Six out of ‘WSJ’s top 25 start-ups are Israeli firms

Of the 25 leading start-ups selected by The Wall Street Journal, six, or almost one-fourth, are Israeli.

This is not exactly a surprise, because Israel has been second to the US in cybersecurity for a long time, and three of the six Israeli companies on the list are cybersecurity companies. Furthermore, three of the four cybersecurity companies on the list are Israeli, giving additional prominence to Israel’s leading position in this market.

The first company according to capital raised to date is

Cybereason, recently completed a $100 million financing round. The second, Illusive

Networks, has raised $30m. to date. The third, Argus Cyber

Security, which is riding the smart-car wave, has also raised $30m. to date.

A slightly less surprising Israeli selection is shared-journeys company Via, which is seeking to challenge Uber, mainly in the New York market. It has raised $137m. to date.

Three fintech companies were among the big 25, one of them Israeli: Lemonade, which operates a peer-to-peer (P2P) website and cellular application on which home owners can buy insurance. The company has raised $60m. to date.

The last Israeli representative on the list is the only one in the social-media category: Life

On Air, which has developed the Houseparty app. This app makes it possible to conduct a chat with many participants confined to the members, meaning that the people in the chat can see who they are chatting with. In contrast to the other Israeli companies included in the rating, Life On Air, which was founded as an Israeli company, has lost some of its Israeli identity because most of its employees are in the US, not in Israel.