Israel’s Billion-Dollar Firms are Taking New York By Storm

Last year alone, four Israeli-founded companies reached the billion-dollar valuation threshold.

By ISRAEL21c Staff

Over the past year, four private Israeli-founded companies based in New York surpassed the billion-dollar valuation milestone, bringing the state’s total number of Israeli unicorns to nine, according to the New York – Israel Business Alliance (NYIBA).

Riskified, Sisense, VAST Data and Via joined Compass, Lemonade, Payoneer, Taboola and The We Company in the prestigious club of privately held Israeli companies valued at $1 billion or more (called “unicorns”)

“It’s remarkable that the number of Israeli-founded unicorns based in New York has nearly doubled over the past year,” NYIBA president Aaron Kaplowitz said. “As Israel transforms from the Start-Up Nation to the Scale-Up Nation, New York is becoming more and more indispensable to Israel’s innovation ecosystem.”

In November, Riskified, a provider of ecommerce fraud prevention headquartered in Tel Aviv and Manhattan, raised $165 million at a $1 billion valuation. In January, Sisense, a business analytics company, announced a $100 million round that pushed its valuation over $1 billion.

In March, ride-sharing service Via secured a $200 million investment that catapulted its valuation to $2.25 billion. And in April, data storage company VAST Data closed a $100 million round based on a $1.2 billion valuation.

Online freelancer platform Fiverr attained unicorn status in 2019 before going public last June. In October, Outbrain — already approaching the billion-dollar threshold — merged with fellow Israeli company Taboola, unifying the digital ad companies’ place in the group.

An NYIBA report released in 2019 identified 506 Israeli-founded companies across New York State that cumulatively generated $33.8 billion in total revenue, representing 2.02% of the state’s gross domestic product in 2018.

“As we contend with a global pandemic, I expect to see more collaborations in life sciences, bolstered by the three medical partnerships Gov. Cuomo announced in Jerusalem last year,” Kaplowitz said. “Still, I think the areas even more ripe for bilateral growth are AI and drones, sectors that offer audacious long-term solutions to challenges created by the coronavirus.”