The share price of Israeli gig economy platform company Fiverr International (NYSE: FVRR) continues to climb and the biggest winner is Canadian-born Jonathan Kolber, the former Koor CEO.
Fiverr's share price rose 15.8% last week and 26.6% in all of July and since its IPO on the New York Stock Exchange in June 2019 at $21 per share the share price is today worth nearly 4.5 times as much at $93, and it is up 56% since its secondary offering two months ago. Fiverr's market cap is currently nearly $3.3 billion.
Fiverr, founded by CEO Micha Kaufman and Shai Wininger (who left to found insurtech company Lemonade - another huge success on the NYSE), has developed a platform to connect up freelancers in a range of professional fields with potential customers. Fiverr is one of the tech companies boosted by the Covid-19 pandemic because the platform allows deal-making between freelancers and customers without the need for a face-to-face physical meeting.
The big winners 'on paper' include Jonathan Kolber who has an 11.9% stake in Fiverr, while Bessamer, Accel, Square Peg and ION have stakes ranging between 5% and 11%, and founders Kaufman and Wininger hold 6.7% and 4.9% respectively.
Canadian born Kolber, the son of the late Canadian Senator Leo Kolber, came to Israel 30 years ago as Charles Bronfman's representative and never went back. As an angel investor in Fiverr from the seed round, he invested in the company in every financing round before the IPO. Kolber served as Koor's CEO and switched its holdings from traditional industries to the tech sector but stepped down in 2006 after ECI Telecom suffered heavy losses and Koor was sold to Nochi Dankner's IDB Group. He is today a general partner in the Viola Growth venture capital fund. Kolber's stake in Fiverr is today worth $383 million.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on August 2, 2020 © Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2020