Israel's top 10 hi-tech exits of 2020

• Published date: 29 December 2020
• Author: ZEV STUB
• Date: 29 December 2020
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Here are the largest acquisitions and public offerings of 2020, adapted from information provided by PwC Israel. For purposes of this list, IPOs were ranked in terms of company valuation, not the value raised in the offering.

#1 Mellanox: In April, Yokne'am-based chipmaker Mellanox was acquired by American technology giant Nvidia for $7b., in the third-largest exit ever for an Israeli company. Founded in 1999 and listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market, Mellanox provides systems used by many of the world's largest data center servers and storage systems, and half of the world's most powerful supercomputers. The company has offices in Tel Aviv, Beersheba, Ra'anana, Tel Hai and around the world.

#2 JFrog: JFrog exceeded expectations in September when its IPO on the Nasdaq was priced at $44, 33% higher than expected, and then jumped above $70 on its first day of trading. The IPO valued the company at $3.9b., and raised a total of $428 million. The company provides software developers with a binary repository management solution that gives developers complete control over the software release flow. JFrog is based in Sunnyvale, California, with corporate offices in Tel Aviv and development in Netanya.

#3 Lemonade: The Tel Aviv-based insurance technology company raised $319m. in July when it went public on the NYSE at a company valuation of $1.6b. The company was founded in 2015 by Israeli entrepreneurs Shai Wininger and Daniel Schreiber, and claims that its technology uses 100 times more data than traditional insurance companies to offer simple, inexpensive insurance for renters, homeowners, and pet owners in the United States, Germany, France, and The Netherlands.

#4 Forescout: In February, Israeli-founded Forescout Technologies was acquired for $1.9b. by US private equity firm Advent International. The cybersecurity company, which was founded in Tel Aviv in 2000 says its access control solutions prevent computers and phones from joining a network without proper credentials. It also enables enterprises and government agencies to monitor all devices on their networks. Forescout had raised $116m. in 2017 when it went public on the Nasdaq, but has since reverted to a private company under Advert.

#5 Checkmarx: In March, Ramat Gan-based Checkmarx was acquired by private equity firm Hellman & Friedman for $1.15b. in what the company said was the largest acquisition of an application security company ever. Checkmarx's technology is used to find security flaws in large...