The fast paced Israeli tech revolution is driving innovation across multiple sectors and making a practical difference to people’s lives across the world. High tech in Israel has grown exponentially since the 1990s and now creates an estimated 20% of the country’s GDP and is a powerful force in Israeli society.
Not only is high tech in Israel dynamic, it is extremely resilient. High tech firms have beaten the expectations of some analysts and weathered the challenges and disruption of a year and a half of war, including serious labor shortages caused by thousands of employees leaving for reserve duty in the army.
This article features some of the leading publicly traded Israeli tech companies and aims to offer an overview of how Israeli innovation and expertise is delivering groundbreaking solutions in a variety of key industries.
Wix.com (Nasdaq: WIX)
Wix is one of Israel’s best-known software companies. It specialises in cloud-based web development services and provides user-friendly drag and drop solutions for people who want to create their own HTML5 websites. Wix was founded in Israel almost 20 years ago but is now a global company with offices in the US, EU, and Asia.
Wix is highly growth oriented and operates a number of subsidiaries, including DeviantArt and Inkfrog, and has an aggressive strategic acquisitions policy. Wix is making an important contribution to ecommerce through its website tools and currently claims over 260 million users around the world.
ICL Group (NYSE: ICL) (TASE: ICL)
ICL Group is a major specialty minerals company that operates globally, and one of the largest fertilizer manufacturers in the world, a leader in the development of sustainable solutions. Some of its groundbreaking technology includes eqo.x, a first-of-its-kind biodegradable controlled-release fertilizer and FruitMag™ -a magnesium-based solution to prolong the viability of harvested citrus fruits to replace existing toxic fungicides.
In addition, Agmatix, an ICL startup focused on agro-informatics, is revolutionizing agricultural data management. By standardizing, aggregating, and analyzing agronomic data, Agmatix delivers data-driven solutions that optimize field trials, crop models, and decision-making processes. Its ability to leverage big data and advanced analytics is empowering agronomists, researchers, and growers with actionable insights and tailored recommendations.
Payoneer (Nasdaq: PAYO)
Payoneer is a New York based financial services company founded by a team of Israeli tech entrepreneurs in 2005. Payoneer is a world leader in the provision of online money transfers and digital payments and also developed Payoneer Checkout, enabling online merchants to offer DTC (direct to customer) online stores.
Although Payoneer is a service provider to some of the world’s biggest online giants like Amazon and Airbnb, the company is also focused on developing as a service provider to small and medium sized businesses and empowering the online economy through secure money transfers and high tech e-wallets.
Check Point (Nasdaq: CHKP)
Check Point is arguably one of Israel’s most famous companies. It was founded in 1993 by a small team of entrepreneurs led by Gil Schwed, a veteran of Israel’s elite Unit 8200. Check Point provides hardware and software solutions for the spectrum of IT security. The company makes a vital contribution to cybersecurity and protects users across the world.
Check Point experienced exponential growth over the last three decades and now has corporate HQs in the US and Israel. Like many successful Israeli high tech companies, Check Point invests heavily in strategic acquisitions that extend its market reach and technological portfolio.
Elbit Systems (Nasdaq: ESLT) (TASE: ESLT)
There’s a perception that high tech companies are a recent phenomenon, but Elbit Systems is approaching its 60th anniversary. The military tech and defence systems company was founded to develop computers and electronics for the IDF and now has a worldwide reputation for its unmanned vehicles and aerial surveillance systems.
Although most of Elbit Systems’ 18,000 employees are based in Israel, the company has worldwide reach. It operates factories and business units in the UK, US, and other countries and is also focused on growth and the acquisition of existing businesses in the miltech and defence sectors.
Compugen Ltd. (Nasdaq:CGEN) (TASE: CGEN)
Compugen is an Israeli biotechnology company that was launched as an innovative computational drug discovery service provider in 1993. Compugen evolved from being a software provider to becoming a drug development company, eventually focusing on developing next generation oncology and immunology solutions.
Israeli technologies are playing an important role in the global medical sector, and Compugen is currently operating strategic partnerships with some of the biggest names in medicine, including the Mount Sinai Hospital and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The Compugen pipeline is expected to bring important new treatments to market over the next decade.
AudioCodes (Nasdaq: AUDC) (TASE:AUDC)
AudioCodes provides advanced communications software to major communications companies around the world. Clients include AT&T, Verizon, and BT, and AudiCodes claims to provide technological solutions to over 60% of the biggest communications providers worldwide, as well as for Microsoft 365. The company’s technologies are improving the quality and scope of communications on an ongoing basis.
Like Check Point and Compugen, AudioCodes was founded in 1993 – something of a seminal year in the Israeli high tech sector – and has grown rapidly since then. Unlike many successful tech companies with a global reach, AudioCodes has remained firmly based in Israel, where it maintains its corporate HQ and R&D facilities.
The Future of the Israeli High Tech Sector
The Israeli high tech scene is thriving and is already producing a new generation of startups. One of the significant advantages is that the sector is well established and there is plenty of venture capital, expertise and successful models for new founders to draw upon – as well as a “can-do” mentality and a national high tech culture that values and rewards tech innovation.
Investors who are interested in adding high performing tech stocks to their portfolios can explore the most successful Israeli companies listed on the Nasdaq, TASE, and other major global exchanges.
