JERUSALEM, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) -- The Israeli cybersecurity sector raised record-breaking 814.5 million U.S. dollars from investors, second to the United States, according to a report published by a Israel-based non-profit organization on Tuesday.
The amount, exceeding 2016 investments by 28 percent, takes some 16 percent of overall cyber investments worldwide, according the 2017 Cybersecurity Report issued by Start-Up Nation Central.
The past year saw significant new funding going into companies whose products promise to defend industrial infrastructure, connected devices, internet-ready medical devices, and connected automotive systems, said the report.
According to the organization's innovation discovery platform, by the end of 2017 there were 420 active cybersecurity companies in Israel, 70 of them founded in the past year. Of those 70, 1 in 3 were in new areas like connected devices.
"The increasing adoption rate of IoT (the Internet of Things) devices and connectivity capabilities to traditional devices poses new and significant threats for enterprises, nations, and individuals," said Nir Falevich, author of the report.
"During 2017, Israeli entrepreneurs and investors put many resources in offering solutions to protect IoT networks and devices," he added.
The report said that the Israeli high-tech industry becomes more mature.
The share of early-stage investments out of all investments in cybersecurity declined from 77 percent in 2016 to 64 percent in 2017.
The average size of investment deals increased in 2017, particularly for seed-funding initiatives, reaching 3.6 million U.S. dollars on average, almost twice the size in 2016, according to the report.
The increase in late-stage investments in 2017 also indicates the increasing maturity of the Israeli cyber industry, as Israeli cybersecurity companies gain more opportunities to grow, become profitable, and position themselves as industry leaders, said the report.
