Dear Entrepreneurs,
The last couple of months have been rather challenging. After years of a seemingly endless bull market – especially in the last two years – the sentiment has changed dramatically. It is still too soon to say whether this period will end up being a full-blown recession or just a correction.
Yet, with all the doom and gloomy atmosphere at the moment, there is already hope when looking beyond the horizon. The seed and pre-seed funds will go back to the drawing board to build things better and stronger for future ecosystem generations. Additionally, in what may be a sign for the future, we are seeing serial entrepreneurs returning to square one with new initiatives.
In this summer edition, we wish to bring to your attention some interesting ecosystem participants and events, including introducing you to Ibex VC and the great 'Leaders in Tech' event. You can also read more about PwC Israel’s PMI practice and connect with our experts.
Enjoy the rest of the summer!
Best Regards,
Yaron Weizenbluth
Head of Hi Tech Cluster, PwC Israel
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Post-Merger Integration (PMI)
Israel has recently transitioned from being the start-up nation to a scale-up nation. As part of this trend of building lasting companies with strong and sustainable long-term strategies, Israeli tech companies are using M&A more and more as a tool for growth. One of the key drivers of success in an M&A transaction is planning (and well-executing) the post-merger integration (PMI) strategy.
Unfortunately, many deals fail to deliver their promise, mainly due to integration issues, not pre-deal activities. Suboptimal PMI issues can come in many shapes and forms: some examples can include not defining the opportunity well enough in either the pre-deal or post-deal phase; opportunities are not pursued quickly or decisively enough, with cost synergies being pushed too aggressively (or in the opposite case not at all) - and in all cases impacting the ability to achieve the growth plan and synergies; or there is a cultural clash between different operating philosophies and management practices.
Success in doing PMI is a balancing act between managing ‘hard’ functional, as well as ‘soft’ organisational and cultural issues, whilst also maintaining the business running as usual.
PwC Israel’s Delivering Deal Value (DDV) practice, headed by Ben Lazarus (Partner) and Jeremy Lipshitz (Director), supports clients throughout the M&A process, helping to ensure that the value from the transaction is achieved with as little disruption to day-to-day business as possible. Our tailored support helps client walk the fine-line between the integration effort and running the core business. To do this, executives should stay focused on clear value drivers and areas with functional change, whilst effectively also managing risk. Yet, most importantly, making sure to well manage their people (especially core and critical staff) through a time of uncertainty.
Our DDV/PMI team is extremely experienced in both local and cross-border transactions and regularly works together on joint engagements with other PwC offices. Our professional team is a mixed Israel/multi-national team who have strong industry as well as consulting experience providing you with a rounded perspective of how to best drive deal value.
For more information, please contact:
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| Ben Lazarus
PwC I Partner and Head of Consulting
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Ibex is a multi-strategy investment firm targeting outsized returns through differentiated global strategies and is passionate about reshaping the investment and investor experience. Entrepreneurs will experience a new type of VC investor in Ibex, one that prioritizes relationship building, shares mutual success in reaching goals, and works in tandem to achieve those goals. Ibex prides itself on finding the hidden gems often overlooked by others. Ibex invests in public and privately held companies (seed through IPO/acquisition) across enterprise software, cybersecurity, mobility, and other domains and has been investing in Israeli companies since 2012, among them Dome9, Innovid, WekaIO, Lightspin, Nexar, Appwrite, Oribi and more. Ibex was founded by Justin Borus in 2003 and is headquartered in Denver, Colorado with an office in Tel Aviv. The Ibex team in Israel is led by Nicole Priel, who focuses on early-stage investments, and Gal Gitter, who focuses on growth-stage investments.
Team
Gal Gitter - Gal is a partner at Ibex Investors. He focuses on Early Growth investments in Israeli private companies. Prior to joining Ibex, Gal was an Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company's Alliances and Acquisitions group, focused on sourcing new technologies for the firm and creating enterprise grade offerings. Prior to that, he was at McKinsey's Strategy and Corporate Finance practice in the US, advising Financial Institutions, Telecoms and holding companies on growth related challenges. Previously, Gal served as a Lieutenant and Section Head at Unit 8200, Israel's Elite Military Intelligence Unit. He graduated summa cum laude from the Technion Institute with a B.S. in Economics and received an MBA from the Wharton School.
ggitter@ubexinvestors.com
Nicole Priel - Nicole is a partner at Ibex. Nicole focuses on early-stage investments in Israeli private portfolio companies. Prior to joining Ibex, Nicole was an investor at Ion Crossover Partners, a growth & pre-IPO fund. Prior to that, she spent 6 years as an equity investment analyst at Ion Asset Management, Israel’s premier hedge fund, investing in Israeli and global companies. Previously, Nicole worked at ExxonMobil, Flybridge Capital Partners, BlackRock, and the New York Mercantile Exchange. She serves as a mentor in several accelerators and is an active member of the startup ecosystem in Israel. Nicole graduated from Brandeis University in 2008.
npriel@ibexinvestors.com
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Grow your startup with TikTok
What: TikTok for Startups IL is an exclusive program dedicated to help promising Israeli startups scale with TikTok. It offers a unique set of high-value benefits and support tools aiming to increase your success with our worldwide community.
