Elie Wurtman

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Elie Wurtman
אלי וורטמן‎
Born (1969-08-30) August 30, 1969 (age 54)
Education
OccupationBusiness executive
TitleManaging Partner, PICO Venture Partners

Elie Wurtman (Hebrew: אלי וורטמן, born August 30, 1969) is an Israeli venture capitalist, businessman, and high-tech and social entrepreneur.[1] He co-founded and served as the first Executive Chairman of the e-commerce company Vroom, which went public in June 2020.[2] He is the co-founder of PICO Venture Partners, a Jerusalem-based venture capital fund,[3] PICO Kids,[4] and Bat Shlomo Vineyards.[5]

Early life and education

Wurtman was born in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
, and immigrated to Jerusalem with his family when he was eight years old. In 1991, Wurtman graduated with a bachelor's degree in political science from Columbia University and a bachelor's degree in Talmud from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.[6]

Career

In 1996, together with Jacob Ner-David, Wurtman co-founded and served as CEO of Deltathree, one of the first companies to offer telephony services over the Internet.[7] He took the firm public in November 1999.[8]

Wurtman began his venture capital career at

Benchmark Capital
.

From 2011 to 2014, Wurtman was Executive Chairman of NJOY. In 2014, Wurtman co-founded Vroom with Allon Bloch, Marshall Chesrown, and Kevin Westfall.[2] From 2014 to 2016, he served as Vroom's first Executive Chairman and remained as a director until the company's IPO in June 2020.[9]

In 2015, Wurtman founded PICO Venture Partners, to invest in early-stage start-ups.[3] PICO Venture Partners was the first investor in companies including Vroom and Spot.io (which was sold to American NetApp for $450 million).[10] PICO has also invested in startups including K Health,[11] Ravin AI[12] and Gloat.[13]

Among other industries, PICO Venture Partners focuses on

cyber security.[14]

In 2020, Wurtman traveled to the United Arab Emirates, as part of the Abraham Accords Business Summit led by US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.[15][16]

Social entrepreneurship

Wurtman is a social entrepreneur, community advocate, and Middle East Leadership Initiative Fellow at the Aspen Institute.[17] His work includes youth education and economic redevelopment of the

Tower of David Museum.[6]

In 2013, Wurtman founded PICO Kids, a non-profit organization in Jerusalem that educates youth across the city about STEEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Entrepreneurship, and Math) through project-based learning.[19] [20] The organization serves elementary and high school students from diverse economic, social, and religious groups.[21]

See also

References

  1. Jerusalem Post
    . Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  2. ^ a b Orbach, Meir (6 December 2019). "Online Used Car Retailer Vroom Raises $254 Million". Calcalist. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
    Orbach, Meir (3 June 2020). "Online Used Car Marketplace Vroom Triples its Aim for Nasdaq IPO to $318 Million". Calcalist. Retrieved 4 April 2021.
  3. ^ a b Clark, Kate (26 September 2019). "Israeli VC PICO Venture Partners closes on $80M". TechCrunch. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
    Yablonko, Yasmin (25 September 2019). "PICO Partners raises $80m VC fund". Globes. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
    "PICO Venture Partners Closes $80M Second Fund". VentureBeat. 25 September 2019. Retrieved 4 April 2021.
  4. Times of Israel
    . Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  5. ^ Solomon, Shoshanna. "To mark Jerusalem Day, ancient city's 'unique' tech scene is celebrated in video". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 11 May 2021.
  6. ^ a b "Elie Wurtman - Co-founder & Partner". PICO. Retrieved 13 April 2021.
  7. ^ Founders of Internet Telecom and Delta Three Launch a New Optical Communications Start-Up Archived 2016-10-06 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ Bahur-Nir, Diana; Orbach, Meir (20 June 2020). "Wurtman's roller coaster: From fears of bankruptcy in March to $6 billion exits in June". Calcalist. Retrieved 4 April 2021.
  9. Jerusalem Post
    . Retrieved 4 April 2021.
  10. ^ Klein Leichman, Abigail (3 February 2021). "The man who meets India's business needs with Israeli products". ISRAEL21c. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  11. ^ Orbach, Meir (18 November 2020). "K Health raises $42 million at a $700 million valuation". Calcalist. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  12. ^ "Israeli vehicle inspection AI co Ravin raises $15m". Globes. 16 March 2021. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
    Orbach, Meir (16 March 2021). "KAR Global leads $15 million series A funding in Ravin AI". Calcalist. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  13. ^ "Israeli AI HR tech co Gloat raises $25m". Globes. 17 December 2019. Retrieved 14 April 2021.
  14. ^ Dor, Ofir (25 January 2021). "Shaking up the US car loan market". Globes. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  15. ^ Klein Leichman, Abigail (19 October 2020). "Why the UAE is looking to Israel to secure its food supplies". ISRAEL21c. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  16. Jerusalem Post
    . Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  17. ^ "Elie Wurtman". Aspen Institute. Retrieved 4 April 2021.
  18. Jerusalem Post
    . Retrieved 11 May 2021.
  19. Times of Israel
    . Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  20. ^ "Inspiring Jerusalem's Future Problem Solvers". Aspen Institute. 25 June 2020. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  21. ^ "PICO Kids Technology Camp". Fun in Jerusalem. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
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