Israel's First Pediatric Health VC Fund Targets $50 Million

By Daniel Okafor

Israel now has a $50 million venture fund dedicated solely to children's healthcare. Schneider Children's Medical Center announced on November 4 the creation of Schneider Children's Venture Capital (SCVC), the first fund of its kind in Israel and, according to its founders, only the third in the world.

The fund has already secured NIS 20 million toward its $50 million target. Eight months after its establishment, SCVC has screened more than 170 ventures and closed its first three investments. Schneider is part of Clalit Health Services, one of the country's major health organizations.

Why build a pediatric-only fund?

The premise is simple. Children make up roughly 30 percent of Israel's population, yet many drugs and devices used in pediatric care were built for adults first and adapted later. Schneider and Clalit want to reverse that order. They call the approach Pediatric Tech: products designed around children's distinct medical and developmental needs rather than scaled down from adult medicine.

The fund backs technologies in three initial areas:

• artificial intelligence applications
• non-invasive diagnostic tools
• longevity-related innovations adapted for pediatric medicine

The priority is early detection. SCVC looks for tools that catch disease sooner, predict treatment outcomes, and personalize care. The stated goal is to identify health problems before symptoms appear, not simply treat illness after it strikes.

How the model works

SCVC differs from a conventional venture fund in one structural way: it sits inside the hospital. Entrepreneurs get direct access to Schneider's physicians, researchers, and clinical staff, and promising technologies can be tested in real clinical settings before money changes hands. After an investment, the fund keeps supporting product development, clinical validation, and commercialization.

The fund also draws on Clalit's longitudinal healthcare data and its AI capabilities to support research and predictive medicine.

Ronen Gadot, Managing Partner at SCVC, said the setup links investors directly to medical practice. "We operate within the clinical system, encounter medical needs and challenges firsthand, and can identify promising technologies at an early stage, evaluate them, and reduce risk before capital is invested," Gadot said. He added that the model aims to deliver financial returns alongside better medical care. A portion of the fund's profits will flow back to Schneider to fund further research, innovation, and pediatric medicine.

What track record sits behind it?

Schneider has spent more than three decades building pediatric research capacity. Its infrastructure supports advanced treatments, including cellular and genetic therapies for diabetes, cancer, and other complex diseases.

In June 2026, a Schneider team working with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and biotechnology partners delivered what the hospital called the world's first gene therapy for a child with a rare, life-threatening syndrome. SCVC did not fund that treatment. Schneider cited it as proof of the innovation ecosystem now underpinning the fund.

What does it mean for child health long-term?

Prof. Efrat Baron Harlev, Director of Schneider Children's Medical Center, framed the fund as a duty to children's future health, not just their current needs. "The establishment of SCVC allows us to transform the clinical knowledge, experience and innovation generated here into a driving force for the medicine of Tomorrow," she said.

Her argument is demographic as much as medical. "One hundred percent of adults were once children. From our perspective, investing in children's health means investing in health throughout life," she said.

Dr. Shirley Saar, Director of Clalit-Schneider's Innovation Center, described the initiative as part of a broader shift toward protecting health rather than managing the consequences of disease. The fund's leadership argues that earlier intervention improves long-term outcomes and cuts the financial burden chronic illness places on healthcare systems.

For Israel's medical technology sector, the fund opens a lane that has drawn less specialized investment than adult healthcare. By combining hospital-based research with commercial capital, Schneider and Clalit aim to speed up technologies that benefit children in Israel and abroad — and to test, at fund scale, whether childhood is the cheapest place to buy a lifetime of health.