The much talked about financing round by Israeli data storage management solutions company VAST Data, which is currently in its final stages and is expected to close in the coming weeks, is set to become one of the most unusual and major moves ever seen in Israel’s tech industry. Although the company is expected to officially announce a valuation of about $30 billion, «Globes» has learned that the bulk of the deal is not based on injecting new capital into the company, but on selling existing shares as part of a large-scale secondary round.
According to sources, for every one share issued as part of the current fundraising, some 5-6 shares are being sold by existing investors, employees, and long-time option holders. In other words, most of the round, which is estimated at about $1 billion, is intended primarily as an opportunity for existing shareholders to sell shares and receive hundreds of millions of dollars, with an emphasis on early investors, founders, and long-time employees who have managed to exercise options. The round is intended to provide liquidity to investors in the veteran company, which had been planning to hold an IPO
It also appears that while the declared valuation will be about $30 billion, the effective price at which investors enter the secondary transactions reflects a lower value, around $25-27 billion, or about $25 per share on average. Such a structure, in which a significant part of the transaction is carried out through a secondary market and sometimes through SPV structures, has become more common in recent years among large private companies that seek to manage a significant financial move without or before a flotation.
The fundraising will become a particularly significant liquidity event for some of the company’s key Israeli investors, led by 83North and Greenfield Partners. 83North, which was one of the earliest investors back in the seed stages, entered at a value of only tens of millions of dollars, so an effective value of $25 to $27 billion reflects an unusual investment multiple of hundreds of times. In a scenario where even a small portion of a holding is sold in the secondary offering, this amounts to a return of hundreds of millions of dollars. Greenfield Partners, which led the Series B round in 2019 at a valuation of several hundred million dollars, is looking at a potential profit of 40 to 60 times the original investment, making the round one of the most notable success stories of Israeli growth funds in recent years.
If completed, it will be the biggest ever financing round by an Israeli company
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Vast Data, which is based in the Tel Aviv Exhibition Grounds and also has offices throughout the US, has become one of the key infrastructure companies of the AI era in recent years. The company provides solutions for storing, managing and retrieving vast amounts of data — a critical foundation for AI models, supercomputers and cloud infrastructures. Annual recurring revenue is currently estimated at $350-400 million, and it is growing rapidly due to increasing demand for advanced data infrastructures.
If the $1 billion financing round is indeed completed, it will be the biggest-ever fundraising ever carried out by a private Israeli company, and one of the largest liquidity events seen in Israel. For early investors and veteran employees, this is a rare opportunity to realize some of the holdings, and from a broader perspective, another milestone in the wave of transactions that the AI era is generating in the private capital market.
No response has been forthcoming from the company.
Published by Globes, Israel business news — en.globes.co.il — on February 5, 2026.
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