A new PitchBook Venture Ecosystem FactBook focusing on investments in Israel reveals that California Bay Area-based firms contributed a cumulative $1.4 billion in associated deal value last year and have nearly matched that sum already in 2019.

In general, US-based firms made 167 investments in Israeli companies, totaling more than $2 billion in 2018. In 2019 so far, that number approaching $1.8 billion over 81 deals, the report notes.

European investment also is growing. “Israeli VC activity with European investor participation hit a high of 86 transactions for over $900 million in deal value last year, while $820.4 million has already been closed in the first half of this year,” according to the FactBook.

Software, healthcare and IT hardware companies have been especially robust in fundraising in 2019.

Looking at activity through the summer of 2019, the FactBook notes close to $2.3 billion invested across 153 deals. In all of 2018, Israeli startups raised nearly $3 billion in a record 331 deals.

In terms of exits, the FactBook states that 2019 has already seen “a strong $1.6 billion in total exit value,” helped in part by Dynamic Yield’s $327 million acquisition by McDonald’s in March.

Eze Vidra of VC Café points out that Israeli startups are on track to raise a cumulative $1 billion in September alone.

The largest raises of the month were closed by Fundbox ($176 million in equity and another $150 million in debt); Tipalti ($76 million); Snyk ($70 million); Healthy.io ($60 million) and XJet ($25 million now and $20 million later).

Also during September, Jerusalem-based early-stage venture capital firm PICO Partners announced the closing of its second fund with $80 million in capital commitments. Trendlines announced a new fund for investing in Israeli agritech, to be established with partners in Singapore. Following the first investment of $22 million, the fund is expected to reach $40-60 million.