5 Bold Predictions For Israeli Tech In 2017

This by itself is of course nothing new, as Israel keeps attracting the attention of top global funds looking for great deal flow outside of Silicon Valley, NYC and Boston; large corporates interested in tapping into innovation coming out of Israel; and large scale startups acquiring smaller Israeli startups as a strategy to get a foot in the Startup Nation door. Given all that, it is no surprise that funding for Israeli startups has reached a record high in 2016 with Israeli tech companies raising $4.6 billion this year, up from $4.4 billion in 2015. The growth in funding is supported in part by massive influence of Chinese investors who "want a piece" of Startup Nation too and invest directly in companies as well as in Israeli VC funds. On the flip side, 2016 was the year we saw a major decline in exits of Israeli companies which took a plunge of 67% compared to the previous year, with no huge, billion dollar Waze-type exits. While global market dynamics definitely played a role here, this is also a sign of maturity of the Israeli tech ecosystem where startups are less excited to sell early and strive to grow bigger companies.