Media Line – Israel’s venture capital funds – the principal source of finance for Israel’s vaunted high technology industry – are running out of money, but industry executives say the dry patch should end soon while new classes of investors should ensure the country’s start-ups get the cash they need to develop software, biotechnology and green technology.

The country’s venture capital (VC) funds saw the capital they have available to invest in the future fall to just $1.4 billion at the end of 2010, according to survey published Tuesday by the IVC Research Center and accounting firm KPMG Somekh Chaikin Israel. With the VCs investing an average of $520 million annually over the past three years, their stock of capital could run out in less than three years without new capital.