Meet Sisense - Israel's latest "unicorn"

A "unicorn," first coined by venture capitalist Aileen Lee, refers to privately-owned tech start-up companies boasting a rare valuation exceeding $1b.

Sisense CEO Amir Orad  (photo credit: SISENSE)
Sisense CEO Amir Orad
(photo credit: SISENSE)
Business intelligence company Sisense has become the latest member of Israel’s “unicorn” club, raising a funding round of over $100 million that subsequently values the company at over $1b.
A “unicorn,” first coined by venture capitalist Aileen Lee, refers to privately-owned tech start-up companies boasting a rare valuation exceeding $1b.
Founded in 2004 by five entrepreneurs based in Netanya, Sisense’s platform assists developers and engineers from more than 2,000 organizations worldwide to simplify complex data and build analytic apps to deliver accessible insights.
The rapidly-expanding company, headquartered in New York today, names leading firms including Philips, Nasdaq and Tinder among its customers.
The latest investment, the company says, will “accelerate innovation and scale across the globe.” Insight Partners, which opened its first international office in Tel Aviv last year, led the funding round, with participation from Access Industries’ Israeli investments entity Claltech and a series of existing investors.
“We have enjoyed watching the Sisense momentum in the past 12 months, the traction from its customers as well as from industry-leading analysts for the company’s cloud-native platform and new AI capabilities,” said Insight Partners managing director Jeff Horing, announcing the investment on Thursday.
“That coupled with seeing more traction and success with leading companies in our portfolio and outside, led us to want to continue and grow our relationship with the company and lead this funding round.”
The funding will be used to bolster Sisense’s sales, marketing and development efforts to increase its market share, said the company in a statement. While Sisense has expanded its presence to offices in multiple continents, the company’s Ramat Gan team is responsible for much of its technological development.
“With annual recurring revenues of over $100 million for fiscal year 2019, and more than 2,000 customers ranging from Expedia to Philips, Tinder to Nasdaq, and the Salvation Army, we have demonstrated market success, scale, and traction,” said Sisense CEO Amir Orad,  “We are honored to have these reputable investment partners support our growth strategy and continue on our fast track.”
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The deal concludes a busy week of Israeli business for private equity firm Insight Partners, which announced an agreement to acquire Israeli-founded cybersecurity company Armis in a deal valued at $1.1 billion on Tuesday. The agreement represents the largest acquisition of a private Israeli cybersecurity company to date.

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According to Tel Aviv-based nonprofit Start-Up Nation Central, Israel is the leading country in terms of “unicorns” per capita. Several Israeli companies joined the prestigious club in 2019, including cybersecurity company Riskified; insurance tech firm Lemonade; small business-focused start-up Next Insurance; visual app developer Lightricks; and task management platform Monday.com.