The Takwin VC Fund announced March 30 that it was going to raise $80 million to invest in startups founded by Israeli Arab entrepreneurs. It has already raised tens of millions of dollars for this venture. This is the second time that Takwin is embarking on such a mission. Investors include such well-known figures as the chairman of JVP, former Knesset member Erel Margalit, and Chemi Peres, son of the late President Shimon Peres, who is a founding partner in the venture capital fund Pitango.

Although Israeli Arabs make up about 21% of Israel’s total population, it suffers from serious underrepresentation in the high-tech sector. As of today, there are only 7,500 Israeli Arabs working in high-tech, where they make up just 2%-3% of the workforce. When it comes to startups founded by Arab entrepreneurs, the picture is even more dismal. “Of the 10,000 startups in Israel, only about 100 were founded by Arab entrepreneurs,” said Khalil Shawahna, an entrepreneur from the town of Sakhnin. Shawahna was on a panel discussing entrepreneurship and high-tech in the Arab sector, during last month’s second annual conference of the Arab Economic Forum.

“Arab society is rich with talented young entrepreneurs whose dreams are restricted by the limited opportunities they face in Israel’s high-tech sector. Geographic and societal factors pose significant but not insurmountable barriers,” said Imad Telhami, founding partner and chairman of Takwin. “Addressing these barriers not only helps to advance the aspirations of a large, ignored segment of the population, but also advances the collective good of all Israelis, if the high-tech industry is to meet the increasing demands for talent and innovation. We founded Takwin with the principal intention of leveling this playing field and bringing bright, ambitious Arab Israelis into the fold.”

There is no doubt that the Arab society has experienced real growth over the last few years, when it comes to integrating into high-tech industry. In the past, the focus was on including Arab employees in existing firms. A general shortage in Israel of qualified high-tech employees encouraged many companies to launch recruitment campaigns in Arabic and to exploit social media networks targeting the Arab population to recruit new staff. As mentioned, the number of Israeli Arabs in high-tech is still low, and has yet to break 3%. Nevertheless, that is already an enormous improvement, compared with a decade ago, when the number of Arab employees was just a few hundred, or less than 1% of all Israelis employed in the industry.