Insight Invests in Israel – With More Than Just Capital! 

For more than 15 years, Insight Partners have been actively investing in Israel, the country widely recognized as one of the fastest growing tech and innovation hubs in the world. According to the Bloomberg Innovation Index, Israel is consistently ranked in the top 5 leading countries for innovation, and as of this year was considered the third most innovative country in the world, beating out the USA. 

Israeli entrepreneurs have grown up in the country's deeply ingrained culture of innovation and benefited from the close-knit and highly educated community the military has created. Recognized by the World Economic Forum as the country with the greatest appetite for risk-taking, it has resulted in a country of strong founders, with Israel ranking 4^_th, behind India, Canada and the USA, as the nation of origin of immigrant founders of billion dollar startups. 

With such a focus on excellence, and more than 8,400 high-tech companies, Israel has been a country Insight has been proud to support as it has scaled its tech ecosystem. In fact, it’s fair to say that non-Valley innovation hubs have always been a focus for Insight, as the firm recognizes that to find the best software solutions you need to look globally. Being a software investor based in New York, Insight’s unique perspective, developed in the financial capital of the world, allows it to apply its financial and operation expertise to support the high growth companies it invests in. 

Insight Strengthens its Presence in Israel 

With this long history, and who knows how many hours spent crossing the Atlantic, Insight has given a well deserved nod to the country's strength in software by opening its first office outside of NYC in Tel Aviv. With more than $700M USD invested and more than 15 active investments in some of the country’s top companies, including application security solution Checkmarx, award winning app developer Lightricks, management software leader Monday.com and digital adoption platform WalkMe, having a full time presence on the ground will further strengthen Insight’s relationship with the Start-up Nation.

"As growth investors, we are excited about the opportunity to build a deeper presence in Israel, one of the most advanced tech ecosystems with a thriving R&D community. As one of the first software growth equity investors we leverage our decades of experience in the sector, and our ability to invest from early to late stage, to support the growth and international expansion of innovation centers around the world. We are committed to bringing our software expertise to Israel’s vibrant, innovative environment, and partnering with the next generation of category winners." – Insight Partner’s Founder, Jeff Horing

IGNITE Sparks Thought-Leadership in Jerusalem 

In addition to opening its office in Tel Aviv, Insight IGNITE, a division of Insight’s market leading software operations group Onsite, brought Global 2000 IT executives to Jerusalem to engage in thought leadership, collaborative discussion and networking, while introducing them to cutting edge solutions. 
IGNITE events, which are held around the world, brought its highly regarded Roundtable program to Jerusalem for the first time this October in recognition of the strong role Israeli tech plays in the global technology industry, in particular, emerging and enterprise-ready software companies.

For two days Insight’s executives and operating partners joined its Israeli Portfolio Companies and industry thought leaders to unpack the challenges of digital transformation and divulge scale-up best practices. 

Insight’s “Investing in Israel: Pre-IPO Forum” Closes the Loop

While a lot of work has been done this October to bring Insight’s New York expertise to Israel, a large part of the commitment to the region comes from the firms ability to help scale Israeli tech in the US. 

Despite such strong in-country statistics, Israeli firms have historically been underrepresented in the public markets. Insight Partners believes that is set to change and has invested in an impressive group of companies with Israeli ties that could be part of the next wave of technology IPOso support Israeli Portfolio Companies on this path, Insight Partners’ hosted an “Investing in Israel: Pre-IPO Forum,” which was designed to provide the management teams of with the knowledge, tools, and relationships that they will need as they prepare to go public. The event brought together CEOs and CFOs from Insight portfolio companies including Checkmarx, Monday, SentinelOne, Sisense, Spot.IM, and WalkMe, with top investment banks, lawyers, accountants, IPO advisors, investors, and other IPO experts from the US and Israel.

The first day of the 2-day event covered a range of topics from a macro view on the current state of the public markets to specific legal, tax, and accounting workflows that management teams need to be mindful of well ahead of an IPO. This was followed by cocktails and dinner, giving attendees an opportunity to network and trade notes. The second day of the event provided management teams access to some of the top public market investors in a more intimate 1-on-1 format.

Having supported numerous high growth companies through the IPO process, including four of the top software IPOs in 2018, Insight Partners are well aware that it takes a dynamic team of experts to come together to get the job done right. With more than 15 Israeli portfolio companies, Insight Partners is proud of our traction in the tech hub of the Middle East. After investing in Israeli success story WIX’s Series C and subsequent IPO, Insight Partners hopes to support many more Israeli software companies as they navigate the path to public.