YL Ventures

YL Ventures is a venture capital firm with $800 million under management across five funds.

Defending war crimes

On October 13, 2023, the CEO of Web Summit, Europe's largest technology conference, posted on social media criticizing Western leaders for failing to condemn Israel's war crimes in Gaza and the genocide carried out by Israeli Occupation Forces. In response, YL Ventures joined a coalition of Israeli venture capital firms issuing a joint statement announcing their boycott of the conference.

We, members of the Israeli high tech community, have made the decision to cancel sponsorship and will not attend the upcoming Web Summit. We cannot, in good conscience, participate in a conference whose leadership blames Israel for war crimes while Hamas terrorists committed one of the worst terror attacks in modern history,

Despite the CEO of Web Summit's statement presenting factual observations within the context of the atrocities (later confirmed by the UN) Israeli venture capitalists demanded unwavering support for their state, which was already engaged in the mass killing of civilians at the time.

Sources:

• YL Ventures Portfolio
• Calcalist Google Withdraws from Web Summit; Israeli VCs Unite in Joint Conference Boycott
• UN OHCHR UN Commission finds war crimes and crimes against humanity in Israeli attacks
• X Paddy Cosgrave

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