deal before month's end. We keep building. wsj.com/articles/israe…

Now it’s official: VentureIsrael II is live! Navigating turbulence is in our DNA — Gadi and I, along with our dear partners, launched our first fund at the height of a pandemic, and today we’re rolling out the second amid the war. It’s so rare for emerging funds to take this path that The Wall Street Journal made us its lead story in the daily VC newsletter: venturecapital.createsend1.com/t/d-e-shrhrdl-… What’s more, we’ve been partners for 13 years — a true Bar Mitzvah milestone — and our conviction in Israel’s innovation ecosystem and the startups we champion has never been stronger, especially through the toughest seasons. Our inaugural VentureIsrael fund ranked among the top 10 most active VCs in its vintage year. VentureIsrael II aims even higher. We are immensely proud of you — our founders, our investors, our friends, our partners, our family. Ready, set, go!

Another birthday rolls around — time to calm down, cocoon, right? Thing is, I’m nowhere near ready. From time to time, I update my list of goals — and for every dream fulfilled, three new ones appear. One of them will almost certainly turn out to be someone else's, the second — poorly defined, and the third — truly mine. The trick is not to mix them up. So far, so good.

In the largest Israeli exit ever, the number itself isn’t the only record — Google paid $32B for Wiz, and it all happened in just five years from founding to acquisition. Among the 10 largest tech acquisitions in history, 15 years was the fastest exit ever — until Wiz came along and did it in 5! Some call it luck. I don’t believe in random luck. I believe in luck forged by years of experience, hard work, exceptional sensitivity to market pains, the huge risks investors (especially early ones) take, and sheer resilience. That’s the luck I believe in, and it’s the kind our Israeli ecosystem is especially known for.

Largest exit in Israeli ecosystem history: Google acquires Wiz for $32 billion! So proud of our tech community's resilience and achievements even in these challenging times.

Proud to join the Advisory Forum on AI Policy and Regulation as an Expert Member at the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology of Israel, contributing to the development of responsible and effective AI policies.

Startup Nation Central has released the first data for Israel’s venture capital market in 2024: - $12.2B in investments raised by Israeli startups — the third-highest in the ecosystem’s history. - $15.8B in exits — the second-best result ever recorded. - 82% of deals were early-stage companies — a clear sign of investor confidence in Israel’s long-term potential. We keep moving forward.

When journalism fails, data speaks. Fifty Global Research Group led by Tatiana Glezer partnered with the UK-based think tank, the Henry Jackson Society, to produce a comprehensive report, which formed the basis of yesterday's article in The Telegraph titled "Number of civilians killed in Gaza 'inflated to vilify Israel.'": telegraph.co.uk/world-news/202… The Henry Jackson Society has spent recent months investigating violations by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Ministry of Health, including: - Recording natural population decline as war casualties; - Misclassifying deceased militants as women and children; - Other breaches related to transparent statistics. Fifty Global in collaboration with International Institute of Social and Legal Studies, has demonstrated: - 97% of outlets (CNN, BBC, The New York Times, ABC, The Guardian, The Washington Post, Reuters, AP) on average omitted militant casualties when reporting total deaths in Gaza. - 84% of these outlets never clarified that the total casualty figures included militants. - 20% of journalists cited Hamas data as "generally accepted figures" without providing sources. - Israel was cited as a source for militant casualty data in only 5% of publications. - Just 2% of articles noted that Hamas data was unverifiable, compared to nearly 50% questioning the reliability of Israeli data. Overall, they found widespread violations of journalistic ethics, which require reporting both sides in a conflict. This led to a distorted narrative that Israel employs disproportionate force, waging war against civilians rather than targeting the terrorist organization Hamas. This has been a monumental effort by a large team of volunteers. The Fifty Global research group brought together around 50 volunteers worldwide. All the data will soon be publicly available on their website: fifty.global When journalism fails, data speaks. These findings deserve to be heard. Please share.