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Silicon Wadi () is a region in Israel that serves as one of the global centres for High tech. It spans the Israeli coastal plain, and is cited as among the reasons why the country has become known as the world's "Start-up Nation" (see science and technology in Israel). Viva Tel Aviv! The highest concentrations of high-tech industry in the region can be found around Tel Aviv, including small clusters around the cities of Raʽanana, Petah Tikva, Herzliya, Netanya, Rehovot, and Ness Ziona. Additional clusters of high-tech industry can be found in Haifa and Caesarea. More recent high-tech establishments have been raised in cities such as Jerusalem and Beersheba, in towns such as Yokneam Illit, and in Airport City. Israel has the third highest number of startups by region, the highest rate of startups per capita in the world, with one in three cybersecurity unicorns in the world being an Israeli company.
High-tech firms continued to struggle throughout this period with marketing and many products, such as a mini-computer developed in the 1970s by Elbit, who were unable to successfully commercialise the product.In the 1970s, Intel and IBM both opened offices in Israel, IBM opened in 1972 and Intel opened in 1974.
During the 1980s and early 1990s several successful software companies emerged from Israel, including: Amdocs (established in 1982 as Aurec Information), Cimatron (established in 1982), Magic Software Enterprises (established in 1983), Comverse (established in 1983 as Efrat Future Technologies), Aladdin Knowledge Systems (established in 1985), NICE Systems (established in 1986), Mercury Interactive (established in 1989) and Check Point (established in 1993).
The 1990s saw the real takeoff of high-tech industries in Israel, with international media attention increasing awareness of innovation in the country. Growth increased, whilst new immigrants from the Soviet Union increased the available high-tech workforce. Many of these immigrants were highly skilled and educated which strengthened Israeli entrepreneurship research centers and universities. Peace agreements including the 1993 Oslo Peace Accord increased the investment environment and Silicon Wadi began to develop into a noticeable high-tech cluster.
The success of Mirabilis triggered the dot-com boom in Israel; thousands of start-up companies were established between 1998 and 2001, while venture capital raised by Israeli companies reached $1,851 million in 1999, peaking at $3,701 million in 2000. Over fifty Israeli companies had initial public offerings on NASDAQ and other international stock markets during that period.
Tel Aviv is a global innovation hub with multiple international companies including not only Volkswagen, Hyundai, Visa and Citi, have built their centers of innovation in the Tel Aviv region. Tel Aviv university in 2023 launched an aggregation center for innovation. Sampo, Jaguar and Amazon have also launched or are launching centers. Investment in Israeli startups in 2023 was $7 billion.
Israel has the third highest number of startups by region and the highest rate of startups per capita in the world.
The RAD Group, founded in 1981 by brothers Yehuda and Zohar Zisapel, has been "the most fertile ground" for the creation of Israeli entrepreneurs, having produced 56 "serial entrepreneurs" who established more than one start-up each. RAD Group "graduates" were responsible for the establishment of a total of 111 significant high-tech initiatives.
The Israeli Quantum Computing Center was the first quantum computing center to have several different quantum computers able to hold different qubit modalities, which opened in June 2024 at Tel Aviv University.
Around 30 quantum startups are active in Israel as of 2024 according to Aviv Zeev
As of the middle of 2021, 29 unicorns, companies worth more than $1 billion, have been founded by Israelis. Silicon Valley to Silicon Wadi California's Economic Ties with Israel
Foundations of Innovation: Israel's Technology Ecosystem The scaleup of Israeli startups has led to Israel being dubbed "the scaleup nation". Total unicorns founded by Israelis, no matter their headquarters' location accounts for 71 unicorns.
A cluster of software companies, who are monetizing "free" software downloads by adware or altering user's systems, has been dubbed Download Valley.
