JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel’s high-tech sector raised a record $25.4 billion so far in 2021, up 136% over 2020, Start-Up Nation Central said in a report on Monday.
It noted that FinTech, enterprise IT and data infrastructure, and security technologies were the largest sectors in terms of funding, comprising 65% of total funding and each doubling last year’s total to emerge as the tech industry ecosystem’s main drivers.
Since the start of 2021, there were 74 funding rounds above $100 million, more than double the amount in 2020 and totalling nearly $15 billion, according to Start-Up Nation Central, a non-profit group that closely follows the Israeli tech ecosystem.
Some 33 companies in 2021 became unicorns, private firms valued above $1 billion, to reach 53, while 57 companies went public and raised $4 billion. In 2020, 22 companies raised $1.7 billion in IPOs.
With 46 rounds, Insight Partners was the most active venture capital fund in Israel this year, followed by 29 for Israel’s OurCrowd.
Start-Up Nation Central CEO Avi Hasson said one issue for the tech sector is that companies are struggling to find enough workers amid a sector-wide chronic shortage of tens of thousands of skilled employees.
(Reporting by Steven Scheer)
