Google’s high-profile acquisition of mapping startup Waze in 2013 put Israel’s startup ecosystem on the global radar. Not only did the development help catalyze a wave of entrepreneurship in the country, it also compelled international investors to investigate with much more interest. Just last year, a total of 69 companies in Israel were sold for a cumulative sum of US$5.41 billion. Investors earned US$1.50 for each dollar invested, meaning a 50 percent return.

But while Waze may have made global headlines, it’s important to note that hi-tech companies from Israel have had a long history of building world-class products. Our list of the biggest exits in Israel – using figures from our database – shows dominance in software, semiconductor development, cloud computing, and SaaS. A storage company was acquired by IBM for US$140 million in the early 2000s, even though tech startups were still reeling from the after-effects of the dotcom crash.