PICO Venture Partners

Elie Wurtman is co-founder and Managing Partner at PICO Venture Partners, with a background as an entrepreneur and investor. He founded his first company in 1993 and has taken three companies public, including Deltathree, where he served as co-founder and CEO. He was previously a General Partner at Benchmark Capital Israel and earlier served as CEO of JVP Studio, focusing on early-stage consumer and media investments.

Keren Kenan is a Partner at PICO Venture Partners, where she leads finance and operations. She has more than fifteen years of business development experience, having served as Chief of Staff at the food company Tnuva, VP of Strategic Projects at Zap Group, and in senior financial management roles at Ashdar and as a financial advisor at Prof. Itzhak Swary & Associates. She holds a BA in Economics, Accounting and Business Administration and an MBA in Financial Management from Tel Aviv University.

Hila Krainer is an associate at PICO Venture Partners. She previously worked as an investor at a single-family office in London focused on early-stage investments and business development, and held a business development role at Playtech, a company listed on the London Stock Exchange. Earlier, she worked as a corporate lawyer at Goldfarb Seligman & Co. in Israel, and she holds an LLB and a BA in chartered accounting from Tel Aviv University.

Ben joined Long Ridge in 2021 as a Senior Associate and is actively involved in sourcing, due diligence, deal execution, and portfolio monitoring. He co-founded Honesti, a wellness and peer-to-peer support platform for college students, and worked at Guggenheim Partners.

Tamir Carmi is a Venture Partner at PICO Venture Partners, where he mentors founders and serves on the boards of several portfolio companies. He is co-founder and COO of IronSource (NYSE: IS), an app monetization and distribution company, and previously founded Volonet, which produces viral content for social media, and Web 3.0, an interactive media company serving broadcast clients in Israel. He earned a Kellogg-Recanati EMBA from Tel Aviv University and a B.A. from the University of Haifa.

Erez Nachmanson is a Program Manager at PICO Kids, where he leads the robotics program, working with schools across Jerusalem to run science and robotics activities, train teachers, and build scalable program models. He previously served as Program Coordinator at Friends By Nature, running neighborhood empowerment projects, and is a trained military combat medic who worked with the Magen David Adom ambulance service. He holds an M.A. in Law from Bar Ilan University, a B.Ed. in Education from the University of Haifa, and a B.Sc. in Agroecology & Plant Health from the Hebrew University.

Hagar Levin is an Executive Assistant and Project Manager at PICO. Before joining the firm, she worked for more than ten years in public relations, operations, and public diplomacy, including as VP of Operations at Unik Public Image, where she managed events, international partnerships, and internal operations. She holds a BA in Political Science and Middle Eastern History and an MA in Public Policy, both from Tel Aviv University.

Hila Ashuri is the Jerusalem Office Manager at PICO Venture Partners, where she oversees administration and development of PICO Spaces Jerusalem along with operations at PICO Kids and Bat Shlomo Vineyards. She previously worked as a pastry chef at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem and as a personal assistant to three partners at JVP Media Labs. She holds a degree in Anthropology, Sociology, and Art History from The Hebrew University.

Lenore Morag is the Office Manager and Executive Assistant at PICO Partners, handling the firm's daily operations and supporting the partners administratively. She previously worked in the hospitality industry and studied Pastry Arts at Danon Culinary School. She holds a B.A. in Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures from Tel Aviv University.

Meidan Alkobi is a Program Manager at PICO Kids, where he focuses on the Makers program, leads the PICO Makerspaces in Jerusalem, and directs PICO Kids events. He previously founded a photography and videography studio in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and worked as a program manager for a nonprofit running computer centers for at-risk youth in Jerusalem. He holds a B.F.A. from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design.

Rotem Malichi is Director of Finance and Operations at PICO Venture Partners, with over a decade of experience in financial management and reporting. She previously served as Director of Finance at iAngels and at Aerodrome, an Israeli agriculture startup, and began her career as a Senior Associate in the high-tech department at Ernst & Young. She is a CPA and holds a BA in Business and Accounting from the College of Management.

Shelly Pinhas is an Executive Assistant at PICO. Before joining the firm, she worked in the restaurant industry and as a Senior Designer at Delta Galil Industries, where she handled marketing and global fashion trends, and previously worked as a stylist for several Israeli newspapers. She holds a degree in design and textiles from Shenkar's School of Engineering.

Zohar Frank is a Legal Advisor to PICO Venture Partners and PICO Kids, with over 15 years of experience as an attorney and business development consultant working on international companies and transactions. She previously served as COO and legal counsel of a single-family office and later as COO of PICO Venture Partners, and she co-manages the Erez-Frank multi-family office with partner Gil Erez. She holds a Bachelor of Law from Tel Aviv University.

Kivanc Aydin has worked across banking, management consulting, and venture investing. He started at Goldman Sachs in London in research, then moved into capital markets sales covering fixed income, currencies, commodities, and options, before taking leadership roles in management consulting, including at L.E.K. Consulting in New York where his work focused on biotech firms. He later founded a real estate investment firm and has been an angel investor across various industries; he holds an Economics degree from the London School of Economics and an MBA from the University of Cambridge.

Vicky Alexiou has an accounting and finance background with more than 15 years of experience. She previously served as Assistant Financial Reporting Manager at GasLog Ltd, a formerly NYSE-listed international shipping group, where she focused on SEC financial reporting and SOX compliance, and earlier worked at PwC on assurance services for integrated audits of US-listed entities and IPOs. She is a Fellow of the ACCA and holds a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from the Athens University of Economics and Business.