On Tuesday this week, at the New York Stock Exchange, Iron Source’s founder and CEO Tomer Bar-Zeev clicked the bell at the opening ceremony of the trade, in honor of the completion of the company’s merger intoSPAC And the start of trading in New York worth $ 11-1 billion- On the same day, the NASDAQ Stock Exchange hosted Pioneer Scott Gallit CEO at the closing ceremony, and the next day – again on the New York Stock Exchange – Tomer Weingarten, founder and CEO of Sentinel One, closed the deal, after the $ 9 billion company under its management was launched- On the first trading day by 21%-
Riding the digital wave
All of these events occurred in parallel, in the busiest month ever of capital raising by Israeli technology companies on Wall Street, a (perhaps temporary) record of an extraordinary year in the field- As of today, since the beginning of 2021, double-digit numbers of technology companies from Israel have become public through IPOs or mergers with SPAC companies at a combined value of more than $ 50 billion-
Most of them did so worth over a billion dollars; Most of them were also previously considered unicorns (Unicorn – a company that raised over a billion dollars in the private market)- These are not very young companies, some of which have been operating for over a decade, which have grown and matured as private companies- The current market conditions allow them to enter the public market at generous values-
The background to the current eruption in the US IPO market can be found in the corona plague, which in early 2020 shook the capital markets for a short time, and has already been almost forgotten by investors- However, the technology companies that are riding the wave of digital transition in all areas of life, which has accelerated due to the plague, are enjoying the high demand for the services and products they are providing and as a result are showing high growth-
And this is exactly what investors who hold a lot of liquid money are looking for these days- Even non-profit tech companies are warmly welcomed on Wall Street, as long as it is clear to everyone (or at least so hopefully) that the loss today is due to investments that will yield greater profits in the future-
Men, managers for about a decade
The wave of IPOs and mergers of Israeli technology companies in recent times has flooded huge value to the funds and investment bodies that have invested in those companies over the years, and of course to the founders who now hold stock packages worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and sometimes even more-
An examination of the data of those entrepreneurs shows that they are all men, at an average age of a little over 40 (some are still in their 30s)- Most of them run the companies they have been initiating for more than a decade, bringing them to a leading position in their field, with significant revenues, and sometimes even profits- Their sources of academic education can usually be found from the faculties of computer science, sometimes even business administration- And they have interesting things to say about the way they did-
Politics
year of founding: 2010
Name of developer: Robert Antokol
Partners: Founded the company with Uri Shachak (son of former Chief of Staff Amnon Lipkin Shachak)
age: 53
Experience: CEO Politics Since its inception in 2010- Former Deputy CEO of Logia and Entrepreneur of the Sold Cmate Company
education: Degree in Electrical Engineering
Holding value: $ 238 million
said (In an interview with Globes after the IPO): “There are industries that are raging and there are companies that have not made a living in dollars, but we are a profitable, stable, growing company – fun to invest in such a company, you do not invest in a dream but in reality / We want to be the largest gaming company in the world-“
Robert Antokol, CEO of Pleiatica / Photo: Ohad Romano
SimilarWeb
year of founding: 2009
Name of developer: Or Ofer
Partners: Founded the company with Nir Cohen and Alex Itelman
age: 37
Experience: CEO SimilarWeb Since its inception- Former co-founder of AfterDownload acquired by Iron Source
education: BA in Business Administration
Holding value: $ 112 million- Sold shares in the offering for $ 11 million
said (To Globes when he was selected in 2017 for the list of promising young people and asked where there will be SimilarWeb in five years): “Everywhere- We will probably grow significantly and become the largest Internet measurement company in the world- Hopefully we will become one of the largest companies in Israel, not just in high-tech-“
Or Ofer, Founder and CEO of SimilarWeb / Photo: Kfir Ziv
Global-E
year of founding: 2013
Name of developer: Amir Schlecht
Partners: He founded the company with Nir Debbie, who serves as marketing manager, and Shachar Tamari, operations manager
age: 44
Experience: CEO Global-E Since its inception- Formerly a personal assistant to the CEO of Bank Hapoalim, a senior consultant at McKinsey and commander of the Talpiot unit in the IDF
education: BA in Mathematics, Physics and Computer Science, MA in Electrical Engineering and MA in Business Administration
