SundaySky, an Israeli personalized video platform, has revealed that US private equity firm Clearhaven Partners has acquired control of the business. At the same time, SundaySky announced that 24 employees across Israel, the US, and Japan would be laid off, or 13% of its entire workforce.
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The announcement from Sky is vague in terms of specifics, but it does state that Clearhaven Partners will invest more than $100 million in the business, with some of the funds going to current shareholders to buy a stake greater than 50% and some going to the company’s coffers for potential future investments.
The $280 million valuation SundaySky had hoped to achieve in an initial public offering (IPO) on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange is significantly less than this sum. According to reports, the business was already creating its prospectus and aimed to raise $70-100 million.
President and Chief Operating Officer Shmulik Weller and CTO Yaniv Axen founded SundaySky in 2007. American Jim Dicso has been the company’s CEO since 2017. To date, investors such as Viola Ventures, Comcast Ventures, Vintage, and NTT Docomo have contributed $75 million to the company.
With the help of SundaySky, businesses can create customized video clips for their clients that include information about the client, such as their name and the products they use. So an insurance company can make their annual report—which includes information about the customer—available to all clients in a clip. Similar to SundaySky’s new feature, online e-commerce businesses can create videos highlighting various products while using the same overall clip.
According to information released at the end of the previous year, SundasySky’s annual recurring revenue (ARR) in 2021 was greater than $40 million. The company’s business strategy is based on yearly software subscriptions.
Israeli business Idomoo, which held an IPO on the TASE last year with a company valuation of NIS 344 million but has since seen its share price fall by 80%, is one of SundaySky’s competitors. In 2021, Idomoo generated $13.1 million in revenue.
On July 11, 2022, Globes, Israel’s leading business news source, published the article in English.
