Silicon Wadi

Despite having less than 3% of the population of the US, Israel creates some of the most successful and impressive tech companies and entrepreneurs in the world. 21 unicorns were created in 2021 alone.  Multi-billion-dollar VC exits have abounded: Mobileye, Habana Labs, M-Systems, and Mellanox amongst many others. The country boasts one of the highest number of start-ups per capita in the world and has certainly earned its nickname of the ‘Start-up Nation’.

While 20 years ago Israeli entrepreneurs might have exited early so as not to risk too much capital, more investment in the region has allowed for more growth for longer. Even with the slowdown in the global tech market last year, funding into Israeli start-ups exceeded US$7bn in 2022.

Over the last decade Israel has developed into a VC ecosystem of global importance. Government initiatives have enabled entrepreneurship and the Israeli tech scene to prosper. Initiatives have included tax incentives, reduced M&A barriers, and the promotion of entrepreneurship via overseas visas and educational programmes.

Crucially in addition to meaningful government support, Israel is home to the world’s highest R&D expenditure as a percentage of GDP in the world – investing around 5.4% of its GDP in 2022. It also has the highest percentage of engineers and scientists per capita in the world.

These innovative programmes, coupled with high-quality talent and capital resources have placed Israel first in several indicators in the 2022 Global Innovation Index, and have enabled numerous Israeli technology start-ups to grow and compete internationally for investment. As a result, Israel is now home to 270 multinational corporations including Google, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft, which between them have established over 350 R&D facilities.

Alicorn Venture Partners has been investing in Israel since 2017 and since then we have backed some of the most highly regarded names in Israeli high tech. Over the years, we have built extensive knowledge of, networks into, and experience within, the VC secondary market which continues to flourish in Israel and emerge in mainland Europe.

We firmly believe the drivers of the Israeli technology ecosystem are powerful and are here to stay. The opportunities available in Silicon Wadi are immense, particularly when operating mostly on a secondary basis. We will continue to seek out top tier companies and founding teams at a later stage of growth at the best prices possible for our investors.