Israeli Unicorns are a Target for SPACs
This past year has been tumultuous to say the least, but somehow Israel’s hi-tech sector isn’t feeling the blow. Israel currently has more unicorns than all of Europe. A trend exemplified by the recent SPAC mergers. Public companies are buying private ones for large sums of money.
SPACs are special purpose acquisition companies. They are essentially shell companies that are focused on raising money with the express goal of buying a privately owned operating company. More and more SPACs making offering has become the norm on stock exchanges. Israeli tech companies have seen a multitude of acquisitions totalling approximately 40 billion USD.
Both Taboola and Arbe Robotics have merged into SPAC companies this year. Taboola, the ultimate unicorn, is set to merge with ION Acquisition Corp. 1 Ltd. with a valuation of 2.6 billion USD. Arbe Robotics is merging into Industrial Tech Acquisitions with a total valuation of 600 million USD.
Eduord Cukierman, who is the chairman of Cukierman & Co. Investment House Ltd. as well as Catalyst Investments recently spoke to Globes. Cukierman said he believes that more Catalyst portfolio companies are being set as targets by SPACs. He further stated “There are many companies in our portfolio, and customers of our investment bank who are interested, and we are active in this matter.” His belief that more SPACs are coming for Israel and should be welcomed during a time when much of the world is struggling economically.
Israel is known as the start up nation for a reason. It’s status is only attracting more suiters and economic growth. Around 60 different companies in Israel are considered unicorns. Their total worth is north of 1 billion USD. A tiny nation of around 9 million people is far and away ahead of Europe. In comparison to far larger European states such as the UK or France which have 27 and 7 unicorns respectively. Both in total and per capita Europe as a whole is far behind Israel in unicorns.
Having a strong background in technology, Israel continues to act as a magnet for investors. Foreign investors prefer the small Jewish state to any state in Europe. Many will go out of their way to send company representatives to Israel. In the coming years we can expect to see the amount of unicorns in Israel to grow and with it the amount of SPACs targeting those same companies.
