| Notes |
MOFET Israel Technology Fund
In 1992, together with DSIT and others, Peres co-founded "MOFET Israel Technology Fund" (MOFET is Hebrew acronym for "Industrial R&D"), one of the first venture capital funds listed on Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, operating according to the guidelines for early stage investments, issued by Inbal, the Israel Government Insurance firm. The fund initially raised $6 million on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange in 1993. Later on, it grew in size, as outstanding warrants and convertible debentures were exercised. In August 1993, the fund invested (with others) $1.5 million in VocalTec, the world's first company to transmit Voice over Internet Protocol. Peres served as chief executive officer of MOFET until 1996.
MOFET invested in several high-tech companies, among them are Netro Corporation, Precise Software, Paradigm Geophysical and Orckit Communications (later named Orckit-Corrigent). All of them went public on Nasdaq. In addition, other companies in the MOFET portfolio were acquired by multinational corporations, among them Nicecom (sold in 1994 to 3Com for $58 million, one of the first in a wave of Israeli High-tech sales); "Shani Computers", sold to Intel Corporation in 1994; and Scorpio, sold to USRobotics in August 1996, for $72 million.[2] |