"It's all mathematics," says Provigent Ltd. co-founder and CEO Dan Charash, to explain the start-up's impressive success. The start-up was named Israel's most promising start-up for 2010 ahead the Ernst & Young and "Globes" Israel Journey 2010 conference on the high tech, biotech, and venture capital industries.
Provigent is a fabless semiconductor company that provides best-of-breed system-on a-chip (SoC) solutions to vendors of broadband wireless equipment. Charash says, "We will be the leading chip company in the wireless infrastructures market."
The company had $25 million revenue in 2009 and expects $40 million in sales this year, and has been profitable for 18 months. It has 120 employees. It has raised $55 million from Lightspeed Ventures, Pitango Venture Capital, Sequoia Capital, Magma Venture Partners, Delta Ventures, Globespan Capital Partners, Ascend Technology Ventures, and Stata Venture Partners.
Charash does not see Provigent entering another market at this time. "In the coming years, we expect rapid organic growth, and we'll focus on that. We have no need for collaboration or acquisitions of other companies to find other opportunities.
"Later, we'll seek more opportunities in other cellular markets, but we'll stay in the field of wireless infrastructures."
This is the sixth year that "Globes" has conducted a comprehensive survey of Israel's promising start-ups, which will shine in the industry in the years ahead. The perspective of time has demonstrated that the selection is accurate. Previous most promising start-ups have gone on to hold IPOs, raise capital, and achieve sales, in some cases of hundreds of millions of dollars. Since being named, the most promising start-ups have raised $400 million between them, at least ten have gone public, and eight have been acquired for a total of $1.4 billion.
2011 will be a year of mergers and acquisitions, and even hopes of IPOs. Since the beginning of 2010, Israeli companies have been acquired for $1.5 billion altogether, including biomed company Medingo Ltd.; high-tech firms Exanet Ltd., Storwize Inc., and Wintegra Inc.; and Internet company 5min Ltd.
After Provigent, the other nine most promising start-ups for 2010 are:
- PrimeSense Ltd., which develops 3D sensing technology.
- Wix Ltd., which has developed a platform for people to create their own flash websites
- Waze Ltd., which develops mobile GPS systems for mobile telephones, Twitter, and other devices.
- Panaya Inc., which develops business impact analysis software.
- SolarEdge Ltd., which develops software for maximizing the power generation of photovoltaic solar panels.
- Broadlight Ltd., a fabless semiconductor company that supplyies integrated circuit devices and solutions to equipment vendors for fiber to the home applications.
- WorkLight Inc., which has a mobile application platform for smartphones, tablets, and next-generation devices.
- LifeBond Ltd., which is developing next-generation wound closure and hemostasis products.
- AeroScout Ltd., which develops unified asset visibility solutions for healthcare, manufacturing, logistics and other industries.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on October 25, 2010
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