Wiz leads Israeli tech to its best quarter of funding in two years
Wiz leads Israeli tech to its best quarter of funding in two years
Even without the $1 billion funding round by the cyber decacorn, local startups raised over $1.9 billion, the most since the fourth quarter of 2022
The Israeli high-tech industry has managed to raise its head despite the war, registering its best quarter of funding in two years. According to a preliminary report for the second quarter of 2024 by LeumiTech and IVC, capital raisings in the second quarter amounted to $2.9 billion across 110 fundraising rounds. About 62% of the total capital raised in the quarter came from six fundraising rounds, most of them from companies in the cyber sector, including Wiz, Semperis, Island, and Cyera. The most prominent deal was by Wiz, which completed the highest fundraising round in Israeli tech history, receiving $1 billion at a valuation of over $12 billion.
The positive upward trend that began in the first quarter is also evident when excluding Wiz's huge fundraising, with an increase of approximately 19% in the volume of fundraising ($1.93 billion) recorded.
Israeli startups raised $1.7 billion in the first quarter of the year, and $1.9B, $1.7B, and $1.4B, respectively in the fourth, third and second quarters of 2023.
The number of fundraising rounds in the second quarter is comparable to the previous quarter, which marked a break in the downward trend since the beginning of 2022. Annually, the current quarter is the first since Q1 2022 to record a similar volume of capital raised as in Q2 2023 (excluding the Wiz deal).
The number of investments by foreign investors (entities whose main office is not in Israel) has increased somewhat in the last six months, following a slump in Q4 2023. This positive trend continues even with the presence of Israeli investors.
CEO of LeumiTech, Maya Eisen Zafrir, stated: "If such volumes of activity continue, we are on pace for the tech sector to finish the year with growth compared to the previous year. In addition, our in-depth checks regarding the identity of the investors show it is encouraging to see foreign investors—who have never invested in Israel—participating in transactions even since the beginning of the war."
Ben Klein, CEO of IVC, added: "The second quarter ends with positive growth indicators. The volumes of activity in Israeli high-tech continued to grow moderately. This is notable given the circumstances. The growing presence of foreign investors shows the attractiveness of Israeli high-tech."
