This is the question my VC neighbour Michael Eisenberg at Benchmark Capital, tried to answer on his blog. He came up with a list of pretty good names. He completed the exercize eliminating a few risks leaving aside only those who are still private and likely to end up with an exit (a big one). The only problem i have with this list (except the biais of being an investor, but i can't blame him for making good investments..) is that once a startup is already out there for a few years and has passed the revenue stage it is easier to spot the winners.
This list should better be called the "best VC backed later stage Top 10 israeli internet startups". I instist on VC backed because in Israel there many very successful internet startups that can't/won't be funded by capital risk: mainly in the gambling industry (like Play65 or now what has become PlayTech or 888.com that are publicly listed) but also in the dating space (Jdate) or the Forex services.
Anyway Michael's list is below and is ranked in alphabetical order. I would personnally put Oberon in #1 position for the rest i am not so sure. I was surprised to see Dotomi, but i need to take an update on this company.
- Conduit (Benchmark, Yozma)
- Dotomi (Yair Goldfinger, USVP)
- Eyeblaster (BRM)
- Fixya (Mayfield, Pitango)
- Gigya (Benchmark, Mayfield)
- JaJah (Sequoia)
- Kontera (Sequoia, Carmel)
- Metacafe (Benchmark, Accel, DAG, Highland)
- Oberon (Goldman Sachs)
- Seeking Alpha (Benchmark)
It is harder to make this exercise when you are trying to spot winners that are still pre-revenue or when you try to spot startups that have a potential exit and that did not get VC money (whatever the reason).
I am not going to try to make predictions but i would add a few of them in a separate list of VC and non VC backed companies, "early" or "not" (i tried to pick companies with at least 1 year or operations), pre or post revenues, web/mobile web (they are not ranked in a specific order):
- OutBrain (LightSpeed/Gemini) because i love the focus and the model
- Boxee (Union Square /Spark) because i love the product and its capacity to disrupt the prehistorical TV
- SweetIM because it is just a cash machine
- Payoneer (Greylock) because it is refreshing traditional payment methods
- Wix (Bessemer) because of the stunning product execution and the traction the experience both in US and Europe
- TuneWiki (Benchmark) because we all need something better than iTunes special when you don t have an iPhone
- Odysii/Tveez (Benchmark/Giza)because it is using the internet to bring information in Offline spots where you need it
- AdsMarket because they are making serious money
What i also want to point is that i believe in Israel there are many great internet startups that will end up in a "small" exit (sub 50 millions USD) and i believe it will be the majority (what i call micro acquisitions)
However i do have a surprising Bonus: ICQ. This is only a personal theory based on observation, public information and not information (disclosure i worked there a few years ago). I believe AOL will be spun off from Time Warner soon and that many media property that are non US centric will be sold out. ICQ has a strong presence in Europe with some revenues. I believe it will be acquired a second time.
Please complete this list (which i will try to update over time) in the comments below
Technorati Tags: israel startups internet vc seed
