The hellish first half of 2020 is now behind us, but unfortunately, it seems that the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t get the memo that we’re done with the whole global crisis, and has decided to stick around a little longer. Nevertheless, it appears as if the high-tech and startup world is slowly climbing back to normal, particularly with Israeli startups, which have raised close to half a billion dollars over the past month. This impressive fact in face of the global pandemic comes as somewhat of a surprise all things considered, especially when we compare that enormous figure to last June’s $550 million in raised funds. Meanwhile, when comparing June 2020’s numbers to May 2020, where investments in Israeli high-tech companies reached $350 million, we notice a whopping 35% increase over the span of one month.

It is still important to point out that June’s funding rounds, while numerous, were still quite humble, as Pagaya led the way with the only mega-investment, raising $102 million, which constitutes a fifth of the total capital invested in the Israeli high-tech arena.

When scaling out the overview, we notice an interesting and somewhat shocking difference between the first half of 2019 to the first half of 2020; during the first half of last year, Israeli startups scored a little less than $3 billion in total investments, while 2020’s first half experienced a 16% increase, landing $3.5 billion. There’s no question that the month of April, where companies raised more than $900 million, was one of the main reasons for this surprising increase.

We also had a few exits this month - 5 in total. Among them: GitLab’s first dip into the Israeli market and Spot (formerly Spotinst), which first made itself known at Geektime’s startup contest way back in 2015. Let’s take a look back over the past month and recap the investments that landed in the Israeli startup arena:

Investments in Israeli startups:

1touch raises $14 million

Israeli cyber startup, 1touch.io, which developed an AI-based automated platform that detects, maps, and manages an organization’s database, announces a $14 million Series A funding round. The investment was led by JVP and National Grid Partners, which is the VC arm of National Grid.

Lili lands $10 million

Lili, an Israeli FinTech startup that provides freelancers with banking tools, announced a $10 million Seed funding round. The investment was led by Dovi Frances’s Group 11 with participation from AltaIR Capital, Foundation Capital, Primary Ventures Partners, and Torch Capital.

Nanox scores an additional $20 million in funding

The Israeli startup continued its Series B round with an additional $20 million from Korean SK Telecom. Nanox developed a CT machine that is significantly cheaper and lighter than the standard machines found in hospitals today.

AEYE Health emerges from stealth with $3 million investment

AEYE Health wants to assist medical practitioners with early detection of blindness, cancer, and Alzheimer’s. The startup operated under the radar until emerging with a $3 million funding round, led by Club 100, Falcon, R-Cubed, and Angel investors.

Alpha TAU Medical hits it big with $26 million in funding

Israeli startup Alpha TAU Medical, which uses Alpha ray technology to kill solid cancer tumors from within, has announced that the company secured a $26 million Series B investment led by existing investors, Shavit Capital, OurCrowd, and Madison Ventures alongside new investors from Israel and North America.

Curesponse raises $6 million

Curesponse, which has developed a 3-dimensional tissue culture system for modeling cancer growth and drug response, has raised $6 million from Marius Nacht’s fund aMoon and from British NCL Technology Ventures.

Mitsubishi invests in ChargeAfter

Israeli startup ChangeAfter, which offers a point-of-sale (POS) financing solution, is adding MUFG, one of the biggest banks in the world to an already impressive list of investors.

Upstream lands investment from Salesforce

Upstream, which offers a cloud-based cyber-security platform for vehicles, announced that they would be partnering with the software colossus Salesforce, which will also invest in the startup. The investment amount has still not been disclosed, however, still, the deal adds yet another big baller to the Israeli startup’s already impressive Series B funding.

Binah raises $13.5 million

Israeli startup, Binah.ai software extracts vital-sign measurements from your last selfie. The company announced on Wednesday the round-up of its Series B funding, which totaled at $13.5 million. The investment was primarily led by Maverik Ventures Capital, among others who took part were Esplanade Ventures, Sompo International, GiTV, and iAngels who also invested in the Seed funding.

Planck scores $16 million

Israeli startup Planck, which aims to harness AI technology to bring innovation into the old-fashion practices of the insurance industry, announces a $16 million funding round. The round was led by Team8’s new VC fund - Capital, among other investing participants we find American insurance company Nationwide and existing investors - Arbor Ventures, Viola, and Eight Roads.

