The names of some of the 10 Israeli tech companies traded on Wall Street with the highest market capitalizations may come as a surprise to many. Five of the ten have only held their IPOs over the past nine months, led by Playtika (Nasdaq: PLTK) in January, and all of the top ten are worth close to $10 billion or more. Alongside the newcomers are veteran Israeli tech companies like NICE Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq: NICE; TASE:NICE), Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq: CHKP), and Amdocs Ltd. (Nasdaq: DOX). The top ten have an accumulative market cap of $136 billion.
Until four years ago, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE: TEVA; TASE: TEVA) was the undisputed largest company in Israel but a long way. But if the pharmaceutical company had been ranked with the top ten tech companies it would only have been in ninth place.
In 2017 Check Point overtook Teva as Israel's largest company, holding the title until the start of 2021. For a brief while, SolarEdge Technologies (Nasdaq: SEDG) and then Wix.com Ltd. (Nasdaq: WIX) held the title before being overtaken by NICE Systems. Wix and SolarEdge have also both since fallen behind two newcomers - SentinelOne (NYSE: S) and monday.com (Nasdaq: MNDY), who are both likely to challenge NICE Systems for the top spot in the coming months.
Tech solutions for the post-Covid era
Since the advent of the Covid pandemic more than 18 months ago, which is still with us, there have been major changes in our lifestyles, and even if we have returned to some of our routines, the shift online to digital ways of doing things is a trend that will not be disappearing. People work and study remotely, buy more online and require solutions to help all this. Tech companies provide all these solutions from cybersecurity, to ecommerce platforms, storage, and much more.
Wall Street investors understand all this and tech share prices have soared. The Nasdaq index is up 126% from its low point in March 2020. Investors have welcomed new loss-making tech companies with potential with open arms and have given them fantastic valuations, forgiving losses providing revenue is rising fast.
Most of the new Israel companies on Wall Street have conducted traditional Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) but many have merged with special purpose acquisition companies (SPAC) - blank check companies already trading on Wall Street, which were set up by experienced investors with the express purpose of merging with a tech company. The only Israeli tech company in the top ten, which went public through a SPAC merger is ironSource (NYSE: IS).
The main reason why many investors and very few in the public at large do not know the names of Israel's top ten tech companies is that they do not sell to consumers and private individual but have developed B2B solutions for organizations and enterprises.
1. NICE Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq: NICE; TASE:NICE) - Market Cap $18.995 billion. Founded in 1986 by Mickey Golan, David Arzi, Benny Levin, Rami Lazar and Yoav Avtilion, the company provides tech solutions to help organizations improve performance and efficiency including platforms for managing customer services and preventing financial risks and fraud.
2. SentinelOne (NYSE: S) - Market Cap $16.4 billion. Founded in 2013 by CEO Tomer Weingarten and Almog Cohen, the company provides cybersecurity solutions for the end-points of organizations using an AI-based platform.
3. monday.com (Nasdaq: MNDY) - Market Cap $15.9 billion. Founded in 2012 by co-CEOS Roy Mann and Eran Zinman, the company has developed a work operating system (Work OS) allowing organizations to produce the tools and procedures that they require.
4. Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq: CHKP) - Market Cap $15.6 billion.. Founded in 1993 by CEO Gil Shwed, Marius Nacht and Shlomo Kramer, Check Point is a cybersecurity company providing solutions for organizations including securing organizational networks, end points, the cloud, and mobile phones.
5. SolarEdge Technologies (Nasdaq: SEDG) Market Cap $14.6 billion. . Founded in 2006 by Guy Sella, Yoav Galin, Lior Handelsman, Meir Adest and Amir Fishelov, the company provides technological solutions for monitoring and optimization of solar energy. In recent years the company has expanded into energy storage, electric vehicle motors.
6. Wix.com Ltd. (Nasdaq: WIX) Market Cap $12.1 billion. Founded in 2006 by CEO Avishai Abrahami, Giora Kaplan and Nadav Abrahami, the company has developed a platform for making it easy to build websites. In recent years Wix has expanded its products and today allows users to build websites including ecommerce payment solutions, customer services etc.
7. ironSource (NYSE: IS) Market Cap: $11.9 billion Founded in 2010 by CEO Tomer Bar-Zeev, and brothers Itai, Eyal and Roy Milrad and after a merger Omer Kaplan, Tamir Carmi, Netanel Shadmi and Arnon Harish also officially became founders. ironSource focuses on ads for apps and offers a platform allowing app developers to include advertising content. ironSource describes its activities as a business platform empowering content and enabling apps to monetize and prosper.
8. Playtika (Nasdaq: PLTK) Market Cap $11.32 billion Founded in 2010 by CEO Robert Antokol and Uri Shahak, the company has developed casual and casino mobile phone games.
9. Global-e (Nasdaq: GLBE) Market Cap $10.2 billion. Founded in 2013 by CEO Amir Schlachet, COO Shahar Tamari and CRO Nir Debbi, the company has developed an ecommerce platform that removes obstacles to cross-border purchases, allowing sellers to contact buyers in their languages and make payments in over 100 currencies, while calculating the relevant local purchase taxes.
10. Amdocs Ltd. (Nasdaq: DOX) Market Cap: $9.8 billion. Founded in 1982 by Boaz Dotan and Morris Kahn, the company provides IT solutions and systems for telecom companies.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on September 14, 2021
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