Israel is a country known for the technical and entrepreneurial prowess of its citizens, with the highest number of engineers per capita in the world and the second-highest level of spending on research and development when put against the country’s GDP at 4.3%. This is a mammoth expenditure and goes a long way to explaining why Israel has such an advantage compared to other countries with its startup ecosystem.
Israel is also incredibly well-known for its development of unicorns, with the country having over 45 startups with a value of over $1 Billion as of 2021. This reinforces the pedigree of Israel as a country that produces incredible startups, with effective business models and innovative technologies. This number has grown from the 30 unicorns reported in our list for the Top Israeli Startups to Watch in 2020!
1. Cato Networks
Year Founded: 2015
HQ: Tel Aviv, Israel
Size: 251-500
Founders: Gur Shatz, Shlomo Kramer
Cato Networks is a cloud computing and information security startup based in Tel Aviv, Israel. The company provides its customers with cloud-based and highly secure SD-WAN, with a security platform that is seamlessly integrated and to connect business locations, individuals, and the data being collected. This allows businesses to cut costs, improve network performance, secure internet connections, and integrate their mobile users and cloud data storage into the WAN.
As it stands, the company has raised a monstrous $332 Million in outside startup funding from a group of nine investors, showcasing the need for their services and the belief in the success potential of their business model. With network security being more important than ever due to malicious actors becoming more complex, it will be interesting to see how this Israeli startup expands and grows in 2021.
2. Gong.io
Year Founded: 2015
HQ: San Francisco, California
Size: 251-500
Founders: Amit Bendov, Eilon Reshef
Gong is an AI-powered software startup geared towards sales teams that was started in Israel but now resides in sunny San Francisco, California. The company’s cloud-based AI platform allows sales teams to automatically record conversations and provide written transcripts.
The platform can also analyze these conversations be it through the phone, or even on video-conferencing platforms like Zoom, Cisco, and GoToMeeting, with the results being fed into the user’s chosen CRM system. Their offering allows businesses to increase their revenue by swelling their conversion rates and saving time during the sales process.
Gong is another example of an Israeli startup that has received mammoth outside investment due to the quality of their offering and belief in their business model. The company has managed to gain $333 Million in funding from a group of 11 notable investors. The future looks bright for this unicorn and you should definitely keep an eye on their next moves in the coming year.
3. AccessiBe
Year Founded: 2018
HQ: Tel Aviv, Israel
Size: 51-100
Founders: Dekel Skoop, Gal Vizel, Shir Ekerling
AccessiBe is a SaaS startup from Tel Aviv with a respectable and vital mission, to make the web more accessible to those with disabilities. Their contextual AI technology scans pages on the web in the same way that a non-blind person would and then gives full context to the user’s screen reader, which allows those with visual impairments to confidently and easily use the web. Their UI also allows those with visual impairments to adjust the UI of websites that they visit so they can be better suited to their needs.
AccessiBe’s offering to companies is inexpensive, being as low as $49 per month, and allows businesses to meet compliance requirements with regards to ease of access. Investors have shown their belief in the project, with $12.5 Million being raised by two investors to fund their important work. With more people spending time at home due to COVID-19, We'll be hopeful about seeing more from this Israeli startup in the next year.
4. Stoke
Year Founded: 2019
HQ: Tel Aviv, Israel
Size: 11-50
Founders: Hilik Paz, Shahar Erez
Stoke is a fintech startup from Tel Aviv that makes it easier for companies to work with freelancers and contractors. Companies can now pay a single invoice on their own payment terms while Stoke handled all the individual payments to your freelancers and contractors quickly and on their own currencies and payment methods. Their platform also enables teams to hire freelancers, onboard them, manage budgets, and handles all the tax and legal compliance.
The unique offer provided by Stoke has led to them raising a respectable level of investment since being founded in 2019, with $4.5 Million being raised from TLV Partners. They have launched their product merely 6 months ago, but due to their ease of use and the investment they have already raised, coupled with the accelerated freelancer growth by the COVID-19 pandemic, it wouldn’t be a shock to see them soar throughout 2021.
