Despite the global coronavirus pandemic, Israeli companies raised a record amount of capital in 2020, according to a new report by an Israeli NGO.
According to the report, released by Start-Up Nation Central (SNC) on Monday, as of the beginning of December, Israeli companies had raised $9.5 billion in capital, putting 2020 on course to break the $10 billion threshold for the first time—a 20 percent increase over the $7.7 billion raised by Israeli companies in all of 2019.
“The impressive investment figures are remarkable at this time of global crisis,” says SNC CEO Eugene Kandel. “They indicate global investors’ trust in the maturing ‘Start-Up Nation,’ and that support for the Israeli tech-innovation sector over the last decade has paid off,” he said.
These qualities include “rapid response to change, cumulative technological experience and Israel’s branding as a global high-tech hub,” according to the SNC.
However, warns Kandel, “The impressive growth figures must not divert our attention from the worrying decline in the number of new start-ups and the relative scarcity of early-stage rounds.”