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Taiwanese Development Fund forms alliance with Israel's Giza Venture Capital

The Taiwanese government's Development Fund has formed a groundbreaking strategic alliance with Israeli firm Giza Venture Capital and agreed to invest in the VC's latest fund. The relationship highlights the growing importance of Asian markets to the international venture community and the efforts of some groups to establish footholds in the region.

The alliance is designed to provide the Israeli VC and its portfolio companies with access to Taiwanese manufacturing facilities, at the same time as exposing Taiwanese businesses to cutting edge technologies and venture capital best practices.

Yi-Fu Lin, the chairman of the Development Fund, said: 'This is a perfect match-up of Israel's experience in S&T innovation and R&D with Taiwan's manufacturing prowess. In the long-term, it will certainly be helpful to tapping the mutual complementarities of our two countries' competitive strengths and creating more opportunities for industrial cooperation.'

The Development Fund has agreed to invest more than $10m into Giza IV, the group's present fund. Some of this money will subsequently be invested into Taiwanese technology. Other Israeli groups have subsequently applied for investment from the Fund, signalling the likelihood that the relationship between the two countries deepens further in coming months.

A handful of US venture firms have also been building a presence in the Taiwanese and Chinese markets because of the capital efficiency of manufacturing and developing technologies in the region. Their investment activity in these markets has been more muted but is expected to accelerate over the medium-term.

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