5. Aidoc
Year Founded: 2016
HQ: Tel Aviv, Israel
Size: 101-250
Founders: Elad Walach, Guy Reiner, Michael Braginsky
When you’re undergoing a scan, it wouldn’t be too shocking for the doctors to already be getting help from AI. Artificial intelligence in healthcare isn’t something that’s far off or even a future event, it is happening right now. Tel Aviv-based healthcare startup Aidoc has created an artificial intelligence medical tool that has already analyzed the scans of over 5 Million patients.
Their service is currently being used in more than 300 medical facilities worldwide and it allows doctors to rapidly discover life-threatening illnesses such as bleeding on the brain, or fluid on the lungs and allowing for prioritization of the most severe cases. Investors are already showing their faith in Aidoc’s product offering, and the Israeli startup has raised $60 Million in funding.
6. LakeFS
Year Founded: 2020
HQ: Tel Aviv, Israel
Size: 1-10
Founders: Einat Orr, Oz Katz
LakeFS is one of the more recent examples on this list to be incorporated, having been founded in Tel Aviv in 2020. The company provides an open-source solution to improve the robustness of the user’s object-storage data lake and to make the data lake more manageable. Users of their platform will be able to create and design data lake operations that are repeatable, atomic, and versionable ranging from complex analytics, data science, and ETL jobs.
Their offering is highly flexible and can be integrated with a number of third-party tools, including but not limited to Amazon Kinesis, Amazon Athena, and Kafka. Furthermore, their offering is compatible with Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage, and Minio.
7. Frontegg
Year Founded: 2019
HQ: Tel Aviv, Israel
Size: 11-50
Founder: Aviad Mizrachi, Sagi Rodin
Frontegg is a Tel Aviv-based startup that provides a SaaS developer platform for its users. Their company offers fresh out of the box enterprise software solutions that allow rapid integration into existing SaaS web-based applications. These solutions are all customer-facing, including the user-interface, backend of the applications, and data layers. This allows companies to save time on building their SaaS essentials and also helps to save money on development costs.
Since being founded in 2019, the company has attracted a healthy level of investment from three investors, totaling $5 Million in less than two years. With their product being more convenient for businesses and cutting down on costs, it wouldn’t be shocking to see this Israeli startup grow its business and attract further investment to develop its offerings in 2021.
8. Explorium
Year Founded: 2017
HQ: Tel Aviv, Israel
Size: 51-100
Founders: Maor Shlomo, Omer Har, Or Tamir
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, current artificial intelligence modeling used by businesses to predict when loans would be repaid, demand for certain products, and many more are no longer relevant. AI algorithms are great, but if they’re being fed poor data, then you’re going to get poor results overall, and existing datasets are not fit for purpose.
Explorium assists banks, e-commerce providers, retailers, and many more businesses to make more accurate predictions that provide value to their businesses. This is achieved by augmenting existing business data with data from thousands of third-party suppliers, the data relevant to the company is then automatically filtered through.
Just two years since being founded, the company has managed to raise $50 Million to further the development of its services and with data-driven decisions being on the rise, it is shaping up to be a big year for Explorium.
9. Dialogue
Year Founded: 2018
HQ: Tel Aviv, Israel
Size: 1-10
Founder: Omri Katz
Dialogue is a Tel Aviv-based AI and e-commerce startup that was founded in 2018. The company offers a machine learning platform for e-commerce shops that operates in a similar way to a sales assistant in a physical store setting. For example, the system is able to identify patterns in the behavior of users and provide a variety of messages about product offerings to a user based on their previous interests on the site’s platform.
Since being founded by Omri Katz in 2018, the company has managed to achieve a respectable $700,000 in outside investment from a group of six investors during its Seed Funding round. It is unclear whether the Israeli startup will be seeking more investment in 2021, but with more people shopping online, their offering will be able to help e-commerce stores increase their customer loyalty.
