Israel-based venture capital firm and investment platform iAngels, led by Mor Assia and Shelly Hod Moyal, today announced the closing of $55.5 million in capital for iAngels Ventures, the firm’s first institutional fund, bringing its total assets under management to over $300 million. iAngels Ventures is anchored by a $25 million investment from the European Investment Fund (EIF), the largest the EIF has made in Israel to date.

Assia and Hod Moyal established iAngels in 2013 as a service to accredited investors worldwide, providing them with exclusive access to investment opportunities originating in Israel, curated through a streamlined due-diligence process. “We wanted to give angel investors the tools to be successful and construct their own investment portfolio,” says Assia.

It turns out that the year iAngles started extending a helping hand to investors “who wanted to engage with the Israeli ecosystem,” was the year Start-Up Nation began its transition to a Scale-Up Nation. In June 2013, Google bought Israeli startup Waze for $1.1 billion, resulting in Waze employees enjoying “the most lucrative exit in Israeli history” at the time. Today, 200,000 Israeli employees of high-tech companies traded on Wall Street hold options and restricted stock units that are in the money with a total value of $35 billion, according to Calcalist. This does not include the most recent IPOs, such as ironSource’s, which will produce 230 new millionaires in about six months, when the restriction over shares is removed.

The fund is supported by InnovFin Equity, with the financial backing of the European Union under Horizon 2020 Financial Instruments.