OPORA comes out from under the radar with $7 million investment

Israeli cyber-security startup OPORA is finally coming out of the shadows with a $7 million investment from the JVP fund. With former Shin-Bet Director Yuval Diskin and his former cyber intelligence specialist Noam Jolles leading the way, the company aims to launch preemptive containment of cyber-attacks before they even occur.

Spike lands $8 million Series A round

The Israeli startup that developed a workflow email-based messaging platform, now announces an $8 million Series A funding round led by Insight Partners. The round also saw participation from previous investors NFX Capital, Wix, and various Angel investors.

InfiniDome secures $1.6M investment to protect your GPS

Israeli startup, InfiniDome aims to protect GPS connected vehicles from basic jamming and spoofing attacks. The company announced the opening of its pre-Series A round, even though they are fresh off a recently completed $1.6 million Seed funding round, led by Next Gear Ventures of Israel, Boundary Holding, and Aston Partners of New York.

ECOncrete cements its status with $3 million funding round

Israeli startup, ECOncrete has developed a green concrete solution for enhancing the surrounding biological ecosystem while offering durability and strength to coastal and marine infrastructure. Just recently, the company had announced a $3 million investment to go with a previously $5 million in Series A funding led by Goldacre Ventures and Bridges Israel.

CardiacSense raises $6 million

Israeli startup, ECOncrete has developed a green concrete solution for enhancing the surrounding biological ecosystem while offering durability and strength to coastal and marine infrastructure. Just recently, the company had announced a $3 million investment to go with a previously $5 million in Series A funding led by Goldacre Ventures and Bridges Israel.

Salt Security lands $20 million

Israeli startup, Salt Security offers a cyber-security solution for the network APIs you know you use as well as covering the APIs you had no idea you used. Today. the cyber-security startup announced closing out a Series A funding round, landing a $20 million investment led by Tenaya Capital with existing investors also contributing to the celebration, including S Capital, Marius Nacht, and René Bonvanie - Executive VP of Strategic Accounts at Palo Alto Networks.

buywith collects $1 million investment

The Israeli startup, buywith, is harnessing the influencer industry to create better brand awareness for major fashion companies and increase their customers’ virtual shopping carts. The virtual shopping experience platform has recently announced a $1 million Pre-Seed round investment, led by NEOMI, Sarona Partners, and private investors Harry Lipshitz, Raz Alon, and Itzhak Rachlevsky.

Pagaya secures $102 million

Israeli AI-driven asset management and investment strategy company, Pagaya, announces a GIC led $102 million Series D funding round, with Oak HC/FT, Poalim Ventures, Viola, Aflac Global Ventures, Clal Insurance, and Thai bank SCB all participating in this latest round.

Arbox flexes $2 million Seed investment

Arbox, a business management platform for gyms and studios, announced an end to its Bootstrapping phase as it secured a $2 million Seed investment from Pico Ventures.

Apolicy reels in $3.5 million

Apolicy develops a powerful automation platform that orchestrates policies and risk management from authoring to enforcement and compliance in a Cloud-Native environment. The Israeli cyber-security startup announced the completion of a $3.5 million Seed round, led by StageOne Ventures with private cyber sector investors also getting in on the action.

Nielsen invests in Pudding.ai

Pudding.ai’s AI-backed solution offers data-sourced insight for marketing personnel to create better and more educated social media campaigns. The startup recently announced adding more than $500K into the company's pocket following an investment led by Nielsen Innovate Fund.

CENS scores $1.5 million

CENS Materials Ltd., which utilizes nanotechnology to increase the electric vehicle (EV) battery’s energy capacity while heavily reducing recharging time, announces a charge of their own, landing a $1.5 million investment led by British-Iranian investor Vincent Tchenguiz.  

Agamon raises $3 million

Israeli Med-Tech startup, Agamon, which develops AI-backed algorithms that translate medical report jargon into a common language for better patient care and education, announces securing $3 million in Seed funding, in an effort led by MMC Ventures, also including investments from Seedcamp, InHealth Ventures, and pharmaceutical company Bayer G4A.

Authomize brings in $6 million

Israeli Med-Tech startup, Agamon, which develops AI-backed algorithms that translate medical report jargon into a common language for better patient care and education, announces securing $3 million in Seed funding, in an effort led by MMC Ventures, also including investments from Seedcamp, InHealth Ventures, and pharmaceutical company Bayer G4A.

OCON lands $2 million in funding

Israeli startup OCON Healthcare stepped up its game with an innovative hormone-free intrauterine contraception platform leading to a $2 million in-house funding round, led by Pontifax VC, with existing investors Docor VC, and a private American family fund also contributing to the round.

