Adam Valkin had his next act all mapped out. After a 12-year run building General Catalyst into a global venture capital powerhouse and backing companies like British digital bank Monzo, fitness startup Classpass and Stripe rival Rapyd, he planned to launch his own fund.
But during a scouting trip to Israel, where the South African-born investor planned to focus his efforts, he learned of a fledgling fund that had carved out a niche at the center of Tel Aviv’s tech scene. Former Insight Partners investor Eric Reiner and TA Associates Daniel Povitsky had founded Vine Ventures in 2019 and had raised $250 million to back pre-seed and seed founders in Israel and the United States.
Now, instead of striking out on his own, the Boston, Massachusetts-based Valkin is joining the five-year-old boutique firm as a partner. “Like General Catalyst, it’s a very soulful firm, very people and relationship focused,” says Valkin.
Vine’s Israeli focus suits Valkin’s own investment interests. He’s been investing in Israel for over 20 years with both General Catalyst and his former fund Accel, and some of his best investments had come out of the country: payments startup Rapyd, which last raised at $10 billion in 2021, Melio (acquired by Xero for $2.5 billion last month) and games developer Superplay, which was acquired by Playtika for $2 billion last year.
Despite that success, Valkin sees a need to help Israeli founders break into the United States market. “Every Israeli company is successful based on their entry into the United States,” said Valkin. “Being the bridge between Israel and the U.S. is a big part of the focus of the fund.”
The Vine team operates between Tel Aviv, New York and San Francisco and has backed Israel-based companies like cloud backup unicorn Eon, AI agent startup Wonderful and AI code generator Qodo,, which raised a $40 million Series A from Susa Ventures in September. Valkin will also continue to back U.S.-based startups. “There was so much overlap in our visions that it became a no-brainer to work together,” says Eric Reiner, founder and managing partner of Vine Ventures.
It’s a significant jump from investing out of one of Silicon Valley’s largest funds, which now manages over $32 billion. But General Catalyst is in the middle of a shakeup, expanding to private equity-style roll ups and is now branded by CEO Hemant Taneja as a “strategic conglomerate” rather than as a VC. And Valkin isn’t the only partner to leave; TechCrunch reported in March that Valkin and managing directors Deep Nishar and Kyle Doherty would exit the firm this year.
For Valkin, the move represents a return to hands-on investing after he oversaw General Catalyst’s early-stage team and its international expansion (before the takeover of a Europe and India-focused seed funds). “I’m not really a big organization person at the core,” he said. “What I actually want to spend my hours doing is working with founders and trying to help make them successful. I was definitely spread way too thin there.”
Valkin has chosen a hot time to invest in the so-called “Startup Nation.” While venture investment plunged after the October 7 attack and the outbreak of the war in Gaza, Pitchbook data shows that Israeli startups raised $3.1 billion since the start of the year, almost eclipsing the $3.8 billion raised in total in 2024 while the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange has hit record highs. “The resilience and energy is unlike anything I have seen before,” said Valkin.
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