Five Israeli Companies Are Planning IPOs in 2018, Says Nasdaq President

More than 100 companies will issue an initial public offering (IPO) on Nasdaq in 2018, of which five are Israeli companies, Nasdaq President Nelson Griggs said on Tuesday.

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Mr. Griggs spoke at the Mind the Tech conference in New York, hosted by Calcalist in collaboration with Bank Leumi and the Israeli Ministry of Jerusalem and Heritage.

“We are very optimistic about this year,” Mr. Griggs said. IT security company Zscaler Inc. is set to IPO in the next few days and Dropbox, Inc.'s planned IPO is next week.

Mr. Griggs said that 70 Israeli companies are listed on the Nasdaq today and that after the U.S. and China, Israel provides the stock exchange with the most companies. “We have met with companies and founders who are on their second, third and fourth companies that they’ve started and we are looking at the late-stage capital that now is coming to Israel,” Mr. Griggs said. “The goal for Israel is that it will expand well beyond the Startup Nation moniker.”

Among the Nasdaq-listed Israeli companies are network and cloud security provider Check Point Software Technologies Ltd., billing company Amdocs Ltd., website building company Wix.com Ltd., and chipmaker Tower Semiconductor Ltd.

“These companies under (what) the capital market can mean to their growth trajectory,” Mr. Griggs said.A lot of folks view the IPO as the goal. If the IPO is the goal, you’re doing it for all the wrong reasons. The reason why you do go public is for those (subsequent) raising events that really help you grow to become the multi-billion dollar company you dream of as a founder.”

 

According to Mr. Griggs, Nasdaq operates more and more like a tech company, with a software development arm employing more than 1000 people worldwide. Mr. Griggs said that the Nasdaq is focusing on machine learning and cloud technologies. Nasdaq looks to Israel and to Silicon Valley to find technologies that will help the company continue to grow, Mr. Griggs said.