JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Earth & Beyond Ventures, a new early-stage venture fund investing in Israel’s emerging commercial space ecosystem, said on Thursday it had launched with commitments of $125 million.
Earth & Beyond said it was backed by manufacturer and NASA supplier Corning Inc, Japanese electronics giant Kyocera Corp, Israeli satellite firm SpaceCom and Samtec, a manufacturer of electronic connectivity components.
The Israel Innovation Authority is also an investor, it said.
Earth & Beyond said it would invest between $500,000 to $2 million for seed and pre-seed companies in technologies such as semiconductors, robotics, new materials, sensors, smart farms, quantum computing, solar power, cyber security, and alternative proteins.
“Our job … is to identify and support the deep technologies and ideas that can become powerful applications not just here on earth, but in space as well,” said Earth & Beyond CEO Baruch Schori.
(Reporting by Steven Scheer; Editing by Ari Rabinovitch)