“I didn’t move to Israel because I’m a Zionist. I moved there because I’m a capitalist.”
That’s a statement I once heard from someone and it deeply resonated.
Surely, all these years later, you’ve heard that Israel is The Startup Nation, but perhaps it’s time to retire that title and change it to something more along the lines of “Scale up Nation.”
Once upon a time, Israel was known for building amazing tech. But it was also known as the place where entrepreneurs sold their companies too early and didn’t let them mature.
In fact, many years ago, I had the opportunity to interview one of the biggest legends in the tech world, Marc Andreessen, who famously started Netscape, and was one of the first investors in Facebook, Twitter, and so many other leading tech companies.
I asked him why his firm, Andreessen Horowitz, did not have an office in Israel. He explained to me that Israeli entrepreneurs sell their companies too early.
He was right then, not now.
You see, over the past 5 to 10 years, Israeli entrepreneurs are really looking to build large sustainable businesses, and not only startups.
In fact, in parallel to the startup ecosystem, you have every single leading tech corporation setting up shop in Israel.
This of course includes Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Google, Facebook, Amazon, Intel, IBM, and the list just goes on and on.
Certainly, the war has made it harder to innovate, or at least you would think that would be the case.
Let’s not forget the nature of the Jewish people, and specifically how this amazing nation deals with adversity and persecution.
This goes back all the way to ancient Egypt, where the Torah explicitly states that the more the Egyptians oppressed the Israelites, the more the Israelites flourished. It was true then, and it’s true now.
The latest piece of news is that Google was looking to acquire an Israeli cyber security company called Wiz, and the publicized price for this acquisition was a whopping $23 billion. That’s right, with a B.
That would have been Google’s largest acquisition ever and Israel’s largest exit ever.
But guess what – Wiz said no. To $23 billion! The company has chosen the path of an IPO, meaning to go public, instead.
Wiz is one of the fastest growing software companies in the world, and it was founded by Assaf Rappapot, who is sort of a legend around these parts.
Assaf is 40 years old with an estimated net worth of $1.2 billion. He owns 10% stake in Wiz.
He was the general manager of Microsoft, Israel, and is the type of entrepreneur who seems to be one of those cases that everything he touches turns to gold.
Before Microsoft, Assaf founded a company called Adallom that was acquired by Microsoft in 2015.
Wiz provides cloud-based cybersecurity with real time threat detection, and it does this by means of artificial intelligence.
Wiz was last valued at “only” $12 billion, making Google’s proposed acquisition price point almost double the company’s value.
With growing antisemitism, and massive boycotts against Israeli products, it is refreshing and exciting to see the leading tech companies not following the mob, and continuing to invest in Israel.
As far as large Israeli exits, Intel famously acquired Mobileye, a company building the future of autonomous transportation, for $15.3 billion many years ago.
Other notable exits include Waze, which was acquired by Google for $1 billion.
It is important to note that the Israeli tech ecosystem is delivering, and even over delivering during this war.
As you can imagine, a massive percentage of the workforce has been drafted to serve their country, making it more difficult to innovate and build new products, something that any normal nation would struggle with. But not Israel.
We’ve all seen the memes aimed at BDS. Without Israeli tech, you can’t unlock your iPhone or water your garden. Now you can add to that list that without Israeli tech, you won’t be able to keep your business secure from cyber threats.
In other words, Am Yisrael chai!
