The entire interview with Gemini’s Carmel Sofer is part of our new subscription newsletter, Israel Opportunity Investor. You can find out more about the product and the opportunities we cover at www.israelnewsletter.com.

Can you tell us a bit about Gemini?
Carmel Sofer, Partner: Gemini was one of Israel’s first VCs and is 15 years old. We now manage more than $600 million via 4 funds. We’ve just closed our 4th fund and are in the process of raising our 5th fund, which we’re targeting to be $200 million. We’ve had over 30 exits including Saifun and recently, Traiana.

What do you look at when you look at a prospective investment?
CS: We have three criteria that we look at when we meet with entrepreneurs. We’re focused on IT business. By that, we mean that we’re looking at companies that compete in enterprise software, consumer electronics, semiconductors, Internet, and mobile. We’re now also looking at Media companies, which we define to be TV infrastructure and advertising. We only invest in Israeli companies. By Israeli, we mean that either R&D should be located in Israel or that the founder, the entrepreneur, is Israeli. We’re finding good opportunities now with Israelis residing overseas. We invest in early stage companies. We’re the professionals in early stage investing in Israel. Entrepreneurs walk into our door with a slideshow presentation and we work together with them to build a large business. We’re now working with some of the best entrepreneurs in Israel. Out of the twenty portfolio companies in our fourth fund, nine of these companies are lead by serial entrepreneurs working on their second and sometimes, even third companies. We’ve recently invested in new companies started by Dov Moran who founded Msystems and Amir Ashkenazi of Shopping.com.

How big are your typical investment rounds?
CS: Every investment is different but typically, our seed rounds are $500,000 and A rounds are $3-5 million.

Do you continue to invest alongside your portfolio companies as they grow?
CS: That’s a good question. Many early stage investors pour money in at the beginning and watch and see what happens. We continue to work and invest alongside our companies as they grow. We have to believe that our companies are going to be very big companies and by that, I mean $1 billion companies. Of course, forecasting a billion dollars of potential in an early stage company is tough, but if we can’t get there, we won’t invest. We recently had two companies come to us with good models and good leaders. We only foresaw exists of about $150 million. This number was corroborated by some other VCs. We passed on both deals while other VCs funded both deals.

Do you see any significant trends in Israel right now?
CS: We were some of the earliest to spot a key trend we see playing out right now: the return of successful entrepreneurs. We’re seeing serial founders of startups rebound off successful exits and with money in pocket, begin building new businesses. We’re seeing more and more of this caliber of professional starting new companies. They’re not necessarily interested in the money. They have a strong commitment to building a company and they’re coming from a variety of different fields. In our 4th fund, we have nine companies of this type and interestingly enough, most of their first ventures were funded by VC firms other than Gemini.

Why are these serial entrepreneurs turning to you and your team?
CS: I think it’s for a couple of reasons. They value our professionalism. They like the prospect of working together with us. They value our experience both in the investment process and on the other side of the table. We come from an operational background with a focus on running businesses.