M&A exit of the Year: Waze

US-based social navigation software producer Waze, backed by Qualcomm, was acquired by internet company Google in a deal worth a reported $1.3bn. BlueRun Ventures, the former corporate venturing unit of Finland-based mobile company Nokia, also backed the business.

The deal was equally impressive for Israel. Newspaper Haaretz dubbed the deal “the most lucrative exit in Israeli history”, noting the company’s 100 employees will receive an average of $1.2m.

Nagraj Kashyap, managing director of Qualcomm Ventures, told Global Corporate Venturing: “We were early investors in Waze and generated a 10-times return.”

 The deal was the second big multiple return for Qualcomm Ventures in 2013. In March networking company JDSU acquired Arieso, a UK-based provider of location-aware software for mobile carriers backed by Qualcomm Ventures, for $85m in cash.  

The purchase reportedly generated a 4.7-times return for Qualcomm, according to news provider PE Hub.

Waze had raised nearly $67m in  funding prior to the purchase. Investors also included venture capital  firms Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Magma Venture Partners, Vertex Venture Capital and Horizons Ventures, which represents the VC investments of Hong Kong-based billionaire businessman Li Ka-Shing.

Waze secured $30m of funding in 2011 from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers’ Digital Growth Fund and iFund, and investment firm Horizons Ventures. It previously raised $25m of funding in December 2010 from Qualcomm Ventures, BlueRun Ventures, Magma Venture Partners and Vertex Venture Capital.

Only five years before the Google trade sale, Waze raised $12m in its series A round in March 2008, according to news reports at the time.

The exit is a feather in the cap of Karthee Madasamy, Qualcomm’s managing director for India and Israel, who is listed a board observer at Waze.

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