Israeli companies raised an “exceptional” $25.6 billion in private funding last year, doubling the previous record of $10.3 billion set in 2020.
That’s according to a new report by the the IVC Research Center and the Meitar law firm, which found that this amount was due mostly to a significant amount of $100 million+ deals, including a number of companies achieving unicorn status (a term for when a private company is valued at $1 billion or higher).
“2021 was the year of the ‘Big Bang’ in terms of IPOs of Israeli companies in the U.S.,” Mike Rimon, a partner at Meitar Law Offices, said in a statement, per the Times of Israel.
After years that saw just a handful of Israeli companies debuting on the U.S. market, 2021 saw 23 companies from Israeli listing, and listing high.
This year will likely see fewer IPOs from Israeli companies, the report says, but adds ““there is no doubt that in contrast to the past, an IPO became an extremely relevant exit alternative for many Israeli companies.”
Rimon said Israeli’s tech sector would see “further substantial activity in private offerings as well as growth in the number of M&A transactions.” Israeli companies that have raised large amounts of funding “are looking into buying other Israeli and foreign companies, indicating the maturation of the Israeli technology companies ecosystem.”
Read more: The 100 Unicorns Born in EMEA in 2021
This report comes at a time when startup scenes in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) are attracting significant venture capital investment, leading to the creations of close to 100 unicorns from that part of the world last year.
A recent report from the venture capital firm Atomico says the region is “solidifying its place as a global tech power,” with startups on track to have brought in a record $121 billion for 2021, compared with $41 billion in 2020.
Last year was also the first that startups in Europe raised more than $100 million in one year, and the first time that total equity value of European technology companies was more than $3 trillion.
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