Foreign Investment In Israeli Tech Sector On The Rise – Report

Foreign investment in the Israeli high-tech sector has been on the rise in recent years, with US investors in the lead, according to a new report by the IVC Research Center.

Foreign investment as a share of total capital raised by Israeli companies reached 77 percent in the third quarter of 2018, the highest since 2015, according to the report. US investors were involved in 35 percent of deals over the past five years, with Israeli investors came in second most active with 30 percent. Chinese, British, Japanese, and German investors held around three percent each.

Also, over the past five years, 53 percent of the merger and acquisition deals involving Israeli startups and companies were made by US firms and corporations.

Israel also hosts 368 multinational corporations, a majority in the IT and enterprise software field (132), following by communications (64), and life sciences (47) sectors. Most employ up to 50 people, with about a third employing more than 100.

Twelve multinationals launched R&D operations in Israel in 2017, and five did so over the course of 2018 so far, according to the report.