Chinese investors continue to show growing interest in Israeli high-tech. According to the Israel-based IVC Research Center, Chinese investors will invest an estimated half a billion dollars in Israeli venture capital in 2015.

IVC held a conference in June at which it revealed the data and publicised another estimate, according to which Israeli funds will raise between US$1.2 billion and US$1.5 billion by the end of this year. In addition, the company believes that half of the funds that raise money by the end of the year will have at least one Chinese investor.

IVC examined the data on venture capital in Israel and the US, which grew 30%-50% between 2013 and 2014. In China, by contrast, venture capital increased by 300% in a single year. Since 2012, more than 30 entities from China and Hong Kong that had not previously invested in Israel did so. The number of Chinese investors is growing, according to the data, at the impressive annual rate of 50%. China’s venture capital industry totalled US$15.5 billion in 2014, compared with US$48 billion in the US, and US$3.4 billion in Israel.