Grove Ventures

Grove Ventures is one of Israel's most established early-stage deep tech funds, managing over $500 million across three funds. Founded on the conviction that the deep future is now, the firm has backed 43 Israeli technology companies since its inception, spanning enterprise SaaS, artificial intelligence, semiconductors, and healthtech.

Unlike generalist funds that spread across every sector, Grove Ventures concentrates on Israeli founders attacking genuinely hard technical problems - the kind that require years of domain expertise to solve. This focus has produced a portfolio that includes companies acquired by AWS and Molex, a unicorn in IoT tracking, and multiple companies reshaping urban mobility, protein engineering, and quantum computing.

The firm operates from Tel Aviv and is led by partners who have founded and exited companies themselves. That operator experience shapes how Grove works with founders: less board governance theater, more genuine partnership through major inflection points. The firm typically leads or co-leads rounds rather than following.

Grove Ventures deployed its third fund, a $185 million vehicle, in January 2022 - one of the larger Israeli fund closes that year. The timing proved challenging, but the fund's thesis aligned well with the increasing enterprise demand for AI infrastructure, semiconductor independence, and healthcare automation that has accelerated since.

For founders evaluating Israeli venture capital, Grove represents a meaningful signal to other investors. Their participation in a round carries weight because the firm is known for doing thorough technical due diligence rather than writing checks based on traction narratives alone.

Grove Ventures articulates its thesis simply: the deep future is now. What that means in practice is a fund that invests in founders building category-defining companies in sectors where Israeli technical talent holds structural advantages - particularly AI infrastructure, semiconductors, edge computing, and biotech.

The firm categorizes its portfolio across seven sectors: Infra & Dev Tools, SaaS & AI, Data Center & Compute, Energy, Bio & Healthcare, Semiconductors, and Edge & IoT. This breadth reflects a conviction that deep tech opportunity in Israel spans multiple verticals rather than concentrating in a single area.

Within healthtech and bio, Grove has backed companies like ProtAI (proteome illumination), Enzymit (novel enzymes for manufacturing), CalmiGo (mental health platform), and Opmed AI (healthcare workflow automation). The common thread is computational approaches to biological problems - software eating life sciences.

Grove's semiconductor thesis centers on photonic computing and specialized chips for AI workloads. Quantum Source is building photonic quantum processors, while Majestic Labs attacks AI acceleration from the chip architecture angle. The firm notes that data center infrastructure is one of the highest-growth spending categories globally, creating demand for novel silicon.

The Edge & IoT bucket includes the firm's most visible portfolio company, NoTraffic, which has raised $90 million to deploy AI-powered sensor and signal systems that modernize traffic infrastructure in cities across North America. Also in this category: Wiliot (whose IoT Pixels track supply chain items without batteries) and TriEye (short-wave infrared sensors for autonomous vehicles).

What distinguishes Grove's thesis from peers is the explicit emphasis on founders who are building physical-world systems rather than purely software businesses. While enterprise SaaS remains a priority, the fund has shown willingness to back capital-intensive hard tech when the technical differentiation is defensible.

Grove Ventures has maintained consistent deal activity through 2025 and into 2026, with a notable concentration in AI infrastructure and healthcare AI. Among recent investments, nivai (AI infrastructure power solutions) closed a $12 million seed round in March 2026 with Grove's participation, reflecting continued conviction in the AI compute theme.

Scala Biodesign represents Grove's most high-profile recent bet. In March 2026, the protein engineering company announced a $16 million Series A led by Grove Ventures, with participation from TLV Partners. The round accelerated Scala's mission to eliminate bottlenecks in computational protein design for pharmaceutical and chemical companies.

The firm has also been active in follow-on rounds for existing portfolio companies, demonstrating commitment beyond initial check writing. This support matters in a market where seed-stage companies often struggle to raise growth capital without demonstrable traction.

Grove's deal flow benefits from its established position in the Israeli ecosystem. The fund was an early investor in now-unicorn Wiliot, which has gone on to raised significant growth capital, and maintains relationships with serial founders who return to the firm across multiple fund cycles.

Market conditions since 2022 have made deployment more selective across the industry, and Grove has responded by maintaining rigorous technical due diligence while keeping check sizes flexible depending on the opportunity. The firm continues to lead rounds when conviction is high, rather than defaulting to co-investment structures.

Three of Grove's portfolio companies - Ramon.Space, ActiveFence, and Nucleai - appeared on Calcalist's Top 50 Startups list, with Ramon.Space ranking third. The recognition reflects the maturation of Grove's earlier vintage investments and provides downstream validation for the fund's thesis.

NoTraffic has become the signature company in Grove's portfolio. The Tel Aviv-based startup has raised $90 million to deploy AI-powered traffic infrastructure across cities in North America, replacing legacy signal systems with a platform that processes real-time sensor data to optimize traffic flow. The company exemplifies Grove's thesis around hard tech with physical-world impact.

Scala Biodesign, which closed its $16 million Series A in March 2026 with Grove leading, is attacking protein engineering bottlenecks that slow pharmaceutical and biotech development cycles. By combining computational models with wet lab validation, Scala enables clients to design novel proteins faster than traditional approaches.

Wiliot, the IoT Pixel company backed by Grove at seed, has grown into a unicorn tracking platform for supply chain and retail applications. The company's battery-less Bluetooth tags harvest energy from ambient RF signals, enabling tracking at item level without traditional power constraints. The company has raised growth capital from Softbank and others since Grove's initial investment.

