Viola Ventures (Viola Group)

Viola Ventures is a prominent Israeli venture capital firm established in 2000, previously known as Carmel Ventures. As part of the Viola Group, which manages over $6.5 billion in assets, Viola Ventures focuses on empowering early-stage technology startups to become global leaders. Headquartered in Herzliya, Israel, the firm manages over $1.5 billion and has invested in more than 200 technology companies, including notable unicorns like Immunai, Redis, and Pagaya.

The firm specializes in seed and Series A investments across various technology sectors, including artificial intelligence, fintec Per Crunchbase, Viola Ventures has made 291 investments, 106 as lead investor across 139 portfolio companies, with 59 exits including 4 IPOs.

Avi Zeevi and Shlomo Dovrat founded the firm in 2000 as Carmel Ventures. On 1 November 2017 it dropped the Carmel name and became Viola Ventures, launching Fund V, a $200M fund for early-stage Israeli tech. Viola Group's own site now lists seven funds. In 2025 the firm announced about $250M across two new vehicles. Viola Ventures VII is the main early-stage fund. Viola Conviction Fund I is a secondary fund of about $100M for increasing stakes in existing portfolio companies. Shlomo Dovrat is co-founder and managing partner. Omry Ben David and Zvika Orron are general partners. Alex Shmulovich was named a partner in 2025. Zvika Orron's LinkedIn page lists him with TYLsemi, and he has also posted about the firm leading Aryon Security's seed.

Viola Ventures VII expects to make about 20 new investments. Calcalist reported its focus areas as Vertical AI, Enterprise AI, Fintech, AI Infrastructure, Cyber, Quantum and Defense technology. Crunchbase describes the firm's approach as backing teams that use AI to transform traditional markets, plus semiconductors, deeptech and consumer products. Recent AI rounds include the $58M seed for ZyG, an agentic operating system for direct-to-consumer brands, in March 2026. In July 2026 the firm joined the $43M seed for TYLsemi, a chiplet startup building AI infrastructure silicon. Matter Venture Partners led the TYLsemi round and Viola took part. Press describes the ZyG round as co-led by Bessemer, Viola and Lightspeed.

Viola Group's site says Viola Ventures focuses on pre-seed through Series A. It also says the firm wants to be early, in some cases at the idea stage. The firm does not publish check sizes. Third-party directories list a range of $500K to $10M, with flexibility across seed, A and B rounds. Treat that range as unconfirmed by the firm. The firm backs Israeli or Israel-related companies. Tracxn reports a Series A and seed focus.

• ZyG: agentic operating system for DTC e-commerce brands; $58M seed in March 2026, co-led by Bessemer, Viola and Lightspeed. Dealroom also lists a $60M Series A in May 2026, led by Lightspeed.
• TYLsemi: chiplet-based AI infrastructure silicon; $43M seed in July 2026, led by Matter Venture Partners with Viola participating.
• Panjaya AI: seed round of about $9.5M in January 2024, per Goldilocks AI.
• Impala AI: seed round in October 2025, per PitchBook. Round size not listed.
• Lama AI: investment dated June 2026 in PitchBook. Round details not listed.

• viola-group.com/fund/violaventures
• viola-group.com/violanotes/carmel-now-viola-ventures
• calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/sj0gvttgwe
• crunchbase.com/organization/violaventures
• linkedin.com/in/zvika-orron-29697b40
• pulse2.com/zyg-58-million-seed-raised-for-agentic-operating-system-to-
• dealroom.co/companies/zyg-
• marketscreener.com/news/tylsemi-inc-announced-that-it-has-received-43-