Israeli Tech On Hold: VCS, Exits & Eggs

It is not a secret that the Israeli technology sector is taking a nap. A big component of Israel's success in the technology sector was start-ups. Israel's entrepreneurs and engineers got into the business of starting up companies and selling them to American companies. This business has been going for over 10 years until about 2005. American venture funds bring investment capital from Wall Street and American retirement funds. Israelis start companies and usually sell them to American companies. The return in this sector is usually higher than the stock market. Everyone is happy. Until something changed!

In 2006, 2007 and 2008 there have been very few "exits". 2009 is not much better. These are sales of companies or initial public offerings in the stock market. Exit(s) is a buzz word in the Israeli start-up sector. It is what Israeli entrepreneurs seek more than anything else: cash for a 5 to 10 year hard work. Selling a company brings good returns to the investors and does not involve the process of taking a company public. But the shift in technology from software and networking to Internet and software services has slowed down the investment-development-exit train. Established venture capital funds were dealt a blow, many small ones are completely gone. Entrepreneurs in many tech sub-sectors needed to reformulate their ideas and start working on new prototypes. What Israel can teach the world is how quickly change happens. In US and other large markets change does not have to happen as quickly. The market's momentum can hold up companies and financial pipelines. But then they eventually crash. In Israel small scale reveals quickly what changed and where the new developments are going.

Economies or parts of them going dormant are everywhere now. It's a global epidemic. Starting out with the US Real Estate, financial, automotive and now other sectors. Then like a virus the slowdown hit European automotive and financial sectors. In the mean time, smaller countries like Mexico and Iceland have been devastated financially. Israel is also going through Real Estate and technology down cycle. The state tried to help by funding early technology start ups, but they were not as effective as the private venture capital industry. Then came a few individuals, called "angel investors". To date there are very few start-ups who could gain enough momentum to get to the venture funds. The angel investors hoped to get a working prototype and excite venture funds to continue with a company. The problem is simply the scale of investment. The system created a 3 to 10 million dollar model. Start-ups are used to raising money and hiring 20 people for 2 to 3 years to get the first version of a product going. They don't know how to do it with half or fifth the money in a third of the time. Everyone has to figure out how to do things quickly and more efficiently. It is possible to start a product quickly and even attract users. The Internet has changed the rules in many ways. For example, a project like FaceBook got going and got noticed and used without a big investment. The same happened with Skype which was a small project among many to use the Internet for free phone calls. In Israel there are dozens of projects trying to emulate FaceBook and Skype. We don't have a success story yet. Let's hope we all figure out what is needed to live without the venture capital start-up model. Stay tuned, programmers are coding in PHP and MySQL in converted (closed) porches everywhere*.


* porches in Israel are equivalent to basements in the US, more on Israeli culture here... come back for more
** The Eggs in the title is for putting all your eggs in one basket. Israeli engineers, investors, entrepreneurs... you name it, have done that for the last 15 ~ 20 years.

Comments

Ami Vider said…
A few comments about the venture capital goals not in line with entrepreneurs. Investors are looking for safe investments, start-ups try to make their product look good. This has always been the case. Venture capital investments are risky and many funds do not get the timing right or simply invest in companies which are not competitive. This reality of risk and reward may seem trivial, but it is not. It is hard, takes effort and depends on many outside factors to succeed in start-ups.
Anonymous said…
As a person with affinity to Israel and an entrepreneur with vision and passion,
I can appreciate and identify with what Ami is saying. My husband's family currently live in Israel and I have been many,many times. What was said about identifying with American prototypes is something that has been in place for years! I am getting ready to launch a brand new all natural mineral cosmetic line and personal care line that fills the crucial needs of immune deficient patients and environmentally conscious individuals, as well. This project has many different facets and possibilities, fences only made by individuals nurturing these ideas. I would like to reach out to the medical wholesalers,medical spa distributors, pharmacies,and retail outlets to contact me with their input and connections to this distribution chain. I would love to work in tandem with Israel
to showcase their "hidden treasures" and resources to the rest of the world! By
working together, I am confident that my company vision can aid in creative development of untapped Israeli industries for the future of such a visionary group of people! Please contact me personally with your information at debschneid9@gmail.com. My initial product launch will take place towards the end of Nov.,2009 and the web address will be simplybellaonline.com.
I welcome the conversation and the dialogue for cooperation!

Best Regards,
Debbie Schneider
Creative Director/Mfg/CEO
Simply Bella Cosmetics &
Personal Care Solutions!!!
1-877-393-8822
Anonymous said…
from Linked-In discussion post

Boker Tov,

I think that good ol' Israeli ingenuity will reverse the trend. Are you talking about financing from within Israel or just in general?

I think the biggest coming growth sector is water technologies (i.e. desalinization) and Israel is ahead of the curve there. Once we realize we are running out of freshwater those companies are going to see a fortune come in.
Greeting from Miami, the other Jewish homeland lol.

Best,
Bobby
http://www.sdsol.com
Unknown said…
Ami,

Interesting post on the VC start-up activity and outlook in Israel. I agree that the rapid technology advances we are seeing allow much smaller investment costs to get to a prototype or even early market introduction of a product or service. Start-ups competing with FaceBook and Skype will certainly find barriers to entry wrt the large adoption levels they hold.

Do you see any other interesting spaces which may require such small or modest investments with relatively little competition or fragmented competition? I can understand if you choose not to elaborate in detail as some of your strategic opinions may be confidential, but highlighting a couple of spaces or niches within industries would be interesting.

Thanks,
Steve