The managers of the incubators expect that venture capital funds will make fewer new investments in 2012 * In order to promote the high-tech industry in Israel, 74% of the managers of the incubators believe that the prime minister should appoint a minister for high-tech affairs
The field of medical devices is expected to concentrate the highest number of exits this year among companies that have graduated from Hamma. This is according to the survey of the managers of the technology incubators conducted by the accounting firm Fahn Kenna & Co. Grant Thornton Israel for the Technology Incubator Forum, which unites the leading lime investors in the State of Israel.
50% of the incubator managers indicated the medical devices as a field that will concentrate the high number of exits, 35% of the incubator managers believe that the Internet is the field that will concentrate the largest number of exits, and 10% believe that the high number of exits will come from the software and communication field.
The expectation of exits in the field of medical devices, leads 50% of the managers of the incubators to estimate that they will increase their investments in this field. 20% of the managers believe that they will increase their investments in the internet sector, and the rest believe that they will increase their investments in the areas of cleantech (15%), biotech (10%) and software and communication (5%).
In the estimation of 41% of the incubator managers, the Internet will be the area that will concentrate the most mergers and acquisitions in the coming year. 27% of incubator managers believe that the hot field for mergers and acquisitions in the coming year will be medical equipment. 18% believed that the hot field would be software and communication (ICT), 9% cleantech, and 4.5% biotech.
The managers of the incubators expect that venture capital funds will make fewer new investments in 2012. This is the second year in a row in which not a single manager of an incubator expects the dominance of venture capital funds in the arena of investments in new companies in companies matured in an incubator. The survey shows that the managers of the incubators estimate that the difficulties in raising capital for the portfolio companies will continue during 2012, with 43% of them estimating that they will even encounter greater difficulties than in previous years.
52% of the managers of the technology incubators predict that the venture capital funds will invest in 2012 an amount lower than the amount they invested in 2011. 35% of them estimate that venture capital fund investments in 2012 will remain unchanged compared to the previous year.
An absolute majority of the managers of the incubators (76%) believe that the Israeli government is not doing enough to promote the high-tech industry in Israel. Only 14% of managers believe that the government is doing enough to promote the industry, while about 10% answered that they do not know.
In order to promote the high-tech industry in Israel, 74% of the incubator managers believe that the prime minister should appoint a minister for high-tech affairs.
Ilanit Halperin, partner and director of the high-tech field at Pahan Kenna & Co. Grant Thornton Israel, says that "strategic investors continue to fill the vacuum created by the lack of investments by most venture capital funds in companies that have graduated from the incubator. Venture capital funds are clearing their place on the new investment map in technology companies, and are focusing on continued investments in the existing portfolio companies."
Eyal Lifshitz, chairman of the Technology Incubator Forum, and managing partner of the Peregrin venture capital fund, says that "the investment model we knew until three years ago, in which venture capital funds are the dominant factor in early-stage investments and follow-on investments, has completely changed. The high-tech industry, and the greenhouses within it, are feeling the decline in the dominance of venture capital funds. The state introduced the 'comparative advantage' program three years ago, but the program is no longer current. Today, additional thinking is required to update the plan, in order to create the relevant tools to strengthen the industry."
