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Blumberg Capital Expands Team with Six Strategic Hires in the U.S. and Israel

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Team additions pull from Israeli military leadership and core business development roles, adding global technological expertise.

SAN FRANCISCO and TEL AVIV – Sept. 20, 2018 Blumberg Capital, a San Francisco based early-stage venture capital firm, today announced a significant expansion, adding six new team members in San Francisco and Tel Aviv. The new members bring a combination of deep operational, entrepreneurial and technical expertise that will greatly help the firm expand its global investment breadth as well as support current portfolio companies.

“We take great pride in building a connected global team with deep technological expertise that complements one another and best positions us to find, evaluate, invest in and support portfolio companies,” said David J. Blumberg, founder and managing partner, Blumberg Capital. “Our new team members are both internationally-minded and multidisciplinary in their approach. It takes a visionary team like this to identify the most promising technologies in today’s innovation-everywhere global economy and invest in accelerated innovation in the complex technologies with the potential to transform billions of lives.”

New Blumberg Capital team members:

  • Steve Gillan, COO and CFO, San Francisco: Gillan previously served as the CFO at Azure Capital Partners and has extensive operating and board experience at startups and large companies. He was previously CFO at e-commerce startup Mercantila, CFO/COO at marketing technology company Fathom Online and CFO at e-commerce company Alibris. He has led companies through acquisitions and IPO preparation, and held senior-level finance positions with publicly-traded manufacturing companies.
  • Yodfat Harel Buchris, Managing Director, Tel Aviv: Harel is an experienced investor and board member with extensive experience in management, business development, marketing and strategic planning in the North American, European and Asian markets. Harel serves on the board of Discount Bank, one of Israel’s three largest banks, was the corporate director of Orbotech, one of Israel’s largest technology companies and serves as a magistrate on the National Labor Court. She also served on the boards at large global companies and innovative startups, including EL Al Airlines, Protalix Biotherapeutics, N-Trig (acquired by Microsoft), Storewize (acquired by IBM) and Panaya (acquired by Infosys).
  • Ehud Schneorson, Managing Director, Tel Aviv: With 30 years in the Israeli Intelligence community, Brigadier General (Retired) Ehud Schneorson is the former commander of Unit 8200 in the Israel Defense Forces, one of the world’s elite intelligence and cyber agencies. Ehud commanded tens of thousands of soldiers and reservists and accomplished incredible feats of technological prowess, developing cutting edge AI, big data, software, networking, cybersecurity, hardware and telecommunications cybersecurity solutions.
  • Idan Nurick, Principal, Tel Aviv: Nurick served for a decade as a computer scientist in Unit 8200 of the Israel Defense Forces leading R&D teams and the unit’s largest cyber operations project. For the past three years, he was a cyber researcher in Sygnia by Team8, a cyber technology and services company and was a scientific advisor to biotech companies. He has an MBA from Tel Aviv University, has completed the pre-clinical phase of his MD-PhD, a MSc in computer science and bioinformatics and undergraduate degrees in biology, computer science and mathematics. His areas of expertise include med-tech, AI, fintech, cybersecurity and enterprise software.  
  • Andrew Van Nest, Associate, San Francisco: Van Nest previously worked in business development and strategy for Ellation, as an associate for Silicon Valley Bank and as an investment banking analyst for William Blair. He honed his competitive skills as an NCAA basketball player while earning his undergraduate degree at Harvard College and his master’s degree at Boston College. He went on to play basketball professionally in Europe.
  • Peter Cooney III, Data Analyst, San Francisco: Cooney previously worked as a financial and strategy analyst for Santander US. He is a graduate of The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Blumberg Capital manages more than half a billion dollars across multiple funds and has made more than 200 investments around the world. Learn more about Blumberg Capital and the new team in “The Right Global Investment Team for the Next Generation of Leading Entrepreneurs.”

About Blumberg Capital

Blumberg Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm that partners with passionate entrepreneurs to innovate and build successful technology companies. The firm specializes in leading Seed and Series A rounds collaborating with angel investors, other venture capital firms and strategic partners. The Blumberg Capital team are active investors and board members – operating as an extension of the entrepreneurs’ network. Blumberg Capital is headquartered in San Francisco with team members in Tel Aviv and New York. For more information, please visit blumbergcapital.com, follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

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