RAMALLAH – The number of foreign investment entities active in Israel fell by 10% in the first half of 2024 in comparison with the previous six months, according to Globes newspaper.
The figure includes venture capital funds, corporate funds, investment institutions, and corporations. In comparison with the first half of last year, the decline is steeper, at 18%.
The number of Israeli investors also dropped in the first half of 2024, by 15% in comparison with the previous six months and by 22% in comparison with the corresponding period last year.
It’s true that many investors began investing in Israeli startups in the pandemic period, 2020-2022, and many evaporated because of the rise in interest rates in the US and the start of the global crisis in investment in technology companies, but the numbers now emerging are lower even than those of 2019.
Rise also finds that, although the amounts raised by Israeli companies rose, the number of companies raising funds has declined substantially, reaching a low of 112 in the second quarter. The number could be revised upwards as additional fundraisings become known, since not all of them are reported, but Rise doubts whether that will significantly change the picture of the trend. For the sake of comparison, in 2019, before the Covid pandemic, the number of Israeli companies raising funds was 300-400 each quarter.
