Israel's high-tech sector raised a record $25.4 billion so far in 2021, up 136% over 2020, Start-Up Nation Central said in a report on Monday, Trend reports with reference to Reuters.
It noted that FinTech, enterprise IT and data infrastructure, and security technologies were the largest sectors in terms of funding, comprising 65% of total funding and each doubling last year's total to emerge as the tech industry ecosystem's main drivers.
Since the start of 2021, there were 74 funding rounds above $100 million, more than double the amount in 2020 and totalling nearly $15 billion, according to Start-Up Nation Central, a non-profit group that closely follows the Israeli tech ecosystem.
Some 33 companies in 2021 became unicorns, private firms valued above $1 billion, to reach 53, while 57 companies went public and raised $4 billion. In 2020, 22 companies raised $1.7 billion in IPOs.
With 46 rounds, Insight Partners was the most active venture capital fund in Israel this year, followed by 29 for Israel's OurCrowd.
Start-Up Nation Central CEO Avi Hasson said one issue for the tech sector is that companies are struggling to find enough workers amid a sector-wide chronic shortage of tens of thousands of skilled employees.