The program includes benefits such as: Creative assets production, Managed media service, Ad coupons, VIP clients support, Educational sessions by TikTok experts.
Who: Israeli startups or startups backed by an Israeli VC fund; Focused on paid performance marketing as their main engine for growth; Do not yet advertise on TikTok.
Where: TikTok Israel.
When: Register now via our program website (in the link below).
How: https://www.tiktokforstartups.com/
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StartLife Accelerate
What: StartLife Accelerate is a 12-week zero-equity acceleration program for early-stage food & agtech startups, that runs (almost) fully online. The curriculum addresses what is crucial to validate your business, attract funding and grow your business. You benefit from practical 1-on-1 support, mentoring, access to funding, connections with industry leaders, investors and researchers from Wageningen University & Research, and much more. The program cumulates in a live presentation to a wide and international audience of investors, corporates and other stakeholders from the StartLife community.
Who: Agrifoodtech startups from all over the world
Where: Online.
When: Application deadline - 19 July, 2022.
How: for more information click here.
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ArmorSense is a mobility/industry 4.0 startup, active for a little bit more than a year with several successful POCs and customers in Israel and abroad.
ArmorSense is looking for a third partner to join us as COO. What we are looking for:
- Extensive experience working with international clients in the
- industrial world (factories and logistics centers)
- Extensive knowledge of building production processes for hardware and software products and responsibility for supply chain management
- Experience in building channels for distribution and assimilation of the product worldwide
- Industry 4.0 knowledge is a big plus
- Understanding IoT and image analysis is very important
- EHS (Environment, Health and Safety ) experience.
How: For additional info you can connect with Sarit Tamir.
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turba, by Ron Bar El
Tech-Storytelling & impactful communication consultancy
What: We all love stories.
Stories build relationships, establish trust, and influence attitudes and behavior. Being able to craft a compelling and relevant story, which resonates with your audiences, has become a critical power-skill in today's world. The ability to pack the unique and distinctive messages of your startup or product, through an appealing story that draws attention is of strategic, business and marketing importance. To embrace the narrative perspective, and become better communicators, managers/founders need to acquire these new storytelling tools that do not come from classic management or "STEM" disciplines .turba helps companies and leadership teams tell a better story – a compelling and relevant narrative to power sales, marketing, product, funding rounds and recruiting.
Who: Techies – of any size. For founders, managers, product managers, R&D, customer success, HR.
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Dos and Don'ts
Last month, after a long period of using online alternatives, we finally got together in our PwC Tel Aviv office for our Dos and Don'ts in Growth Funding event.
We enjoyed a packed-full house of ~120 founders and company leaders, and an impressive line of speakers including Liad Agmon from Insight, Idit Muallem from Pitango and Assaf Harel from IGP.
The event, in collaboration with LeumiTech, centered on challenges, mistakes and tips for successful growth funding.
Eventually, it also served as a 'think-tank' for the current slow-down in the Israel Hi-Tech.
Following the great success of this event, we are planning another one to take place in mid-September, this time with a focus on the
challenges of seed-stage startups.
Stay tuned!
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Leaders in tech
What: Leaders in tech - a unique conference for the challenges of management in Israel's high-tech ecosystem
Who: Tech Managers of all levels, CEO's, CTO's, VP R&D's as well as junior level management such as team leads.
When: July 25th, 2022
Where: David Intercontinental Hotel, Tel-Aviv, Israel
How: Tickets are available at: www.leaders-in.tech
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Feel free to reach out for any question or comment:
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May Meir
Hi-Tech Business Development Manager
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Lidor Levine
Hi-Tech Business Development
054-2289288
lidor.levine@pwc.com
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You should not act upon the information contained in this publication without obtaining independent professional advice. No representation or warranty (express or implied) is given as to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained in this publication, and, to the extent permitted by law, Kesselman & Kesselman, PricewaterhouseCoopers Advisory Ltd., their members, employees and agents do not accept or assume any liability, responsibility or duty of care for any consequences of you or anyone else acting, or refraining to act, in reliance on the information contained in this publication or for any decision based on it.
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