BreatheVision has room to breathe with $1.3 million investment

BreatheVision develops a simple IoT device that remotely tracks and alerts if a patient’s breathing condition deteriorates before it’s too late. The company raised $1.3 million through PipelBiz’s crowdfunding platform.

DriveU Auto emerges from stealth mode with $4 million

DriveU.auto’s connectivity platform enables secure remote-control operation of autonomous vehicles. The Israeli company recently announced a $4 million funding round led by Zohar Zisapel, an Israeli entrepreneur often referred to as the “Israeli Bill Gates”, as well among investors, Two Lanterns Venture Partners, Kaedan Capital, and other private investors.

Lightrun secures $4 million in funding

Israeli startup Lightrun, which developed a system that enables developers to easily debug production and staging code in real-time, officially announced a $4 million Seed funding round, led by Glilot Capital Ventures and a number of Angel investors.

SQream lands almost $40 million in B+ round

SQream’s DB product provides a platform that utilizes GPU, rather than standard processing units, to offer SQL data analytics. In June the Israeli startup secured a $39.4 million Series B+ investment led by Mangrove Capital and Schusterman Family Investments.

Pixellot scores $16 million for better sports feed

The Israeli startup Pixellot, which provides nearly automated production and streaming for sporting events, announced a $16 million funding round led by Shamrock Capital.

Codefresh’ Series C round brings in $27 million

Israeli startup Codefresh, which offers DevOps teams a key tool for continuous integration and delivery of cloud-native applications on Kubernetes, announces today (Monday) a $27 million Series C funding round led by Red Dot Capital Partners, with Shasta Ventures and existing investors Vertex Ventures, M12, Viola Ventures, Hilsven Capital, and CEIIF, all participating in the round.

Cynet raises $18 million

Cynet, the company that developed an autonomous breach protection platform against cyber-attacks, raised $18 million as part of a Series B+ round. The investment was led by TIP (Telekom Innovation Pool), Deutche Telekom’s strategic fund.

Upsolver lands $13 million investment round

Israeli startup Upsolver, which developed a platform for processing Big-Data on data lake projects, announces a $13 million Series A funding round. The investment was led by Vertex Ventures US with the Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP).

Hunters scores $15 million

Hunters, an Israeli startup that provides organizations with an AI-backed cyber-threat hunting solution, announced a $15 million Series A funding round led by Microsoft’s VC fund, M12, and U.S. Venture Partners.

Simply Speak reels in $1.1 million

Israeli born startup, Simply Speak, which uses conversational-AI to automate documentation of telehealth sessions, announces a $1.1 million Seed round led by Angel investors and Glenn Loomis, MD, CMO, and the company’s first investor.

Zerto raises $53 million

The Israeli company completed a $53 million funding round, with $33 million of it in equity. It was Poalim Ventures along with Zerto’s existing investors leading the round.

OneView sees $3.5 in its latest funding round

Israeli company Overview raised $3.5 million led by TPY Capital, to develop virtual data simulators that enables optimal analysis of aerial and satellite images.

Israeli startup exits:

Optimal Plus gets bought out for $365 million

Optimal+, a global leader in Big-Data analytics solutions for electronic car components, is being acquired by National Instruments (NI) in a massive cash deal. The Texas-based company announced that the deal was closed and valued at $365 million.

Effective Space acquired by US-based Astroscale

Effective Space, which developed a solution for satellite life extension and maintenance, is being acquired by Astroscale, a leader in the orbital debris remover industry. According to PitchBook, the startup has raised almost $15 million since it was founded, with Oak Pacific and Moshe Hogeg’s Singulariteam leading the investors’ list.

Fuzzit's exit is GitLab's gain

GitHub's main competitor, GitLab announced that the company has acquired Fuzzit, which developed a platform for embedding "fuzzing" tests in an entity's CI/CD. This was GitLab's first dab in the Israeli startup pool, although neither company posted the exit amount, Geektime was informed that the deal is in the single digit millions.

Spot acquired for $450 million

Spot offers cloud service and management optimization for SaaS companies, executed by AI software. The Israeli company will get bought out by NetApp.

DataBricks buys out Israeli startup Redash

Back in 2015, Israeli startup Everything.me announced that it is shutting down and halting all operations. So far sounds like countless other startup stories. In June the Israeli startup was acquired by the billion dollars company