CEO Steven Friel (left) and Yoav Navon, director of litigation finance, of Woodsford Litigation Funding Ltd (Courtesy photo)

U.K.-based Woodsford Litigation Funding is opening an office in Tel Aviv, after nearly a year of exploring the Israeli market.

As its director of litigation finance for Israel, the firm has brought on Israeli litigator Yoav Navon, who has served as a local consultant for the past 10 months. Leaders hope to invest $20 million in Israel-sourced disputes during the next two years.

Woodsford CEO Steven Friel said the company elected to take a closer look at sourcing matters from the country's tech community after discovering that it already had a substantial Israeli element in its portfolio.

"Israel is a startup nation, and these startups are generally very sophisticated. They're rich in intellectual property but constrained in finances," he said. "If they find themselves in disputes with Silicon Valley or other U.S. or European multinationals, they need financial support."

At the same time the company was turning its attention on Israel, Navon, a former associate at Tel Aviv-based Ron Gazit, was contemplating a move into litigation finance. The initial consulting arrangement was a good fit for both.

"Having represented Woodsford in Israel for the past 10 months, I am now glad to have cemented my position at one of the leading global funders," he said in a statement. "I can see [that] the appetite for, and understanding of, the benefits funding offers is growing rapidly here."

Friel called Israeli startups the "perfect counterparties".

"They're smart and sophisticated, they know their product incredibly well and they're willing to stand up for themselves," he said. "They have a stomach for litigation in a way that not all new startups do."

The primary goal of Woodsford's new Israel office is to identify and back original American and European litigation that has an Israeli element, looking both to venture capital-backed startups and spinoffs from universities. The second aim is to back international arbitrations stemming from the country, which will likely be seated in New York, Paris and London.

Woodsford is also looking to get involved in the local courts by the end of the year.

"We have not yet gotten fully comfortable with Israeli domestic litigation, but we have the capabilities and people in Israel to make it work," Friel said.

The Tel Aviv office is Woodsford's first expansion since moving into Singapore in 2017.

In July, rival Bentham IMF announced a $30 million fund in partnership with law firm Kobre & Kim to invest in Israeli companies.

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