SURGE IN HIGH TECH INVESTMENTS IN ISRAEL:YORAM ETTINGER
Surge in High-Tech Investments and Acquisitions
Straight from the Jerusalem Boardroom #152
Yoram Ettinger, “Second Thought: A US-Israel Initiative”
1. Israel’s unemployment has declined to 6% in February, 2011, compared
with 6.2% in December 2010 and 7.7% in December 2009 (April 29, 2011). The
Houston-based ATP Oil & Gas, which specializes in deep off-shore drilling,
received a license to drill in Israel (Globes, April 15).
2. The NY-based OrbiMed, the largest healthcare investment firm,
established a $200MN Israel-dedicated fund, in order to leverage
cutting-edge Israeli innovations (Globes, April 7). The NY-based Yorkville
Capital intends to invest $100MN in Israeli companies during 2011. Last week
Yorkville invested $50MN in Israel’s Elbit Imaging (Globes, April 5).
3. The Irvine-based Broadcom acquired Israel’s Provigent for $340MN,
Broadcom’s 8th Israeli acquisition since November 2000 – VisionTech for
$250MN, Dune Networks – $178MN, Pecello – $86MN, Siliquent – $84MN, Octalica
– $31MN, SighticVista – $15MN and MStream – $10MN (Globes March 22). The San
Jose-based Align Technology acquired Israel’s Cadent for $190MN (Globes,
March 31). Santa Clara-based Internet security giant, Mcafee, acquired
Israel’s Sentrigo for $35MN (Globes March 24). Boston Scientific acquired
Israel’s S.I. Therapies for $20MN – $5MN in cash and the balance according
to milestones (Globes, April 5). The Seattle-based Getty Images acquired
Israel’s PicScout for $20MN (Globes, April 28). India’s Ybrant acquired
Israel’s PicApp for $10MN, its 2nd Israeli acquisition – Oridian for $15MN
in 2007 (Globes, April 8).
4. A 39% increase in high-tech investments during the 1st quarter of 2011
– $479MN invested in 140 companies – the best quarter in two years, compared
with $234MN in 91 companies during the 1st quarter of 2010. 28% invested by
Israeli investors (Globes, April 14).
5. The London-based Sam Capital and the Minneapolis-based Piper Jaffray
participated in a $60MN investment in Israel CleanTech Ventures (Globes,
April 13). The Luxembourg-based Mangrove Capital Partners, the Menlo
Park-based Benchmark Capital and Bessemer Venture Partners, the Palo
Alto-based DAG Ventures and the NY-based Insight Venture Partners
participated in a $40MN round by Israel’s Weeks (Globes, March 30). The Hong
Kong-based Pacific Technology Fund and the Menlo Park-based Bessemer
participated in a $26MN 4th round by Israel’s Altair (Globes, April 11). The
Boston-based Spark Capital and the Menlo Park Bessemer and Redpoint Ventures
participated in a $20MN round by Israel’s AdaptTV (Globes, March 30). The
Menlo Park-based Draper, Fisher, Jurvetson and the Menlo Park-based Kleiner
Perkins co-led an $18MN round by Israel’s agro-tech Kiima (Globes, April 6).
The UK-based Lewis Trust Group participated in an $18MN round of private
placement by Israel’s OrSense (Globes, May 3). The Boston-based Globespan
and the Menlo Park-based Sequoia Capital participated in a $15MN 3rd round
by Israel’s Kaminario (Globes, May 3). Motorola Ventures, the Needham-based
Stata Ventures, the Tulsa-based Argonaut Private Equity, the San Jose-based
Stryker Endoscopy and the Japan-based NTT invested $15MN in Israel’s Amimon
(Globes, March 25). Germany’s medical giant, Merck committed 10MN Euro to
Israel’s biomed incubator in Yavneh (Globes, March 31). The Menlo Park-based
Benchmark, the Palo Alto-based DAG Ventures and the Menlo Park-based Opus
Ventures participated in a $12MN 4th round by Israel’s Clarizen (Globes, May
2). The S.F.-based Saints Capital led a $12MN 5th round by Israel’s
AngioScore, which is located in California (Globes, April 28). The NY-based
OrbiMed invested $10.5MN in Israel’s SMT (Globes, April 4). The London, NY
and Sidney-based Generation CleanTech Investment Management invested $10MN
in a 3rd round by Israel’s Tigo Energy, its second Israeli investment –
$10MN in GreenRoad in 2010 (Globes, April 14). The Waltham-based Northbridge
Venture Partners, the Boston-based Egan Venture Capital and the
Deerfield-based Vernon & Park Capital invested $4MN in a 3rd round by
Israel’s CurrenSee (April 21). The Boston-based Schooner Capital
participated in a $4MN 1st round by Israel’s Zixi (Globes, April 13). The
Menlo-Park Benchmark and the Bellevue-based Trilogy Partners and Ignition
Partners invested $4MN in a 4th round by Israel’s Xeround (Globes, April 6).
Eric Schmidt, Google’s outgoing CEO invested $1MN in Israel’s EyeView
(Globes, May 2).
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