The past month has seen Israeli start-ups active in the internet and security arenas post some very successful exits. TechCrunch has covered a number of these recent developments:
Perhaps the biggest news of the past month came from the security sector – when U.S. based Palo Alto Networks bought Israeli cyber security company Cyvera for $200M. A sales of $200M for a company which received only $13M in funding is a good investment indeed. As reported by TechCrunch, Cyvera has crafted a new approach to combat zero-day attacks, using the coding equivalent of military-style guerrilla obstructive defense techniques. Zero-day cyber attacks represent one of the major threats to enterprises, governments, and service provider organizations that rely on a variety systems, applications, and devices to run their businesses.
Another major acquisition came when Israeli Wix, fresh from its own IPO which put the company’s valuation at about $800M – the largest public offering for an Israeli company to date – acquired Israli startup Appixia A graduate of Microsoft Ventures’ accelerator program in Tel Aviv, Appixia’s platform aims to make it easy for small mom-and-pop to medium-sized retailers to quickly add a mobile storefront to their existing eCommerce marketplaces. According to the Times of Israel the price tag of the sale was around $10M.
This sale was followed up by the sale of KitLocate to Russia’s search giant Yandex, which is increasingly rolling into new areas as a way to continue expanding its business. KitLocate, a maker of low-power mobile geolocation technology, was reportedly sold for a few million Euros.
Lastly online travel company Priceline bought Israeli startup Qlika for an estimated $15-20, according to TechCrunch. Qlika launched out of UpWest Lab’s fourth batch of Israeli-American startups in March to tackle a big problem in online marketing: Localization. Having raised an estimated $1.7M since its founding only a year ago, the exit was impressive indeed.
