Operating since May06, The LightSpeed Gemini Internet Lab is dedicated to funding companies that are at the earliest stages, supporting market validation studies and prototype development for Internet technologies. Their goal is to quickly seed good ideas so the entrepreneurs can get their companies off the ground.

After the boom and bust of the first Internet bubble, innovative Internet related companies are once again emerging, this time with clear business models and much broader markets. New web companies serve a market of hundreds of millions of people whose primary means of information, communication, research and shopping is the Internet. In addition, Israel is considered one of the high-tech hot spots in the world and has an entrepreneurial culture. Although the USA and China have been leaders in terms of Web initiatives, Israel has the potential of producing world class internet players. Gemini and LightSpeed, two respected and leading Venture Capital funds, have decided to create a dedicated structure to invest in this emerging industry.

They search for companies with Israeli operations, at their earliest stages (or pre-A Round in “VC-speak”) are the target for Lab investments. Specific areas of interest include shopping, social networking, search technology, vertical applications, content production and distribution. They have a broad definition of the internet that they consider as a network. Therefore they are also interested in mobile and new television initiatives.

They fund companies and bring seed investment up to 1 million dollars. Their process enables them to make swift decisions. Since at early stage, especially in the internet industry where benchmarks are still rare, there is no special reason for leading heavy due diligence they focus mainly in understanding the potential of an idea and the ability of the founding team to bring it to successful execution. Investment decision is taken commonly by the internet lab team member. After a first meeting you will rapidly meet their team and they will evaluate together the opportunity for investment. During the seed period, they will work with the founding team and help achieving successful milestones. Although they are not an incubator, they will be able to provide numerous resources for networking, strategic partnerships, marketing strategy and recruitment.