Mr. Yahal Zilka co-founded Magma Venture Partners. Since 1999, Yahal served as co-Managing Partner of Magma, and positioned Magma as a major player in the New Media space. As chairman and acting CEO of Phonetic Systems, a portfolio company of the Fund, Yahal repositioned the company as a market leader, and led Magma’s first exit as it was acquired by Nuance (NASDAQ: NUAN).
Prior to Magma, Yahal served as CFO of VocalTec Communications from 1995 to 1999, where he was part of the team that pioneered VOIP. Yahal led the company from seed to its public offering on NASDAQ (NASDAQ: CALL), and developed important strategic relations with vendors and carriers. One such relationship was VocalTec's noteworthy deal with Deutsche Telekom that ultimately led to the global recognition and adoption of VOIP.
Since 2009, Yahal has served as Chairman of the HTIA (now IATI) Annual Conference, Israel's most prestigious and comprehensive technology conference. Having founded personal initiatives in the areas of communication-related software and services, Yahal brings many years of experience as an entrepreneur, mentor and executive. At Magma, Yahal provides strong financial, operational, and hands-on management experience, as well as strategic relationships with industry leaders for Magma's portfolio. In addition to his knowledge of the communications and technology sectors, Yahal has worked closely with both the investment banking and venture capital communities.
At Magma, Yahal leads the business development and the financing-related activities of the Fund and its portfolio. Yahal currently serves as Director on the boards of SightEra-Magisto, Valens Semiconductor and Indegy. Previously, Yahal was on the boards of Waze (acquired by Google, NASDAQ: GOOG), Onavo (acquired by Facebook, NASDAQ:FB), DesignArt Networks (acquired by Qualcomm, NASDAQ: QCOM) and Phonetic Systems (acquired by Nuance, NASDAQ: NUAN).