Israeli high-tech companies raised a record-breaking $3.9 billion in 254 deals during the first half of 2019, according to a report from Tel Aviv’s IVC Research Center and ZAG-S&W law firm. In the second quarter alone, 125 deals raised $2.32 billion, the highest quarterly amount since 2013.

The quarterly figure was boosted by 10 mega deals that totaled $1.26 billion and accounted for 54% of the total capital raised in Q2/2019.

The three largest Q2 deals totaled $670 million: Lemonade (based in New York with R&D in Tel Aviv) raised $300 million, Tel Aviv-based Monday raised $250 million and SentinelOne (based in Silicon Valley with R&D in Tel Aviv) raised $120 million.

Also, Haifa-headquartered Elbit Systems international defense electronics company raised $186 million and Cellebrite Mobile of Petah Tikva raised $110 million after its acquisition by Sun Corp.

IVC found that the amount raised by revenue growth companies in VC-backed deals grew dramatically to $1.12 billion. In H1/2019, VC-backed deals accounted for $3.16 billion in 148 deals, and almost doubled the amount raised in H1/2018—$1.86 billion in 142 deals.

“Just when we thought the investment growth in the first quarter of 2019 had broken every record, along comes the second quarter and registers the most significant leap in the total amount raised in the last six years,” commented Shmulik Zysman, managing partner and high-tech industry leader at ZAG-S&W.

IT & software companies excelled in Q2/2019, raising $1.02 billion in 49 deals—the highest quarterly amount since 2013. Israeli life-sciences companies raised $263 million in 27 deals, slightly higher compared with the quarterly average since 2013.

Foreign investors increased activity in Q2/2019 compared to previous quarters, making 441 investments totaling $1.57 billion.