According to the 2025 State of FinTech report, published by Viola Ventures in January 2026, Israeli fintech companies performed strongly in 2025 and are entering a phase characterized by more sustainable business models and disciplined investment, rather than rapid “growth-at-all-costs” expansion.Reuters. (2026, January 27). Fintech sector to continue recovery in 2026, Israeli venture firm says
Israel's thriving venture capital industry has played an important role in financing and funding Silicon Wadi. The 2008 financial crisis affected the availability of venture capital locally. In 2009, there were 63 mergers and acquisitions in the Israeli market worth a total of $2.54 billion; 7% below 2008 levels ($2.74 billion), when 82 Israeli companies were merged or acquired, and 33% lower than 2007 proceeds ($3.79 billion) when 87 Israeli companies were merged or acquired. Venture Capital in Israel Numerous high tech Israeli companies have been acquired by global multinational corporations for its provision of profit-driven technologies along with its reliable and quality corporate personnel. The March acquisition of Israeli company Mellanox for $6.9 billion by Nvidia is a definite contender for the largest M&A deal in 2019. Generally, Israeli startups are becoming so attractive that U.S. companies tend to acquire them more than anyone else: they account for half of all transactions in 2018. Thus, Israels eventually became a "net seller".
Israel's venture capital industry has about 70 active venture capital funds, of which 14 international VCs with Israeli offices. Additionally, there are some 220 international funds, including Polaris Venture Partners, Accel Partners and Greylock Partners, that do not have branches in Israel, but actively invest in Israel through an in-house specialist.
In 2009, the life sciences sector led the market with $272 million or 24% of total capital raised, followed by the software sector with $258 million or 23%, the communications sector with $219 million or 20%, and the Internet sector with 13% of capital raised in 2009.
/ref> In 2025, Israeli fintech startups raised approximately $1.4 billion, and merger and acquisition activity surged to around $5.8 billion, highlighting increasing strategic demand for Israeli fintech assets in global markets. The report also notes that Israeli companies are particularly well-positioned internationally due to entrepreneurial talent and strong execution capabilities, reinforcing their significance within the broader Silicon Wadi ecosystem.
Israeli venture capital industry
The origins of the now thriving venture capital industry in Israel can be traced to a $100 million government initiative in 1993 named the Yozma program ("Initiative" in Hebrew); which offered attractive tax incentives to any foreign venture-capital investments in Israel and offered to double any investment with funds from the government. As a result, Between 1991 and 2000, Israel's annual venture-capital outlays, nearly all private, rose nearly 60-fold, from $58 million to $3.3 billion; companies launched by Israeli venture funds rose from 100 to 800; and Israel's information-technology revenues rose from $1.6 billion to $12.5 billion. By 1999, Israel ranked second only to the United States in invested private-equity capital as a share of GDP. And it led the world in the share of its growth attributable to high-tech ventures: 70 percent.
Multinational technology companies operating in Israel
As of 2010, more than 35,000 Israeli personnel were employed in various research and development centers operated by multinational corporations with a presence across Israel. In recent years, East Asian multinational corporations and investors, especially from Mainland China, have actively invested and opened up offices in Israel, including Chinese technology giants such as Alibaba Group, Baidu, Tencent and Kuang-Chi. Around 60 foreign R&D centers are engaged in a diverse range of activities including biotechnology, chemicals, industrial machinery, communication equipment, scientific instruments, medical devices, flash memory storage equipment, computer hardware components, software, semiconductors and internet.
Global rankings
dealroom, March 2024
| + !Topic in 2023 !Gross world ranking !Per capita world ranking | ||
| VC investment | 9 | 5 |
| Number of Unicorns | 3 | 2 |
| Start up scaling | 1 | NA |
| % of VC-backed startups that become unicorn | 1 | 1 |
| Number of unicorns per billion VC invested since 2019 | 1 | 1 |
| Number of Decacorns per startup | 3 | NA |
| % first time funding from EMEA | 3 | NA |
| % of VC backed funding from EMEA | 1 | NA |
| VC investment in Cybersecurity | 2 | NA |
| VC investment in Generative Artificial intelligence | 4 | NA |
| VC investment in Autonomous technology | 4 | NA |
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