Red-hot Israeli startups raised more than $700m. this week
The startup nation continues on a funding tear. In the last full week of May, Israeli companies raised more than $700 million in venture capital funding, and two announced IPO plans.
Israel's hi-tech ecosystem is benefitting from a perfect storm of factors, including the participation of a number of international investment funds, a very mature tech sector with many second- or third-time founders, the rise of SPACs as a tool to do an IPO quickly, high capital market values worldwide, a mature market for secondary shares, and other factors. It helps that many of the kinds of technology fields that Israel excels at- cybersecurity, biotech, and automation, among others- are exactly the fields that have come into the forefront during the coronavirus pandemic.
These factors have created an environment of hypergrowth in the industry. Israel's tech sector has been breaking its own fundraising records every month this year. In April, Israeli company's raised $2.7 billion, including more than $1 billion announced in just one day.
