Israeli chip company Hailo, long considered one of the most promising startups in the local artificial intelligence industry, is preparing for a Wall Street IPO under conditions that reflect the dramatic shift in the technology market.<\/p>\n
Financial statements from Delek Automotive, which owns a 12.1% stake in Hailo, published on Tuesday, reveal that the AI processor manufacturer is merging with a SPAC to raise critical capital for ongoing operations. The deal is taking place at a substantially lower valuation than previous fundraising rounds, forcing Delek Automotive to record a sharp loss of approximately NIS 242 million (approximately $77 million) on its investment in 2025.<\/p>\n
Hailo\u2019s remaining investment on Delek Automotive\u2019s books now stands at roughly NIS 170 million ($55M) at the end of 2025, down from around NIS 412 million a year earlier. According to Delek Automotive, Hailo\u2019s valuation has fallen by more than half from its peak of $1.2 billion, now worth less than $500 million. This new valuation is based on offers received from multiple SPACs, further discounted by about 26% to account for expected lock-up periods and the time needed to complete the merger.<\/p>\n
The report also highlights Hailo\u2019s urgent cash flow needs. In January 2026, Delek Automotive provided a $9 million loan at an interest rate of 1.5% per month, which could rise to 3% if a liquidity event is not completed within a year. This financial reality contrasts sharply with Hailo\u2019s earlier “unicorn” status.<\/p>\n
Founded in 2017 by Orr Danon, Avi Baum, and a group of Unit 81 alumni, Hailo develops dedicated processors for AI tasks at the edge. In 2021, the company became a unicorn after raising $136 million at a valuation of about $1 billion. In April 2024, it completed a Series C extension of $120 million, increasing its valuation to $1.2 billion. The round was led by notable investors including the Zisapel family, Alfred Akirov, and Gil Agmon, and coincided with the launch of the Hailo-10 accelerator for GenAI applications.<\/p>\n
However, 2025 and early 2026 brought signs of change, including the January 2026 layoff of approximately 10% of Hailo\u2019s workforce as the company refocused on robotics. Now, Hailo faces a challenging capital market and an urgent need for liquidity. A non-binding memorandum of understanding signed in March is expected to lead to an official IPO in the coming months, but at the cost of significant value erosion for existing investors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israeli chip company Hailo, long considered one of the most promising startups in the local artificial intelligence industry,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[365,363,364,111,139,69,145],"class_list":["post-362049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}