A survey by accountancy firm Kesselman puts the figure for venture capital funds invested during 1997 in Israeli high-tech firms at a minimum of $429m. The firm’s Money Tree survey collated information from a number of Israeli and US based venture capital funds in order to arrive at its figure. Kesselman sources claim that the actual figure is around $550m but not all the companies questioned were prepared to give figures. Of the US states, only California, Massachusetts and Florida can claim higher investment compared with the lower estimate. Of the $429m, the internal breakdown was as follows: telecommunications (17%), programming (15%), medical devices (11%), semiconductors (11%), bio-technology (10%), electronics (6%), internet (5%), data communications (4%), robotics (3%), information technology (3%), computers (2%), multimedia (1%), other sectors (12%).
