Following a record-setting month, where 6 Israeli companies joined the Israeli Unicorn club and $2.7 billion in funding found its way to Israeli startups - April continued the trend in full force. Last month 40 different startups raised a combined $2.29 billion.
Is the peak behind us?
You really can’t start dissecting April 2021 performance without noting April 7th - the day where 4 Israeli companies, alone, brought in over $1 billion in funding. Trax, which raised almost a third of the month’s sum, led the pack together with Redis Labs, WhiteSource, and BlueDot - for a total of $1.057 billion. We wanted to find out if this was just a coincidence or a long-term trend; leading us to pick the brains of a few Israeli investors. Really worth the read.
After March, when 6 new Israeli Unicorns joined the ranks, last month was much more humble - with only 1 company joining the over billion dollar valuation club. And that company was San Francisco based Deel, a Y Combinator alumnus that raised $156 million.
Especially when looking at months with high fundraising totals, we like to check out the “Mega-funding rounds” (over $100M) parameter. March saw 11 different companies dabble in the mega-round ponds, while April’s totals were cut in half - with only 5 companies scoring 9-digit checks. Once again, even here it’s hard to ignore Trax and Redis Labs, who raised almost a billion dollars; joining new Unicorn Deel, C2i Genomics, and Deep Instinct. These five startups alone raised over half of the monthly total - $1.306 billion.
Pointing out another increasing trend we had noticed; growth startups - meaning Series B and up - continue to pass their early-stage counterparts in round totals. Last month, 17 early stage companies received funding, in comparison to the 23 growth startups. Pay attention though that it’s not just the total amount of capital that is higher- which makes sense considering growth stage startups have more expensive needs and demands - but also the number of rounds. This could potentially show that early stage startups are finding it harder to secure funding, in addition to investors tending to play it safe.
Interesting enough, in April 2020 - the first full month following the outbreak of COVID-19 - Israeli startups pulled in close to $900 million. Even though chaos had just started to spread throughout the world, with companies going through massive layoffs, or sending employees on furloughs - it was speculated that the funding success was just “steam” left over from before the pandemic, and should expect die down within a few months - boy, how wrong were they?
For comparison, in April 2019, Israeli startups raised $589 million, which is less than what Trax scored in a year. And if we go 3 years back to April 2018 the number jumps even higher - Israeli startups raised a combined $212 million, less than a tenth of the current total.
April 2021 Investments
The entrepreneur who wanted to help his son. AmplioSpeech raises $27M. Read more...
Empathy raises $13M to help families deal with the "bureaucracy of death". Read more...
Data lakes innovator Upsolver nabs $25M. Read more...
Aporia nabs $5M.
Blue Dot raises $32M so that AI can take care of tax compliance. Read more...
As the IPO inches near, Redis Labs scores $310M and doubles valuation. Read more...
Trax goes over the $2B valuation mark with massive $640M Series E. Read more...
Open source security firm WhiteSource raises $75M. Read more...
With retail investors on the rise, TipRanks secures $77m in funding. Read more...
Alexa Fund backs Israeli AI startup Comet. Read more...
Talon sets Israeli Seed funding record. Read more...
Humanoid surgical robot lands Memic $96M. Read more...
DoControl raises $10M.
Cancer survivor's startup C2i Genomics raises $100M to detect disease earlier. Read more...
Wix, and Fiverr co-founder invest in Affogata's BI platform. Read more...
Impressive list of cyber leaders back Grip Security's $6M Seed round. Read more...
DataRails raises $18.5M.
Deel raises $156M, as fastest Israeli startup to hit Unicorn status. Read more...
Rapid API nets $60M Series C. Read more...
AirEye nabs $8M.
Real estate intelligence startup Cherre scores $50M. Read more...
"The Pfizer of cybersecurity": Deep Instinct raises $100M. Read more...
Popular Youtuber MKBHD and Reddit co-founder back Riverside.fm's podcast tech. Read more...
Ottopia nabs $9M to support autonomous drivers with remote human operators. Read more...
The food of today can be the food packaging of tomorrow: TripleW scores $5M Series B. Read more...
Materials Zone raises $6M Series A from Insight Partners. Read more...
Product Hunt CEO invests in Placer.ai. Read more...
Following a tough year for travel, Guesty lands $50M and another acquisition. Read more...
ZenGo raises $20M to solve the 2 main challenges hindering crypto adoption. Read more...
Automotive stakeholders get behind IRP Systems' EV upgrade. Read more...
Connecteam raises $37M.
Infrastructure management tool Locusview secures $64M Series A. Read more...
Fyllo raises $30M.
Nucleix scores $55M to scan for lung cancer.
OrcaAI nets $13M.
infiniDome secures $2.4M.
StickIt scores $1.5 for its cannabis sticks.
Alt-meat startup Chunk Foods raises $2M.
Akeyless nabs $14M for its cloud management platform.
April 2021 SPACs & IPOs
AutoTalks is on its way to NASDAQ at a $2B valuation.
April 2021 M&A action
Tipalti acquires Approve.com. Read more...
Sports gaming giant DraftKings acquires Blue Ribbon. Read more...
TravelTech comeback: Guesty acquires American startup MyVR. Read more...
WalkMe acquires data enabler Zest for a few million. Read more...
Cyber giant Cofense acquires CyberFish for $100M.
Israeli startup Trustdome raised only $3M, and was acquired for $40M.
What's behind the funding craze?
Four Israeli investors share their thoughts on the funding hot streak of Israeli startups. Read more...
