June Edition 2021

41 som e 6,500 start-ups , I srael has the largest number of startups per capita in the world but there has been a marked shift toward a “Scale-Up Nation” moniker in the past few years, reflecting the larger-scale investments in companies pursuing growth and the proliferation o f “unicorns” – privately- held companies that reach a valuation of USD 1 billion or more. Following a flurry of investment activity in recent months, New York is now home to 21 Israeli-founded unicorns, according to the United States – Israel Business Alliance. Each of these companies’ global or U.S. headquarters is based in Manhattan, establishing New York as the city with the second most Israeli founded unicorns in the world, behind Tel Aviv! Recently, and in the midst of a global pandemic, there are ten Israeli-founded companies based in New York have achieved unicorn status: Axonius, BigID, Forter, Kaltura, K Health, Melio, Papaya Global, SimilarWeb, Talkspace, and Yotpo. They joined Gett, Monday.com, OrCam, Outbrain, Payoneer, Riskified, Sisense, Taboola, The We Company, VAST Data, and Via. Since January, seven New York-based Israeli-founded companies crossed the $1 billion thresholds. In January, Talkspace announced a USD 1.4 billion merger agreementwithHudsonExecutive Investment Corp.,a special purpose acquisition company, that will take the online therapy provider public.Melio, an accounts payable tool for small businesses, closed a USD 110 million round to boost the company’s valuation to USD 1.3 billion. Soon after, K Health, an AI-driven telemedicine app, announced a USD 132 million raise based on a $1.5 billion value. M&A deal activity in the Israel market has rebounded in Q1 2021 since hitting its lowest level in 2 years in Q3 2020. What has been really interesting in Q1 2021 is that whilst there have been around 29 deals, the value reached USD 20.2 Billion, as opposed to 24 deals in Q4 2020 with a value of just USD 2.6 Billion. New York: A home away from home M&A deal activity in the Israel market has rebounded