PrivatEquity.biz, Israel’s first secondary market trading arena, has begun operations allowing private investors, family offices, investment firms, and venture capital funds to purchase the securities of private companies.
Currently the securities of about a dozen companies which have concluded the registration process are available via the web-based service.
Other companies interested in raising capital via the market as well as other private holders of high-tech companies' securities are currently concluding the registration and will be availablesoon
The PrivatEquity.biz site is available in Hebrew, English and German version and, so far, 70 per cent of the investors who have registered on the site are non-Israeli.
Future plans for PrivatEquity.biz include entering other high-tech centres in the European and South Asian markets in order to increase both the body of investors and the number of private companies and stocks to be offered for trading via the arena.
Using PrivatEquity.biz's arena, private companies with a clear business model, which have concluded at least one round of capital-raising or have invested significant amounts of private capital in the company, can raise capital from private investors.
Companies supported by the state's technological incubators, which had already raised funding from the Chief Scientist and from investors, and whose worth had already been established may be included in the site's companies' database.
The model offered by PrivatEquity.biz allows capital-raising by issuing a relatively small number of securities to a limited number of investors: up to 35 per year. This may be done without losing control over the company and without becoming prematurely subjected to the regulation involved in making the company public.
PrivatEquity.biz's chair, Adv Oren Harel, says: “By launching trading via the site, we offer private investors quality companies for investment and we provide the holders of securities an advanced technological platform to offer their securities to investors in Israel and abroad. We do not compromise with regard to the quality of the companies and we assure that only serious investors will remain part of the body of investors, in order to provide a quality introduction of those offering the financial commodity to the capital holder or the investor who seeks to invest in high-tech growth companies.
“We aim to provide the body of investors with a wide variety of companies and private securities for investment. We make a point of balancing the companies' need to maintain their privacy with the investors' wish to gain transparency. We pay great attention to the simplicity and convenience of the investment process, which is conducted free of charge. With three clicks of the mouse, the investor can receive directly to his or her e-mail inbox the company's designated portfolio. We are currently working on additional developments of our technological platform, which will make it even easier for investors to review information about the companies collectively and in various languages.”
