Israel Active

When Israel’s IronSource went public last week, it generated 230 new Israeli millionaires and they will change Israeli society. The opportunities are out there – Israel still has more than 13,000 hi-tech job vacancies.

The Tel Aviv Innovation Ecosystem Report 2020 shows that the Israeli tech scene, and specifically Tel Aviv, is thriving. Tel Aviv is home to 20 unicorn companies – 14 having reached a valuation of over $1 billion in 2020 alone.  2020 investment in Tel Aviv tech companies increased 34% from 2019.

A key sign that Israel has turned an economic corner is June’s all-time record month of 30,000 new car deliveries. 183,000 cars were delivered in the first six months of 2021 – almost equal to all of 2020.  The world-wide shortage of microchips for new cars prevented even more cars being delivered.

Israel’s IronSource has begun trading on the US Nasdaq following its $11 billion SPAC (special purpose acquisition company) merger and the biggest public offering in Israel's history. IronSource will receive $2.15 billion to expand its platform for app developers. It is also making a profit!

Israeli anesthesiologist Dr. Jason Cohen sells 100% Israeli peanut butter. He founded the startup Holy Butter when he found that Israeli brands mainly use Chinese peanuts or peanut powder while Israel exports 70% of its very high-quality home-grown peanuts to Europe. He also sells 100% Israeli almond butter.

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Back in April (see previously), Israel’s Talon Cyber Security raised $26 million in what at that time was Israel’s largest ever initial funding of a startup. Now Israel’s mixed reality startup Multinarity (renamed Sightful) has just emerged from stealth mode by announcing $28 million of seed funding.  And it’s still a secret!

Israel’s Gong (see previously) is already a Unicorn, but its latest round of funding has raised its value to a huge $7.2 billion. It is the highest valuation ever achieved by an Israeli startup in a financing round. Gong has 2,000+ clients and is now expanding to Europe.

Shares of Israeli-founded cybersecurity firm SentinelOne have begun trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The company raised $1.2 billion - the largest ever initial share offering by a cybersecurity firm. The IPO price gave the company a market valuation of nearly $9 billion.

US multinational Hewlett Packard Enterprise is buying Israel’s Zerto for $374 million. Zerto’s products are used by 9,000 customers globally, providing them with disaster recovery, ransomware protection, and data and application cloud services.