In comparison, Israeli hi-tech companies raised 2.36 billion dollars in the fourth quarter of 2019, and 1.56 billion dollars in the first quarter of 2019.
The new record was set in 139 deals, up from 138 deals in the fourth quarter 2019, and 130 deals in the first quarter of 2019, according to the Israel Tech Funding Report, written by IVC and ZAG-S&W law firm.
According to the report, the COVID-19 crisis has caused businesses to cease regular activity and search for ways to survive this uncertain period.
They noted that the first to suffer from the global recession in the Israeli hi-tech industry were young seed companies, with only four capital-raising deals made since February.
Marianna Shapira, research director at IVC, told Xinhua that "the coronavirus crisis impacts are not yet reflected in the data because it includes continuous deals and trends from previous quarters, but the changes will be significantly seen in the coming quarters' figures."