Record 26 Israeli-Founded Unicorns Now Headquarter in NYC

New York continues to lead the way as the city with the most
Israeli-founded unicorns outside of Israel

NEW YORK, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- A record 26 Israeli-founded unicorns – privately held companies valued at $1 billion or more – now have their global or U.S. headquarters in New York City, according to the United States – Israel Business Alliance. Outside of Tel Aviv, New York continues to be the city with the most Israeli-founded tech unicorns in the world. All 26 tech companies are concentrated in Manhattan.

"New York supplies strategic resources that no single city can truly match," USIBA president Aaron Kaplowitz said. "It offers access to seemingly endless sources of capital, a well-traveled path to the rest of America and global markets, a highly sophisticated workforce, cultural synergies – the list goes on.

"But in interviews we conducted with Israeli founders over the past year, many expressed deep frustrations trying to navigate the global travel disruptions that have arisen during the pandemic," Kaplowitz said. "The New York metropolitan area is the only place in the country with two airports that offer direct flights daily to Tel Aviv, so from the perspective of the executive who needs to travel back and forth frequently, New York has even more appeal."

Since last April, when USIBA issued its 2021 Unicorn Report, New York City has added 14 Israeli-founded unicorns. Half of these newly-minted unicorns earned their wings during the fourth quarter: Augury ($1 billion), Fabric ($1 billion), Hibob ($1.65 billion), Immunai ($1 billion), OpenWeb ($1.1 billion), Selina ($1.2 billion), and Veho, which recently relocated to the Big Apple from Boulder, Colorado and quickly saw its valuation jump from $1 billion in December 2021 to $1.5 billion in February 2022.

Verbit, the AI-powered transcription and caption platform, closed a $157 million round in June, at a $1 billion valuation, and followed in November with a $150 million round that doubled its valuation to $2 billion. Similarly, Claroty, a cybersecurity company that moved its headquarters from Tel Aviv to Manhattan in 2017, secured a $1 billion valuation in June and raised an additional $400 million to almost double its value to $1.95 billion in December.

In July, AnyVision completed a $235 million round based on a $1 billion valuation and shortly thereafter changed its name to Oosto. The facial recognition technology start-up is headquartered across the street from the Empire State Building.

Capitolis ($1.6 billion) and Cheq ($1 billion) crossed the billion-dollar valuation threshold during the first quarter of 2022. The addition of two new unicorns represents something of a slowdown compared to the same period in 2021, when seven Israeli-founded companies joined the club.

Fireblocks and Pagaya rapidly increased their respective valuations and are both currently among the top ten highest valued Israeli-founded unicorns in the world. Fireblocks, the digital assets platform, notched a $1.9 billion valuation in July 2021, and then rode the cryptocurrency wave to raise another $550 million. That latest funding round more than quadrupled its post-money valuation to $8 billion in only six months. Pagaya, an AI-powered lending network, neared unicorn status in 2020 and then blew past the billion-dollar milestone when it announced in September that it would be going public through a merger with EJF Acquisition Corp., a special-purpose acquisition company, based on an $8.5 billion valuation.

"After more than two decades of the best and brightest Israeli tech leaders grappling with the temptations of exiting early, we're now seeing a maturation in the ecosystem," Kaplowitz said. "Many of those wide-eyed founders from 20 years ago are now serial entrepreneurs and investors who have gained the confidence and patience to no longer settle for $20-$60 million exits. That is having a top-down effect on the entire ecosystem." 

Israeli-Founded Unicorns Based in New York City

In addition to adding new unicorns, New York City also lost nine Israeli-founded unicorns to public listings: Kaltura, monday.com, Outbrain, Payoneer, Riskified, Similarweb, Taboola, Talkspace, and WeWork.

Among the remaining 12 so-called veteran Israeli-founded unicorns based in New York, seven increased their valuations during the past year: Axonius (from $1.2 to $2.6 billion), BigID (from $1 to $1.25 billion), Forter (from $1.3 to $3 billion), Melio (from $1.3 to $4 billion), Papaya Global (from $1 to $3.7 billion), Vast Data (from $1.2 to $3.7 billion), and Via (from $2.1 to $3.3 billion). Gett, the ride-hailing platform that announced in November it would merge with a SPAC and go public, saw its estimated valuation drop from $1.5 to $1.1 billion.

On the funding side, leading New York-based venture capital firms Tiger Global Partners and Insight Partners proved to be among the most active investors in Israeli technology in 2021. Indeed, according to Start-Up Nation Central, Tiger participated in 16 funding rounds and Insight invested in 49 last year. Over the same time, Israeli start-ups raised more $25.6 billion total. The number of IPOs rose from 22 in 2020 to 57 in 2021.

"When we started tracking Israeli-founded unicorns in 2018, New York had five and we thought that was a tremendous number," Kaplowitz said. "Now that we're at 26 we've had to recalibrate our thinking on Israelis' contributions to the local economy and all the jobs these massive companies are creating."

About the United States – Israel Business Alliance The mission of the United States – Israel Business Alliance is to strengthen the economic relationship between individual states and Israel. Learn more about the impact Israeli companies are having on local communities at www.nyisrael.org.

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SOURCE United States - Israel Business Alliance