Clearhaven Partners buys Israeli co SundaySky

Israeli personalized video platform company SundaySky has announced that it has sold control in the company to US private equity firm Clearhaven Partners. At the same time SundaySky has announced that it is laying off 13% of its workforce totaling 24 employees in Israel, the US and Japan.

SundaySky’s announcement is thin on details but says that Clearhaven Partners will invest over $100 million in the company with some of the money going to existing shareholders to purchase a stake of more than 50% and some into the company’s coffers for future investment.

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This amount is far below the $280 million valuation that SundaySky planned at the start of the year to obtain in a Tel Aviv Stock Exchange IPO. The company was reportedly already drawing up its prospectus and hoped to raise $70-100 million.

SundaySky was founded in 2007 by president and CPO Shmulik Weller and CTO Yaniv Axen. Since 2017 the company’s CEO has been an American – Jim Dicso. The company has raised $75 million to date from investors including Viola Ventures, Comcast Ventures, Vintage and NTT Docomo.

SundaySky allows companies to produce personalized video clips for their customers including personal details of the customer from their name and the use they make of products. So an insurance company can make their annual report available to all customers in a clip that includes details about the customer. Similarly online ecommerce companies can produce a video about different products but using the same overall clip – a new feature that SundaySky launched only last year.

According to details published at the end of last year, SundasySky had annual recurring revenue (ARR) of more than $40 million in 2021. The company’s business model is built around annual subscriptions for its software.

One of SundaySky’s rivals is Israeli company Idomoo, which held an IPO on the TASE last year at a company valuation of NIS 344 million but has since seen its share price fall by 80%. Idomoo had revenue of $13.1 million in 2021.

Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on July 11, 2022.

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