Israeli high-tech startups plan hiring spree in 2022 as pandemic recedes

Battle for software/R&D staff intensifies amid shortage of qualified candidates

  • As pandemic fears decline, startup recruitment plans rebound in sharp reversal from Q3 2021
  • Job-seeker’s market continues as majority of startups increase recruitment in Q4 2021 and make plans to hire more employees in 2022
  • Majority of startups report widespread shortage of qualified candidates with software/R&D staff most in demand
  • Hybrid work patterns continue, but may harm productivity for some companies
  • “We’re now growing almost 100%, across R&D, operations and sales.” – Dror Talisman, CEO of NeuroBrave Ltd
  • “It’s harder to find people with certain specific expertise. The ‘fight’ over highly qualified hires has increased in Q4 over Q3. In multiple cases we had to raise salaries to fight and get the employee on board.” – CEO, Israeli high-tech startup
  • Data for this report was collected and analyzed prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine

Jerusalem, March 22, 2022 – The Q4 2021 OurCrowd High-Tech Jobs Index released today shows that startups have revived aggressive recruitment plans as the Covid-19 pandemic recedes. 72% of companies surveyed increased recruitment in Q4 2021 and 62% plan to hire more employees in 2022 – a sharp reversal from Q3 2021 when the Delta variant triggered widespread lockdowns and travel bans.

“We’re now growing almost 100%, across R&D, operations and sales,” said Dror Talisman, CEO of NeuroBrave Ltd.

The OurCrowd High-Tech Jobs Index is a quarterly survey and data series tracking vacancies and hiring patterns at high-tech companies in Israel and abroad. The Q4 2021 survey was prepared under the guidance of Dr. Dahlia Scheindlin of Independent Opinion Research & Strategy, who helped re-design the survey and analyzed the findings.

The rising demand from Israeli high-tech companies is encountering a widespread shortage of qualified candidates, with software/R&D the most sought-after staff. By a margin of more than two to one, companies say they cannot find enough qualified applicants for open positions. Three-quarters of portfolio companies say the job-seeker’s market is likely to persist in 2022.

“It’s harder to find people with certain specific expertise. The ‘fight’ over highly qualified hires has increased in Q4 over Q3. In multiple cases we had to raise salaries to fight and get the employee on board,” said the CEO of one expanding Israeli high-tech startup, who preferred not to be named.

By the end of 2021, OurCrowd was advertising more than 4,000 jobs from 177 portfolio companies on the Portfolio Jobs section of the OurCrowd website. 64% of the companies surveyed have some employees located abroad, while 36% are located entirely in Israel.

“The conjunction of a job-seekers market, with unfulfilled need for quality employees, and the continuous hybrid work from home model, has the potential of increasing a much-needed diversity in the workforce in terms of periphery, gender and age,” said Laly David, Partner, Business Development at OurCrowd. “We already see a quarter of our companies increasing their hiring from the periphery and we hope this trend will strengthen. “   

More than three quarters of companies were still engaged in hybrid working in Q4 2021 – a small decline from the peak of 83% in Q3. One-third of respondents say that the lack of full-time office working reduced productivity, while 27% say it had a positive effect.

“Older employees become more attractive, as they are more disciplined about working remotely,” said Tal Bakish, CEO of VocalZoom.

OurCrowd CEO Jon Medved said, “It’s important to remember that this bullish data from our report was collected and analyzed prior to the Russian invasion to the Ukraine and subsequent events. Clearly this war, worldwide inflation and continued supply chain difficulties are likely to have a negative future impact on the overall Israeli job market.”

About OurCrowd:

OurCrowd is the online global venture investing platform that empowers institutions and individual accredited investors to invest and engage in emerging technology companies at an early stage. Acclaimed by PitchBook as the most active venture investor in  Israel, OurCrowd vets and selects companies across all sectors and stages, invests its own capital, and provides its global platform of over 180,000 registered members from 195 countries with unparalleled access and freedom to co-invest from as little as $10,000 in the companies and funds of their choice.

Founded by CEO Jon Medved in 2013 with the vision of democratizing world-class venture capital investing, OurCrowd has grown rapidly into the world’s leading online venture investing platform and as of 2021 has received over $1.8 billion in commitments, and deployed capital into more than 320 portfolio companies and 35 funds  across five continents. To date, OurCrowd’s startups have recorded 56 exits including several stock market listings: Beyond Meat, Lemonade, Innoviz, Hub Security; and numerous high-profile acquisitions: JUMP by Uber, BriefCam by Canon, Argus by Continental, Crosswise by Oracle, Replay by Intel, Corephotonics by Samsung, CyberX by Microsoft, and Kenna Security by  Cisco. OurCrowd builds value for its portfolio companies throughout their lifecycles, providing mentorship, recruiting industry advisors, navigating follow-on rounds and creating growth opportunities through its network of multinational partnerships.

PRESS CONTACT: Leah Stern, Partner, Global Communications @OurCrowd / Europe: +44 747 019 6826 / E: leah@ourcrowd.com