TEL AVIV— Nasdaq Inc. is jumping into Israel’s tech boom.
The stock-market operator said Wednesday it is joining forces with the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange in a venture to nurture startups, including offering advice and mentoring for private, growth-geared companies and creating an exchange here to help them raise capital.
The move comes amid long-standing complaints among Israeli startup founders and investors that the country lacks the infrastructure to foster stock-market listings for its exploding technology sector. Instead, critics say companies have been forced to seek listings overseas, particularly in the U.S., or sell themselves to foreign firms to raise capital and keep growing.
The two exchange operators described the new Tel Aviv exchange as a private, “secondary market for liquidity events and debt financing services.” Nasdaq said more details about the new market will be disclosed early this year.
Gal Landau-Yaari, chief risk officer at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, or TASE, said the new exchange will help connect foreign investors and Israeli companies, offering investors access to private shares, debt and secondary offerings. The exchange announcement coincided with a separate agreement by TASE to use Nasdaq technology for stock, derivative, bond, fixed-income and commodities trading, as part of an overhaul to attract more Israeli and foreign listings.
