Alibaba is really interested in Israeli startups

Israel is one of the most active and lucrative breeding grounds for startups in the world, and Alibaba wants in on the action. Just two months after the Chinese company made it first investment in Israel, Alibaba has secured a partnership with Jerusalem Venture Partners to provide financial support for promising startups within the country. 

Two months after making its first investment in Israel, Alibaba is digging deeper into the country’s startup ecosystem. Venture capital firm JVP (Jerusalem Venture Partners) announced yesterday that it will partner with the e-commerce giant to give financial support to promising startups. The amount of money both companies will invest together was not disclosed. An Alibaba spokesperson told TechCrunch “the JVP investment is in line with our mission of supporting innovation and startups,” but did not offer more details about what kind of companies it will look for in Israel. We’ve also contacted JVP for more information and will update this post if we hear back from them. As the Times of Israel reports, JVP’s portfolio is attractive to Alibaba because it includes enterprise security software makers like CyberArk and CyActive, which was recently purchased by PayPal.