Israeli tech start-ups join London IPO wave

Israeli tech start-ups join London IPO wave
Daily Telegraph 12-Feb-14
Marimedia and Matomy part of a clutch of Tel-Aviv based businesses eyeing a London listing
Britain’s equity market is becoming a magnet for Israel-based technology companies which are considering choosing London rather than the Tel Aviv stock exchange this year for flotations.
Israeli investors and entrepreneurs raised $361m (£219m) last year via IPOs, the most since 2007, and a stark reversal of a trend which saw most companies exiting through a sale.
Israel has been dubbed the “start-up nation” due to an explosion of innovation in the region. Six Israeli technology companies are currently in discussions about listing in London this year, sources close to the process said.
Digital advertising company Matomy is understood to be working with Rothschild, UBS and Bank of America Merrill Lynch on launching an initial public offering before the summer. The company is looking to raise £60m, which will value it at around £200m to £300m. Matomy declined to comment.
Unlike other digital advertising companies, Matomy only charges a publisher when an advert generates revenues. The company’s founder, Kfir Moyal, started programming computers aged 10 and made $100 a month pocket money by building websites at 14.
The company now has 10 global offices in Israel, Spain, Germany, Mexico, San Francisco and New York, employing 400 people. Matomy has recorded double-digit revenue growth, reporting $200m last year.
Meanwhile, Marimedia, another Israeli digital advertising company, is in the early stages of considering a London listing, sources said.
The company is understood to have met with a clutch of investment banks but has not yet given a mandate.
A Marimedia spokesman declined to comment.
Digital advertising spending has grown at three times the rate of traditional advertising revenues, leaving companies to grapple with incorporating new technologies into their business plans.
Israeli website design company Wix, which successfully floated in New York last year, is understood to be behind the resurgence in Tel Aviv-based companies looking to tap the capital markets.