ActiveFence, which Grove invested in at seed, built a trust and safety tool stack for platform companies and governments. The company raised growth capital before being acquired, demonstrating Grove's ability to identify infrastructure-layer opportunities in content moderation and platform safety.

Quantum Source represents Grove's bet on photonic quantum computing - a long-horizon play that illustrates the fund's willingness to support founders working on problems that won't be solved overnight. The company is building photonic quantum processors that could eventually enable practical quantum computing at scale.

Ramon.Space, ranking third on Calcalist's Top 50 list, has developed radiation-hardened computing systems for space applications. The company's technology addresses the extreme environment computing market, where specialized hardware requirements create high barriers to entry and defensible intellectual property.

Technical differentiation is the non-negotiable starting point for Grove. The firm wants to see intellectual property, novel architectures, or algorithms that cannot be easily replicated. In practice this means founders with published research, patented technology, or unique datasets that competitors cannot access.

Market sizing matters, but Grove is not looking for founders to demonstrate that they are attacking a $50 billion TAM on day one. The firm is comfortable with companies addressing large markets where the path to monetization is still evolving - particularly in deep tech categories like AI infrastructure or novel semiconductors where end markets are still forming.

Founder pedigree carries significant weight. Grove looks for technical founders who have deep domain expertise - often PhD-level knowledge in their problem space - combined with the ability to recruit talent and close commercial deals. The best companies in the portfolio have had founders who combined scientific depth with commercial instincts.

The team structure behind each investment matters to Grove. The firm has a preference for balanced founding teams with complementary skills, recognizing that technical breakthroughs require more than a single brilliant individual to convert into a sustainable business.

Grove evaluates traction indicators differently across sectors. In enterprise SaaS, they look for ARR benchmarks growth and net revenue retention. In deep tech or hard tech, they are more forgiving of early-stage metrics if the technical milestone achieved is meaningful and the path to commercialization is credible.

The firm's operator background means Grove pays particular attention to how founders think about capital efficiency. Even in hard tech sectors where significant capital is required, Grove prefers companies that have thought carefully about burn rate, milestone-based spending, and staged financing strategies.

Warm introductions are Grove's preferred channel. The firm moves faster on deals that come through trusted references - portfolio founders, co-investors who have co-deployed with Grove on prior rounds, or respected members of the Israeli technical community who can vouch for founder quality.

The firm accepts cold submissions via their website, but the bar for conversion is higher without a referral. If submitting cold, the priority is communicating what makes the technical differentiation genuinely novel, why the specific problem is worth solving, and why now is the right moment to build this company.

Grove's website includes an AI info page with formal details about their thesis and approach. Founders researching the firm should review this page before reaching out - the content communicates what Grove considers its own differentiation, and referencing it appropriately in outreach demonstrates genuine fit rather than generic interest.

The investment process typically begins with an initial conversation focused on the technical problem and the team's approach. Grove's partners are known for engaging deeply on technical substance rather than defaulting to standard SaaS metrics conversations. Founders should be prepared to explain the underlying science as fluently as the business model.

Following a positive initial meeting, Grove conducts detailed technical due diligence, often involving domain experts in the relevant scientific or engineering field. The process tests whether the technology works as claimed, whether the intellectual property is defensible, and whether the team has the capability to execute on the roadmap.

Decision timelines vary by deal complexity and firm bandwidth, but Grove generally moves without the extended timelines common at larger funds. Once conviction forms, the firm can move to term sheet within weeks rather than months.

Deep tech founders sometimes underestimate the importance of financial literacy when pitching to Grove. While the firm is comfortable with pre-revenue companies in hard tech sectors, they expect founders to have a coherent view of their unit economics, burn trajectory, and path to either profitability or the next priced round.

For companies raising growth capital, investor-ready financials are not optional. Grove conducts thorough due diligence that includes detailed analysis of financial projections, key assumption stress-testing, and comparison against industry benchmarks for the relevant sector.

Working with a fractional CFO can meaningfully improve a founder's positioning in the fundraising process. A fractional CFO brings pattern recognition from prior raises, familiarity with investor due diligence expectations, and the ability to build financial models that survive scrutiny from technically sophisticated investors like Grove.

Our team has helped deep tech and enterprise SaaS companies prepare investor materials and navigate due diligence across multiple financing rounds. We understand what technical investors like Grove look for in financial presentations, and can help founders build materials that communicate both business promise and analytical rigor.

Financial projections should reflect genuine scenario analysis rather than aspirational growth targets. Grove's partners will stress-test assumptions around customer acquisition cost, conversion rates, and gross margins - founders who cannot defend their projections credibility lose credibility on the business case as a whole.

Understanding the metrics that matter in your specific sector is essential. In AI infrastructure companies, Grove will focus on compute costs per inference and model accuracy metrics. In healthtech, regulatory pathway economics and clinical trial cost structures are conversation priorities. Tailor your metrics presentation to the investor's frame of reference.

Whether you are preparing to pitch Grove Ventures or other top-tier Israeli deep tech investors, professional financial preparation can meaningfully differentiate your fundraise. Our team has worked with founders across enterprise SaaS, healthtech, and hard tech sectors, and we understand what sophisticated investors expect in due diligence.

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