Today Amir Meitar is firmly entrenched in the Israeli economy, both as a member of the family investment company, as well as an angel investor – an affluent individual who is prepared to invest in a company, for the most part in exchange for a share of the ownership. This is often provided as a convertible debt or in preferred stock. Initially the Meitar family’s investment company invested mainly in industry, banking and construction, but towards the beginning of the new millennium the company started investing part of its fortune in the Israeli hi-tech industry that was just starting. The Meitar family became leaders in the hi-tech field, with three of the companies in which they invested being sold to giant American corporations, providing an excellent return on investment for the family.
Amir Meitar is currently one of the members of the family who focuses on investing in and fostering promising young Israeli hi-tech startups. Together with his own angel investments, Amir Meitar examines and carries out the investments in the startups. The family group invests in startups involved in a range of activities including, inter alia, medical startups, data mining on the internet and homeland security. Amir Meitar’s success in this field is apparent by his involvement in various mergers, co-operations and share issues of the startup companies.
The Meitar family, wealthy industrialists from Austria, immigrated to Israel just prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. They set up home in Tel Aviv, then a fairly young city, where they also invested in the acquisition of property. In 1948, when the State of Israel was established, the family started to integrate into various branches of banking, construction and industry in the young State. This trend continued in the years following the declaration of the State. Members of the family were among the founders and key position holders in the banking and textile industry, as well as in the Israel Maritime Company, and to date many of the descendants of these founder members still hold positions in the companies and their management.
Much of the agricultural and municipal property owned by the Meitar family was originally frozen for use, but over the years much of this has been released and with its approval for use has come to represent an important infrastructure for the development and building of additional commercial and residential quarters in greater Tel Aviv-Jaffa.
Prompted to relocate by a combination of Zionism and increasing unrest and anti-Semitism in Europe, the Meitar family has made its mark. The family has headed some of the most successful co-operations between prominent industrial and construction companies, and takes pride in having participated in the development of the State of Israel, and in continuing to foster its advancement.
