Notable Investments
Papaya Gaming (Early)
Moon Active (Early)
Playtika (Early)
Renegade (Early)
SimilarWeb (Series D)
Plarium (Early)
A.Team (Early)
Marqeta (Early)
Operating Experience
Founder and active Chairman · Playtika · 2010 – 2012
CEO · 888 Holdings plc · 2006 – 2011
President, Western Europe, Central and Latin America · Amdocs · 2005 – 2006
Education & Affiliations
M.B.A., Kellogg Graduate School of Management
Pilot, Israeli Air Force
Awarded and named top investor in Israel by several publications including Geektime and The Marker, Israel’s leading business publication
Bio
A General Partner at Venture, Joana heads up Venture Israel and is widely known as one of the most prolific investors in the region.
Joana has founded several startups, including Playtika (NASDAQ: PLTK), Beach Bum (acquired by Voodoo), InceptionVR, Ridge, and others. Between the different ventures he founded, he was the CEO of 888 Holdings (LSE: 888.L), one of the world’s leading online gaming companies, and a Division President of Amdocs, a leading billing and CRM provider (NYSE: DOX).
In 2014, Joana was appointed to Facebook’s EMEA Client Advisory Council. In 2015 he joined the supervisory board at Bertelsmann, one of the world’s largest media companies (RTL and Penguin-Random House are some of the company’s businesses).
As a pilot in the Israeli Air Force, she learned the value of striving for excellence at all times, building learning organizations, and that working together as a team is the real secret to winning.
Joana loves when Founders know their markets inside and out, have a deep desire to win, and when they exhibit the unique contradiction of being super fast and decisive, while also knowing when to slow down and listen. Founders unanimously say that Joana is their most valuable investor.
Interests
Speaks Hebrew, English, Spanish, and French; lives in Rishpon, Israel; was a tennis player in his youth and still plays today; speed is one of his superpowers
