Evans client delegation to feel the pulse of Israeli tech

Evans & Partners chairman David Evans will this week lead the firm’s maiden client visit to Israel.

Evans & Partners chairman David Evans.

Evans & Partners chairman David Evans will this week lead the firm’s maiden client visit to Israel as his wealth management business looks to more than treble the size of its new disruption fund before the end of the year.

Mr Evans is leading a 35-strong delegation of clients and members of Evans & Partner’s advisory board, including former Macquarie Group and Origin Energy chairman Kevin ­McCann and company director Sally Herman.

Also on the delegation are a number of accounting and legal industry partners as well as Wingate Group managing director Farrel Meltzer and Winslow Construction chief Dino Strano.

During the six-day Israel visit the delegation will meet a number of local firms as well as the local-based partners of venture capital firm Square Peg, in which Mr Evans is an investor.

Mr Evans made his first visit to Israel in June 2015, when Square Peg took a delegation of 40 leading Australian technology entrepreneurs, ­investors and executives, together representing more than $US150 billion in value, to Tel Aviv and ­Jerusalem to learn about the ­Israeli hi-tech industry.

“This trip is designed to expose many of our clients to Israel and the impact it is having on the way we live ... You need to stay at the cutting edge of technology,’’ Mr Evans said.

“Visits like this give you an understanding of where that technology is going.

“There is clear evidence now that the traditional industries and businesses like media, insurance, banking and retail are getting disrupted very quickly and our clients are very conscious of that.’’

Last year, Evans & Partners launched a $20 million “disruption’’ investment offering as part of the firm’s Global Disruption Portfolio.

Ms Herman, Wesfarmers chief executive Richard Goyder, former Telstra boss David Thodey, Square Peg co-founder Paul Bassat and US digital guru Jeffrey Cole are on the investment committee of the new fund, which is also chaired by Mr Evans.

The initial investments of the fund, which is now worth $60m, have been made in Google, Facebook, Tencent, Alibaba, Amazon and Visa.

The firm plans to grow the fund’s value to $200m by the end of the year and it could be spun off as a new investment company listed on the ASX or take in third party money.

“At the moment it is only exclusive to our clients but the aim is to probably eventually launch into the intermediary market,’’ Mr Evans said.