A survey, however, found investment in Israeli technology startups grew 28% last year to $10.6 billion. The influx buoyed Israel's economy and helped it maintain a war footing on several battlefronts.
The increase marks a turnaround for Israeli startups, which had experienced a decline in investments in 2023 to $8.3 billion, a drop blamed in part on an effort to overhaul the country's judicial system and the initial shock of the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack.
Tech investment in Israel remains depressed from years past. It is still just a third of the nearly $30 billion in private investments raised in 2021, a peak after which Israel followed the U.S. into a funding market downturn.
Any increase in Israeli technology investment defied expectations though. The sector is responsible for 20% of Israel's gross domestic product and about 10% of employment.
It contributed directly to 2.2% of GDP growth in the first three quarters of the year, according to Startup Nation Central-without which Israel would have been on a negative growth trend, it said.
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