Total high-tech exits over total VC-backed exits, from 2004 to 2013. Photo: IVC Research.

The combined value of Israeli high-tech start-ups that were sold in 2013 reached $6.64 billion in 2013, with the component from venture capital-backed companies, $4.21 billion, at a 10-year high, according to a report about the sector released this week by IVC Research.

The data showed 80 deals, in total, with 35 backed by VCs rather than traditional finance or friends and family investors.

After 2006, when total exits reached $10.75 billion from 116 companies, and 2012, with $9.66 billion from 81 companies, 2013 was the strongest year in the past decade.

In ten years, exits by Israeli high-tech companies totaled $47 billion in almost 800 deals.

According to IVC and SiSense, which contributed data analytics for the report, the average return on equity for venture capital investors was 5.3 per cent in 2013, almost double the 10-year average of 2.91 per cent.

For 2014, IVC said it’s unlikely there will be as many $1 billion-plus exits as there were in 2013, such as Waze, the Israeli social-network GPS system sold to Google. “Deals like the Waze or Given Imaging Ltd. acquisitions are still few and far between, and that’s unlikely to change anytime soon,” says IVC Research Center CEO Koby Simana in the report.