The Israel-Hamas war may be raging thousands of miles away, but the impact has already touched companies in Los Angeles County. Some local businesses have been indirectly affected by call-ups of reserves depleting the staffs of Israeli firms, while others are stepping up with donations of money and supplies. Here are stories of four local companies responding to the conflict.

Investing amid adversity

Many investors naturally recoil at going ahead with their ventures in war zones, but Beverly Hills venture capitalist and Israeli-American citizen Dovi Frances is going all-in. Frances is founding partner of Group 11, a Beverly Hills-based venture capital firm that specializes in investing in Israeli fintech companies and has $1.6 billion in assets under management.

Frances said that his firm has 17 portfolio companies, 15 of which have an Israeli presence, Israeli founders – or both.  These companies cumulatively employ thousands of people in Israel, he said.

Many of those employees at Group 11 portfolio firms have been called up as reserves in the Israeli Defense Forces in preparation for a ground invasion of Gaza. 

“Five of my founders of the portfolio companies have themselves been called up as reservists to special forces,” he said. 

These reserve call-ups portend difficult staffing situations ahead for these companies.

Nonethless, Frances said he’s moving full-speed ahead on four investment deals that were in the works before Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Southern Israel.

“I plan to close four deals in Israel in the next 60 days – almost $100 million in investments where I’m either the leader or co-leader,” he said.

Frances called this leading by example. And he urged other investors to do the same.

In a recent LinkedIn post, Frances admonished investors who have said they are holding back on investing in Israel for the time being.

“I responded to both of them with a similar plea as I had when Covid first erupted in my March 10, 2020, infamous post, ‘VCs do your frigging job –
Double Down,’” he said in that post. 

Consulting boost

Lisa Anderson, whose Claremont-based LMA Consulting Group Inc. specializes in helping companies resolve supply-chain issues, has seen a boost to her business since the Israel-Hamas war broke out two weeks ago.

Anderson assists manufacturers, distributors and tech companies find alternate supply-chain routes for their critical materials and supplies. She said some of her clients have used Israeli companies as sources for computer chips, software programs, drone technology and other tech products and services.

Several of those clients have told her that their Israeli vendors have been hit with call-ups of employees to serve as reservists.

“This call-up of reserves will be affecting my clients, but the impact will take time to move up along the supply chains and be felt here,” she said.

Nonetheless, she said, about 10 of her clients have approached her proactively seeking alternative supply chain routes, including several clients in Southern California.

“This has meant an expansion of business with some of my existing clients,” Anderson said.

Coffee drive

Back in Beverly Hills, Aharon Vaknin, owner of Aharon Coffee and Roasting Co. and an Israeli expatriate, has started a drive to send coffee to Israeli soldiers.

Vaknin, who founded his coffee company in 2014, decided to start sending boxes of ground coffee packets to Israel at the behest of his friend, the venture capitalist Frances.

The effort, which was still getting off the ground last week, involves taking bags of coffee beans – mostly from Colombia – then roasting and grinding the beans at his store in the Turkish style preferred by Israelis. The ground coffee is then poured into 12-ounce packets, each of which can generate several cups of Turkish coffee. Some of the packets contain notes of support for Israeli troops from Aharon Coffee customers. Several of those packets are then put into small boxes ready for shipping. 

As of late last week, Vaknin was preparing to make his first shipment, placing a half-ton’s worth of coffee-ground boxes onto an El Al Airlines flight.

Vaknin has also mounted a campaign in which customers and others can donate $18 to pay for one of the 12-ounce packets of ground coffee. Several customers have donated $1,800 to buy 100 of the packets. 

Online fundraiser

Just around the corner from Aharon Coffee, Kfir Gavrieli, founder and chief executive of online flat and ballet shoe retailer Tieks, launched a weeklong fundraising campaign that netted $180,000 to be sent to Israeli hospitals and first responders. That’s double the amount from a similar online campaign last year to support Ukraine after Russia’s invasion.

“Tieks has been overwhelmed by the support from our community for Israel,” Gavrieli said. “The Tieks for Israel campaign raised a total of $180,502 — all going directly to support victims of the Hamas terrorist attacks.”