Author: wp_archive_user

Israel: one of the best places in the world to start a company

Israel: one of the best places in the world to start a company

Dec 2, 2012 |

The Wall Street Journal recently wrote that London is hosting 15 Israeli tech companies in hopes of changing public opinion: that London is not just a stop on the way to Silicon Valley. Israel has branded itself as “The Startup Nation,” a name that has been thrown around in all four corners of the earth. But with all of this talent and ingenuity, there is a lot of competition for Israeli entrepreneurs. In order to get ahead, many entrepreneurs travel abroad and obtain foreign experience before coming back and making it big. London is geographically closer to Israel than the states and is only a two hour time difference. That is a big plus. When Israeli’s travel to California, they are burdened by the time difference and the 16 hour flight. London seems like a logical place for Israeli’s to expand. London is in competition with many other countries trying to accumulate these Israeli entrepreneurs searching for business experience abroad. And it seems that London is doing a pretty darn good job. But is London a better place to...

Read More
Social parking app turns to the crowd to solve the parking problem

Social parking app turns to the crowd to solve the parking problem

Nov 29, 2012 |

Social parking app, Parko — think, Waze for parking — helps identify parking spots before they actually become available. That wasn’t the only time Neu-Ner has battled the parking gods who have decreed that the average Tel Aviv resident will spend 24 minutes on average looking for a parking spot. But it was the wakeup call that, if Neu-Ner’s new startup Parko succeeds, will transform life for curb-deprived drivers everywhere. Neu-Ner teamed up with his cousin Itai David, a Technion graduate whom he describes as an “algorithm geek.” Together they created a smartphone app that almost magically senses when a parking spot will become available – even before the car’s driver opens the door. Source: App steers you to parking spots (Israel21c)     photo:  Snapshot of a Tel Aviv parking lot by Nati...

Read More
What’s the average Israeli M&A look like?

What’s the average Israeli M&A look like?

Nov 27, 2012 | ,

As investors in Israeli startups, we get asked this question a lot. In fact, we’ve dedicated significant slide-age to it in our presentations about why invest in Israel. The environment for Israeli M&A But here’s the hard facts according to the numbers: First, in the aggregate Over the past decade, $15 billion has been invested in Israeli tech companies $37 billion take-out value in M&As and IPOs Average of 80 Israeli M&A deals per year (5 year average) Israeli M&A environment for 2011 average M&A deal: $60M (nearly double the $32.5M average in 2010) 15 deals over $100M, 5 deals over $300M, and 1 deal over $500M 5 IPOs (down from 11 in 2010) raised $126M  Multinationals come to Israeli to partner, acqui-hire, and acquire mostly early-stage technology companies. If you’re investing in Israeli ingenuity, then your investment model must reflect what’s going on on the ground. We believe OurCrowd’s new hybrid model — screening/due diligence for good deals and giving total discretion to our investors to decide which deals they’d like to participate in — is a better...

Read More
Crowdsourcing the next big M&A with Merjerz

Crowdsourcing the next big M&A with Merjerz

Nov 26, 2012 |

I had the privilege of meeting Arye Schreiber, an Israeli entrepreneur and founder of a new startup Merjerz. Optimizing the M&A experience Merjerz is an online “dating” site for prospective acquirers and targets to meet and enhance the M&A experience. It works by users of the site proposing M&A deals, and then other users commenting on the specific deal. For example, Jon Smith puts up a link that says “Cisco should acquire OurCrowd.” Merjerz’s users then can add their insights, creating a stream of up-to-date data, opinion, and crowdsourced sentiment. Now the acquirers are far better informed on specific companies and can make a better and more optimal choice and decision. This information is extremely hard to obtain, and the plan of the Merjerz is to charge large businesses and corporations yearly membership fees. The site also has a Corporate Review page, where the pros and cons of any hi-tech company can be discussed. Everyone can use this information for current, credible, and professional perspectives on a hi-tech corporation. One of the best traits to have when starting a company is experience in the field. Arye...

Read More

Israel has the #2 startup ecosystem in the World according to new report

Nov 23, 2012 | ,

Startup Genome just released the Startup Ecosystem Report. The report (which you can download here) contains the first data-driven Ranking of the World’s Top 20 Startup Ecosystems and  a deep dive into the each of the individual Startup Ecosystems Here are the top 20, in order: Silicon Valley Tel Aviv << Israel is #2 in the world Los Angeles Seattle New York City Boston London Toronto Vancouver Chicago Paris Sydney Sao Paulo Moscow Berlin Waterloo (Canada) Singapore Melbourne Bangalore Santiago How Israel’s startups stack up The report uses Silicon Valley as the index — a perfect 100 score. Israel ranks #2 in the world when compared to Silicon Value for the strength of its startup ecosystem. Israel ranks this high globally because “it has the 2nd highest output index of startups with a healthy funnel of startups across the developmental lifecycle, a highly developed finding ecosystem, a strong entrepreneurial culture, a vibrant support ecosystem, and a plentiful supply of talent”. Where Israel is strong as a startup culture According to the report, Israel has a similarly educated entrepreneurial community (40% with Masters/PhD vs 42% in Silicon Valley). Startups...

Read More