Even the biggest optimists couldn’t predict the turnaround that the Israeli tech sector experienced over the past year. April of 2020 was a period of crippling uncertainty, with the entire county under lockdown, businesses closing down and mass waves of layoffs and furloughs, with a seemingly inescapable economic crisis arriving in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. But the local tech scene went on to see a 25% increase in capital raised with nearly $10 billion flowing into the sector by the end of 2020. Funding rounds of $100 million, $200 million, and even $300 million became par for the course and more than 20 new unicorns emerged, nearly doubling the previous count.
The result is not just a tech bubble that detached itself from the rest of the market, but the development of two divergent schools of thought within the industry itself. On one side, there are the companies and founders that side with rapid growth and huge funding rounds, while on the other there are those who insisted on adopting more gradual growth and found themselves refusing investors who were knocking down their doors. The former appear in this year’s unicorns list, while the latter make up Calcalist’s ranking of the 50 Most Promising Startups.
There are quite a few companies on the ranking that are already generating revenues of $100 million or more a year — far more than what some of the new unicorns are bringing in.”
