Israeli high tech has been breaking records in recent years, with venture capital funds raising huge sums and startups enjoying generous valuations. This is a worldwide trend, but investors have greater confidence in certain countries. Global firm Deloitte conducted a survey to find in which country venture capital investors prefer to invest their money.
To no one's surprise, the US is in first place, followed in second place by none other than Israel - the startup nation. Over 200 venture capital and private equity funds managing over $50 million each took part in the survey, but concerns managing over $10 billion were also included. The US was rated 4.17 on a scale of 1 to 5, while Israel was rated 3.9. 9% of the participants in the survey were Israeli concerns, which took part in the survey through Israel Advanced Technology Industries (IATI).
Commenting on the results, Deloitte partner and Technology, Media & Telecommunications Industry leader Tal Chen, CPA, said, "This is the fourth straight year that Israel is rated in second place after the US in the level of confidence among foreign investors, compared with investments elsewhere in the world. Not only is the level of confidence in Israel higher than in other countries examined, other than the US, but if the investors' level of confidence is examined in comparison with the major US markets (Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, New York, and Silicon Valley), Israel comes second only to Silicon Valley.
"For the past year, we have been witnessing growing interest on the part of Asian investors, headed by China and Japan. We expected to see more Chinese and Japanese players investing in Israeli venture capital funds, investing in high-tech companies, and acquiring high-tech companies in the fourth quarter of 2015 and in 2016."
Chen added, "Despite the recent upheaval in the Chinese capital market, we expect the trend towards investments in Israel by Chinese investors to continue, and even grow. Following the growth in investments in Israeli companies by Asian investors, we expect more and more Israeli companies to expand their business in these markets."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 20, 2015
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