10. Satori Cyber
Year Founded: 2019
HQ: Tel Aviv, Israel
Size: 10-20
Founder: Eldad Chai, Yoav Cohen
Satori Cyber is a cybersecurity startup based in Tel Aviv that was founded in 2019. The company specializes in providing cloud security solutions that allow users to map their data flows and storage, in addition to the discovery and classification of this data in realtime so that users can know how it’s being used, no matter its location. Data security is provided by the provision of data access controls and the detection of system anomalies. The system also allows users to monitor and enforce their own data protection policies.
Satori Cyber has been getting noticed since its founding in 2019, being slated as a top 100 security startup during 2020 and amassing $5.3 Million in investment funding, with their large majority of this being provided by YL Ventures.
11. OneView
Year Founded: 2019
HQ: Ramat Gan, Tel Aviv, Israel
Size: 11-50
Founders: Dor Herman, Omri Greenberg, Oren Katzir
OneView is an artificial intelligence and analytics startup that was founded in 2019 in Ramat Gan, Israel. The company’s main specialism lies in providing scalable and cost-effective remote sensing imagery analytics. Their platform generates datasets that can be fed into machine learning algorithms to facilitate rapid training, which cuts down the time usually required to collect, tag, and validate images from airborne technologies. Their technology can create bespoke datasets for any physical environment, different object types, and any type of sensor.
OneView amassed a really impressive level of investment from their initial Seed Funding round in October 2019, with $3.5 Million being raised between three investors. Considering the length of time since their last round of investment, it will be interesting to see whether the Israeli startup pursues further funding to develop its platform during 2021.
12. Lightricks
Year Founded: 2013
HQ: Jerusalem, Israel
Size: 251-500
Founders: Amit Goldstein, Itai Tsiddon, Nir Pochter, Yaron Inger, Zeev Farbman
Lightricks is an artificial intelligence and photo/video editing startup based in the Holy City of Jerusalem, and it was founded in 2013. The company specializes in advanced imaging technology powered by artificial intelligence to provide smarter and more powerful editing tools to users. Some of their products include editing applications for selfies to bring your photo to life, editing applications to add more personality to your videos, an app to create stunning filters, and finally an app to help you make eye-catching stories on social media.
The company itself has been dubbed a unicorn, and it is not difficult to see why. Since being founded in 2013, the company has managed to receive $205 Million in startup funding from five investors. With more people staying at home, giving them more time to use social media, it won’t be odd to see people making their photos and videos shine with Lightricks in 2021.
13. Papaya Global
Year Founded: 2016
HQ: Tel Aviv, Israel
Size: 150+
Founders: Eynat Guez, Ruben Drong, Ofer Herman
Papaya Global offers a people, payroll, and payment management solution supporting all types of global employment (payroll, EoR, and contractors) in over 140 countries. The automated, cloud-based SaaS platform provides a unified solution, from onboarding to on-going management and cross-border payments. The platform integrates with all existing HRIS management tools, provides real-time business intelligence, and eliminates errors. It gathers all employee information into one place, creating a highly visible system for tracking payroll spending. The platform ensures GDPR and SOC compliance to maintain the highest standard of security.
Founded in 2016, Papaya Global has raised $95M from 8 different VCs and overseas investors including $40M in its most recent series B round. Seeing a rapid 300% year-on-year growth, this Israeli startup has already gained the trust of several strong enterprises and high growth clients, making it a start-up to watch for the future.
14. SentinelOne
Year Founded: 2013
HQ: Mountain View, California, United States
Size: 501-1000
Founders: Almog Cohen, Ehud Shamir, Tomer Weingarten
SentinelOne is a startup that was originally founded in Israel but has since relocated to the sunny shores of California in the USA. The company specializes in providing AI-powered cybersecurity solutions through endpoint protection that allows users to prevent, detects, and respond to threats across all different vectors. Their powerful product offering and effective business model has seen SentinelOne tagged as a unicorn.
In terms of investment, there aren’t many startups that are doing better than this Israeli startup, with the company gaining $696.5 Million from a large group of 17 investors that includes Samsung Ventures, Insight Partners, and Tiger Global Management. With the backing of these companies and their own advanced technology, it’ll be exciting to watch SentinelOne further its development in 2021.
