Today (Sunday), the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) announced the launch of TASE Up, a platform aimed at allowing institutional investors and accredited investors to invest in private high-tech companies, BioTech companies, overseas real estate funds, and credit funds.

Fundraising from the stock market without the hassle of prospectus

The new platform offered by TASE will allow private companies to fund from the market without the need to go public, meaning no prospectus report, which is a standard required by law for companies looking to raise capital from the stock market.

The stock market claims that the potential fundraising organizations will receive access to thousands of accredited investors - liquidated assets of no less than $2.2 million - and institutional investors. In addition, the new platform will enable companies to expand their fundraising efforts from convincing VCs, further allowing company stakeholders, like founders and employees with stock options the ability to act on their holdings in secondary deals.

Participating companies will be able to write different securities like stocks, bonds, convertible bonds, options, and more. TASE estimates that the number of relevant organizations and companies that can are eligible to use the platform lands in the hundreds.  

TASE CEO Ittai Ben-Zeev noted, regarding the platform launch, that the stock exchange will cut a commission on every TASE Up transaction, though clarifying that “collecting a commission is necessary and not greed.” According to Ben-Zeev, the move was “critical, so that the Israeli tech scene could thrive, then the high-tech companies would go public and trade here.”

He further adds that “during these days of the COVID-19 crisis, the solution becomes extremely important as investors have become stingy with their checkbooks, causing the Israeli tech ecosystem to face a pause in growth and advancement.”