Israel’s top 10 hi-tech exits of 2020

Here are the largest acquisitions and public offerings of 2020, adapted from information provided by PwC Israel.

DECEMBER 29, 2020 15:58

Moovit mobile app (photo credit: Courtesy) — Moovit mobile app

(photo credit: Courtesy)

Israel’s hi-tech environment didn’t stop in 2020. Despite the effects of the pandemic through all layers of society, the Start-Up Nation barely missed a beat, and continued to break its own records during the year. Israeli IPOs and acquisition deals of technology firms soared 55% to a whopping $15.4 billion in 2020, according to a report published last week by PwC Israel.

Here are the largest acquisitions and public offerings of 2020, adapted from information provided by PwC Israel. For purposes of this list, IPOs were ranked in terms of company valuation, not the value raised in the offering.

#1 Mellanox: In April, Yokne’am-based chipmaker Mellanox was acquired by American technology giant Nvidia for $7b., in the third-largest exit ever for an Israeli company. Founded in 1999 and listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market, Mellanox provides systems used by many of the world’s largest data center servers and storage systems, and half of the world’s most powerful supercomputers. The company has offices in Tel Aviv, Beersheba, Ra’anana, Tel Hai and around the world.

#2 JFrog: JFrog exceeded expectations in September when its IPO on the Nasdaq was priced at $44, 33% higher than expected, and then jumped above $70 on its first day of trading. The IPO valued the company at $3.9b., and raised a total of $428 million. The company provides software developers with a binary repository management solution that gives developers complete control over the software release flow. JFrog is based in Sunnyvale, California, with corporate offices in Tel Aviv and development in Netanya.

#3 Lemonade: The Tel Aviv-based insurance technology company raised $319m. in July when it went public on the NYSE at a company valuation of $1.6b. The company was founded in 2015 by Israeli entrepreneurs Shai Wininger and Daniel Schreiber, and claims that its technology uses 100 times more data than traditional insurance companies to offer simple, inexpensive insurance for renters, homeowners, and pet owners in the United States, Germany, France, and The Netherlands.

#4 Forescout: In February, Israeli-founded Forescout Technologies was acquired for $1.9b. by US private equity firm Advent International. The cybersecurity company, which was founded in Tel Aviv in 2000 says its access control solutions prevent computers and phones from joining a network without proper credentials. It also enables enterprises and government agencies to monitor all devices on their networks. Forescout had raised $116m. in 2017 when it went public on the Nasdaq, but has since reverted to a private company under Advert.

#5 Checkmarx: In March, Ramat Gan-based Checkmarx was acquired by private equity firm Hellman & Friedman for $1.15b. in what the company said was the largest acquisition of an application security company ever. Checkmarx’s technology is used to find security flaws in large technology platforms, including products by SAP, Samsung, and Salesforce.com. Founded in 2006, it now has more than 700 employees around the world.

#6 Armis: In January, IoT (internet of things) security firm Armis agreed to be acquired by NY-based Insight Partners at a company valuation of $1.1b. The company’s technology allows organizations to safely connect unrecognized devices to their networks without fear of being compromised. Armis was named a cool vendor by the Gartner Research Group in 2017, and counts global organizations and Fortune 100 companies among its clients. Armis was founded in 2015 in Tel Aviv and is now based in Palo Alto, California.

#7 Moovit: Moovit is a brand well-loved by Israelis, who rely on it for crowdsourced public transportation schedules that are often more accurate than the official data provided by bus companies like Egged. The company was founded in Ness Ziona in 2012, and by 2019, claimed to have 720 million users in 100 countries. In May 2020, Moovit was acquired by Intel for $900m., and is now integrated with Mobileye, another Israeli company acquired by Intel.

#8 Nanox Vision: In August medical imaging company Nanox raised $165.2m. in a Nasdaq IPO at a company valuation of $800m. It was the largest ever IPO for an early-stage Israeli medical technology company. Nanox develops lightweight X-ray scanners that produce three-dimensional images that are designed to be easier and cheaper to provide than comparable X-rays and medical imaging systems. The company was founded in 2012, and is based in Neve Ilan, just outside Jerusalem.

#9 Spot: US cloud data services company NetApp acquired Tel Aviv’s Spot in June for a reported $450m. Spot offers a system that helps companies to cheaply acquire and manage cloud infrastructure capacity from companies like AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, helping customers save as much as 90% on their cloud computing costs. The company was founded in 2015.

#10 Nyxoah: In September, Israeli-Belgium sleep disorder treatment company Nyxoah completed an IPO on the Euronext stock exchange, raising $100m. at a company valuation of $423m. The company offers a hypoglossal neurostimulation therapy for Obstructive Sleep Apnea, the world’s most common sleep-related breathing condition. It was established in 2009 by Robert Taub, who had previously founded and sold another Israeli biotech company, Omrix Biopharmaceuticals, for $438m. in 2008.