On its way to an IPO, Israel’s ironSource, under CEO Tomer Bar-Zeev, has expanded its latest investment round and included Len Blavatnik’s ClalTech as an investor. Blavatnik’s company invested $20 million, which was added to the $85 million that it raised in September, at a company value of $800 million, led by angel investor Tal Barnoach’s Disrupt-ive fund, alongside numerous US investors, including Blavatnik himself, who invested $5 million before the additional $20 million.
The additional investment is meant to increase the company value slightly. Because this is a pre-IPO investment round, and a public offering may well take place this year, the company, which has developed a software engine that matches download recommendations based on programs already installed on the user’s computer, will hold its IPO at an estimated company value $1.5 billion, double the previous estimation.
ClalTech operates under Clal Industries, and is the Israel tech investment branch Access Industries. The company was launched in September 2014, with the multi-million dollar investment in Israeli start-up Yotpo. Access Industries invests in start-ups and technology companies around the world. To date, Access has invested tens of millions of dollars in Israel’s GetTaxi and ZooZ, alongside companies such as Beats (which was acquired by Apple), Tango, Zalando, Rocket Internet, Deezer, and others.
The investment round completed today is ironSource’s first since the company was founded - which means the founders hold a significant portion of the company’s shares. In an interview with “Globes” in November, when the company placed second in the “Globes” most of most promising Israeli start-ups, Bar-Zeev said, “Before the investment round, we held 85% of the company, and the other 15% was held by Carmel Ventures, which purchased the shares from the founders. After the investment round, in which 13 new investors came on board, we were left with 73%.”
Bar-Zeev said of the most recent investment, “This new funding will allow us to build on our market dominance to truly disrupt the industry, and revolutionize the way we all download and use applications. We are very proud to have Access Industries as a strategic and growing partner in ironSource, and are already seeing tremendous value from working closely together.”
ClalTech CEO Daniel Shinar who led the deal for Access and who will join IronSource as a board observer, added, “ironSource has an exceptionally strong team, and their trajectory thus far has been stellar. We’re excited to be a part of the next stage of their continued growth.”
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 25, 2015
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