Venture capital and cross-border investing are experiencing a shift as markets adjust to evolving economic conditions and changing investor priorities. Israeli startups are increasingly eyeing the US as a key expansion opportunity. Eyal Bino, founding partner of 97212 Ventures, has built a seed fund dedicated to helping Israeli companies navigate the complexities of entering the New York market. With years of experience investing and supporting early-stage companies, his firm provides hands-on guidance in customer acquisition, team building, and market entry. We spoke with Eyal to get his perspective on trends in venture capital and the challenges and opportunities in the market for global startups in the US.

What trends in venture capital excite you the most? 

2025 will hopefully bring more liquidity to the market, with increased M&As, IPOs, and capital for founders to tap into. The market has been pretty slow recently due to elections and geopolitical issues. In 2021, founders raised rounds every 9–12 months, which was extreme, but now it takes 24–36 months. The ideal balance lies somewhere in between, allowing companies to scale quicker but more efficiently. Fundraising has been healthy overall in 2024, but the rise of AI has led to some companies getting exciting or unrealistic valuations, while others with more traction but less hype are overlooked. At 97212, we look for companies with innovation, and while early, we believe in their ability to obtain meaningful revenues. I believe 2025 will provide more of those opportunities.

Which sectors do you see as ripe for disruption?

There’s still a lot of room for innovation in healthcare — from automating services to using AI for patient support systems to incorporating software into improving drugs. One of our companies, Remepy, is pioneering hybrid drugs to improve drug efficacy which can be a game-changer for both pharmas and patients. However, distribution is key for companies to be successful. I also see innovation opportunities in property management and construction tech. At the enterprise level, companies are focused on improving developer workflows and data security. Emerging industries like defense tech and give tech, which have rarely been in the spotlight, are now seeing more innovation and becoming more mainstream.

How do you foresee startup valuations evolving in 2025? 

The cleanup from the happy days of 2021 is almost done, but not quite. We will see some more companies either running out of capital, getting acquired, or raising new rounds. On the flip side, AI companies are highly exciting for investors, with valuations through the roof, while typical SaaS companies are measured by revenue. As investors, we look for cutting-edge companies early on, with the potential to be market leaders and valuations in the high teens or lower double digits. These companies need enough capital to build something innovative, gain traction, and then raise money at higher valuations. The market is still correcting, offering opportunities for VCs to invest in companies with good traction at lower valuations or pay up for the hottest ones, depending on their style.

Can you share an example of an Israeli startup you worked with that successfully expanded into the US?

One example from our portfolio is BiltOn, a construction tech company with a few hundred customers and several hundred sites in Israel. When we invested in the company, they proved the model in Israel but had no customers in the US market.  A few months after the round, the CEO moved to New York with his family and it was transformational for the company. I think what’s been meaningful for the company is having the CEO kind of set a tone when it comes to customer acquisition strategy, talking to customers face to face, going to conferences, being visible on Linkedin, and just becoming more of a US company with an Israeli mindset to it versus a company that we feel is a little bit more of a remote company working fully from Israel. A year later the company was able to raise their B round, based on the success in the US and doubling down their revenue.

How do you see cross-border investments evolving?

We need to see how Trump’s immigration policy will impact international founders getting visas and being able to work in the US. Immigrants are top innovators, and many leading US companies were built by immigrant founders. For Israeli founders, it’s easier to raise capital from US investors once they’re in the US or have meaningful traction that attracts VCs. At the seed stage, it’s more of a challenge for US-based seed funds to invest in companies without strong introductions from trusted investors or being locally here. As companies mature, cross-border investments become easier.

What do you think will be the biggest challenges for VCs? 

I think the biggest challenge we’ve had over the last couple of years is lack of liquidity. So a lot of LPs have not seen money coming back to them. It’s a real challenge for the entire ecosystem. LPs want to look at not just paper performance, but real performance and real DPI. I think the industry as a whole seems to be converging lately, meaning some funds are not raising new funds and that’s generally a good thing as we had way too many funds pop up over the last few years as capital was cheap. Now, we’re going to a market where differentiated funds have more ability to provide better performance and ultimately raise subsequent funds.

As you look into the future of venture capital, what excites you the most?

I think I’m excited to see how AI is going to change the way many large industries work, including venture capital.  There are definitely going to be some changes. There’s been some changes already in the way we communicate, in the way we obtain information. I think that we’re seeing some interesting trends and opportunities that we need to see if they’re gonna stick over the next two or three years. But overall, AI has a massive impact on the market already, and we’re gonna have to kind of wait and see where it’s gonna lead us. It’s clear that the term efficiency is going to really take on a different meaning over the next few years.