ISRAEL
80 Israelfounded unicorns now dot the United States A record number of privately held Israelifounded companies worth at least $1 billion are headquartered in nine states. By Diana Bletter/Israel21c 46
MAY/JUNE 2022 | ARIZONA JEWISH LIFE
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here are now 80 Israeli-founded unicorns — -privately held companies with a valuation of $1 billion or more — based in the United States, according to the United States–Israel Business Alliance https://nyisrael. org/ (USIBA). Each of these unicorns has at least one Israeli founder and global or regional headquarters in the United States. Making an analogy to racecars, USIBA President Aaron Kaplowitz said that Israeli innovation might be compared to “a flashy red Corvette that draws considerable capital investment on the strength of exciting game-changing solutions” but actually is more like a Ferrari,
“a powerful economic engine that employs tens of thousands of Americans and generates billions of dollars in local economies.” The nine states with Israeli-founded unicorn headquarters are California (32), New York (26), Massachusetts (10), New Jersey (4), Florida (2), Illinois (2), Texas (2), Oregon (1) and Washington (1). The combined total valuation for all 80 unicorns amounts to $224.8 billion. Kaplowitz said that although Manhattan and Silicon Valley are generating Israelifounded unicorns at “an unprecedented clip,” the real story here is that Israeli founders are identifying states beyond New York and California as viable options to grow their companies, source local talent, and establish a robust US presence.” Further information on The United States–Israel Business Alliance, which works to strengthen the economic relationship between individual states and Israel, can be found here.