15. Cynet
Year Founded: 2015
HQ: New York, USA
Size: 101-250
Founders: Boaz Zilber, Eyal Gruner, Idan Amir, Netanel Amar
Cynet is an Israeli cybersecurity startup that was originally founded in the Middle Eastern nation and has since moved to New York, United States. Their platform allows users to gain peace of mind with their security by providing automated breach protection with automatic monitoring tools, advanced control, and detection systems. This is achieved through the consistent monitoring and analysis of endpoint, user, file, and network activities across the protected environment of each customer.
Cynet itself has achieved a healthy level of investment since being founded in 2015, with $38 Million being raised by six investors. Among these investors are Deutsche Telecom, BlueRed Partners, and Ibex Investors. With their automated offering and the increased prevalence of cyberattacks over the last few years, it would be shocking if the company didn’t continue to grow in the coming year.
16. Rapyd
Year Founded: 2016
HQ: London, United Kingdom
Size: 101-250
Founder: Arik Shtilman
Rapyd is a fintech startup founded by Arik Shtilman in Israel in 2016, since then the company has decided to move its HQ to London, in the United Kingdom. Rapyd’s offering revolves around bringing together all of the world’s favorite ways of making payment under one mobile banner. They work with hundreds of finance experts and institutions worldwide to ensure that people all around the world can have access to hundreds of different ways of making payments, removing borders in finance.
Rapyd itself has grown significantly since 2016, with the company securing $170 Million in startup funding from 10 investors, which include General Catalyst, Stripe, and Durable Capital Partners. The company has also had activity in the acquisitions market, with the company buying out the Icelandic fintech startup KORTA in April 2020. With their backing and powerful product offering, it’ll be a joy to watch this Israeli startup continue to grow in 2021.
17. Eko
Year Founded: 2011
HQ: New York, United States
Size: 51-100
Founders: Barak Feldman, Tal Zubalsky, Yoni Bloch
Eko is a media and technology startup founded in 2011, with offices in both Tel Aviv and New York. They provide a new way of consuming media in which live-action stories can be changed by the viewers as they happen, pioneering new ground in interactive video entertainment. The company creates its entertainment offerings by partnering with other media companies, indie creators, and other brands. These are available on computers, mobiles, and VR among other avenues.
Eko has garnered a respectable level of outside investment, with the company raising $36.5 Million from nine investors. Some of these investors include massive names such as Warner Music Group, Samsung Next, and Intel Capital. The prestige of their investors and their unique product offering, coupled with the fact that people will be staying at home more due to COVID-19 and you have a recipe for an exciting company to follow in 2021.
18. Moon Active
Year Founded: 2011
HQ: Tel Aviv, Israel
Size: 251-500
Founder: Samuel Albin
Moon Active is a game development studio and startup founded in 2011 and based in Tel Aviv, Israel. The company itself focuses on the development of games made for mobile devices running on the iOS and Android operating systems, as well as games native to Facebook. Their games have been downloaded over 100 Millon times by users in over 136 countries and one of their titles is Coin Master, which was the highest-grossing mobile game in the United Kingdom as of February 2019.
The studio itself has received a significant level of outside startup funding, with $125 Million being raised from Insight Partners, an absolute mammoth amount of investment to be gained from a single company in one round of funding. This Israeli startup has also had activity in the acquisitions department, with the company taking over Belarusian studio Melsoft Games in December 2020.
19. Claroty
Year Founded: 2015
HQ: New York, United States
Size: 101-250
Founders: Amir Zilbertstein, Benny Porat, Galina Antova
Claroty is an Israeli cybersecurity startup that was founded in 2015 and has since relocated to New York, United States. They specialize in technological solutions that can bridge the gap between Information Technology and Operational Technology, their offering allows users to make use of their IT security processes to reduce the downtime, increase the safety and reliability of their Operational Technology assets. Their solution is particularly useful for factories and automatic production facilities.
The company itself has received a really impressive level of outside investment from a group of 14 investors. These 14 investors have pooled their funds together to raise $100 Million in startup funding for Claroty. With this level of financial support and their advanced technological offering, it will certainly be an interesting year to watch Claroty in 2021.
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