Holding value: $ 364 million
said (In an interview with Globes after the IPO): “What Corona has done in our field is not create a new trend, but it did push the Fast Forward button and run a few years of growth for a six-month period- These trends have been and will continue-”
Amir Schlecht, CEO of Global-I / Photo: Eyal Yitzhar
Monday
year of founding: 2012
Name of the developers: Roi Mann and Eran Zinman
Eran Zinman and Roi Mann, founders of Monday / Photo: Eyal Yitzhar
Roy Mann
age: 42
Experience: CEO of Monday Since its inception- Previously in a senior position at Wix- Developed an app called SaveAnAlien-
education: Bachelor’s degree in Computer science
Holding value: $ 1-33 billion
said (In an interview with Forbes in 2019): The approach in the software world is’ Is there a problem? Then we open a feature that will solve it – then we add and add features and the software becomes cumbersome- “Our approach is completely different at the core – we thought about how to build an infrastructure on which users will assemble themselves, in a simple way and without programming knowledge, the features they need-“
Eran Zinman
age: 38
Experience: Monday’s co-CEO of Monday, having previously served as the company’s chief technology officer since its inception- Former Conduit R&D director and founder of startup Othersay, which is no longer operating-
education: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering
Holding value: $ 515 million
said In an interview with Globes in 2019 about the fact that he had previously failed at a startup: “I told myself that if I set up another company in the future, I want people to have the ability to get into a situation of failure, to show them that it’s okay and part of the way to success
Walkmi
year of founding: 2011
Name of the developers: Dan Adika and Rafael Sviri
Partners: Established the company with Eyal Cohen
Dan Adika
age: 35
Experience: CEO Walkmi Since its inception- Formerly a software engineer at HP, he served in the military as a programmer-
education: Software Engineer
Holding value: $ 64-7 million
Dan Adika, CEO of Walkami / Photo: PR
Raphael Swirey
age: 49
Experience: President of the company since its inception- Founded and managed the acquired software company Jetro Platforms
education: BA in Economics and MA in Business Administration
Holding value: $ 59-4 million
said (To Globes after the IPO): “We went for an IPO not for the money – it was easier to raise in the private market – but to gain more awareness and understanding of our industry, and turn it into a marketing event-“
Rafael Swiri, President of Walkmi / Photo: WalkMe
Rafael Swiri, President of Walkmi / Photo: WalkMe
Iron Source
year of founding: 2009
Name of developer: Tomer Bar-Ze’ev
Partners: Founded the company with brothers Roi, Eyal and Itai Millard- Companies merged with Iron Source have added additional founders to the company
age: 45
Experience: CEO of the company since its inception- Served for about two years as a director at Partner- Former Vice President of Pioneer
education: Bachelor’s degree in Computer science
Holding value: About $ 640 million-
said (In an interview with Calcalist in 2017): “Iron Source Receives purchase offers in large amounts, each year the larger offers and from larger entities- If there is a billion dollar offer, and there were bigger ones than that, the question is whether I think I’ll be worth much more and if I can enjoy on the way there, and the answer is clearly yes-
Tomer Bar Zeev, CEO of Iron Source / Photo: Yonatan Blum
Tabula
year of founding: 2007
Name of developer: Adam Singolda
age: 39
Experience: CEO Tabula Since its inception- A director at K Health who is one of its founders- Served in the military in a technological position
education: Computer Science
Holding value: About $ 135 million
said (In an interview with Globes after reporting on the merger with Spock): “In the future we will recommend everything: products, games, phone apps, and we will go outside the browser – we will be in cars, on TV, on any device- People need someone to recommend something they might like, in life we will not have time to read all the books we want or see- “Any series we want- Tabula has a chance to help you discover full of things you did not know existed-“
Adam Singolda, CEO of Tabula / Photo: Kfir Ziv
Sentinel Van
year of founding: 2013
Name of developer: Tomer Weingarten
Partners: Established the company with Almog Cohen
age: 38
previous experience: Former CEO of the company since its inception- Former vice president of Toluna, which he joined when it acquired a start-up he founded, DPolls- He also founded Carambola Media with partners
education: Without formal education in the field
Holding value: $ 369 million
said (To Globes after the IPO): “There was hardly an investor who did not want to be a part of the story- They realized that we have a significant technological advantage, a strong management team, a very attractive financial profile and long-term growth- We are one of the best companies in the world today-“
Tomer Weingarten, CEO of Sentinel One / Photo: PR