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Avishai Abrahami

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This article is about Avishai Abrahami. For other uses, see Avishai Abrahami (disambiguation).
Avishai Abrahami
Born (1971-05-03) May 3, 1971 (age 54)
Jerusalem, Israel
Occupation(s)CEO of Wix.com, entrepreneur, software developer, business person, investor
Years active2006 - Present
Known forCo-founder and CEO of Wix.com
Board member ofWix.com, monday.com, Open Web, Unlimited Robotics,
Children2 (daughters)

Avishai Abrahami (born May 3, 1971) is an entrepreneur, software developer, business person and investor. He is the co-founder and CEO of Wix.com, a SAAS website building platform.[1][2]

Early life and education

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Abrahami was born and raised in Israel.[3] Abrahami carried out his mandatory military service in the Israel Defense Forces’ in the Unit 8200 cybersecurity unit.[4][5][6] Abrahami left Unit 8200 in 1992 and went to college. He dropped out after three months claiming, "I could not understand why I needed to wake up early and have someone read from a book for me, which made no sense, since I could read it faster at home,"[7]

CEO of Wix.com

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In 2006, Avishai Abrahami co-founded Wix.com with his brother Nadav Abrahami and Giora Kaplan.[8][9] Wix.com is a SAAS website building platform that includes a domain name registration, hosting, content management and other business services. When the company was founded, Abrahami became the CEO.[10]

In 2013, Wix held its initial public offering (IPO) on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the ticker symbol WIX. On the day of the IPO, Abrahami rang the Closing Bell.[11] At the time of the IPO, the company raised $127 million by selling 7.7 million shares at around $16.50 making the company valuation about $750 million, the highest ever IPO for an Israeli company.[12] [13] When the company became publicly traded, Abrahami became Board Chair in addition to his existing role as the CEO.[14]

According to a later interview in The Verge, Abrahami’s team at Wix began work on “AI related projects” in 2014[15] and in 2016 Wix ADI was launched.[16] Abrahami explains that “at the time it was cutting edge algorithms" and that they “learned a lot from the interaction”.[17] In 2016, Abrahami became Honorary Chairman and Mark Tluszcz became Chairman of the board.[18][19][20] Abrahami maintains an active role as CEO.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Abrahami presided over record growth for the company as saw new customers “moved their businesses online”.[21][22] The company reached $12billion market capitalization in Summer 2020.[23]

Entrepreneurship

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Before founding Wix in 2006,[24][25] Abrahami led a number of successful startups, including the software company AIT, which he founded in 1993 and sold in 1997.[26] Abrahami's entrepreneurship ventures include:

  • 1993-1997: Co-founded AIT Ltd., an Israeli software company, and served as CTO.[27]
  • 1999-2000: Co-founded Sphera Corporation alongside Roy Saar.[28][29]
  • 2004-2006: VP of Strategic Alliances at Arel Communications & Software Ltd.[30][31]

Investments

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Abrahami is an active angel investor. In 2022, it was reported that he had stakes in 14 different companies which made exits.[32] He has been an early investor in many startups including:

Monday.com

Founder, Roy Man, met Abrahami as an employee at Wix when he started what later became Monday.com.[33] Wix became the first customer and Man explained that Abrahami “helped us identify the challenge of harnessing people at work into a certain direction” Abrahami was an initial investor alongside Insight Venture Partners and others.[34] He joined the Board of Directors in 2012[35] and owned a 4% stake in the company at IPO in 2021.[36][37]

Soluto

Abrahami had invested and was on the board of Soluto, an IT support firm, before selling his share in the business when it was acquired by Asurion in 2013 for $130 million.[38][39]

Lumen

Alongside Oren Zeev, Gigi Levy-Weiss, Sir Ronald Cohen and others, Abrahami was an early investor in health startup Lumen[40]

Unlimited Robotics

Abrahami was a seed investor in Unlimited Robotics< alongside Micha Kauffman, CEO and Co-founder of Fiverr.[41]

Board Memberships

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Avishai Abrahami has held board memberships at a number of companies:

  • In 2012, Abrahami joined as an Independent Director on the monday.com.[42][43]
  • SodaStream: Abrahami was an Independent Director on the Board of SodaStream from 2016 until its sale to PepsiCo Inc. in 2017.[44]
  • OpenWeb: As of 2025, Abrahami serves on the Board of directors of OpenWeb.[45]
  • Unlimited Robotics: Abrahami joined the Advisory Board in 2021.[46]

Innovations

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Abrahami has overseen the integration of AI into Wix[47] including features like Wix ADI, AI app builder.[48] Abrahami's approach to AI at Wix is to “offload most, if not all, of the hard work from the user,” to create “custom AI solutions”.[49]

Personal life

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Avishai Abrahami lives in Israel. His interests include AI, entrepreneurship, and coding. He practices Ninjutsu.[50] He is married and has two daughters.

References

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  1. ^ "Wix's CEO on generative AI web, Google Search, and more". The Verge. November 29, 2023. Retrieved 2025-07-02.
  2. ^ "Wix CEO talks helping small businesses transition online amid pandemic" (video). CNBC. 15 May 2020. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  3. ^ "Avishai Abrahami's Wix Creates Effective Websites To Power Success". Investors.com. Retrieved 2025-07-02.
  4. ^ "Inside Israel's Secret Startup Machine". Forbes. May 11, 2016. Retrieved 2025-07-02.
  5. ^ "Art going global". UQ Ventures. June 2019. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  6. ^ THE HISTORY AND IMPACT OF UNIT 8200 ON ISRAELI HI-TECH ENTREPRENEURSHIP ([Degree, e.g., Master's Thesis, PhD Dissertation] thesis). OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  7. ^ "Why The Founder Of Wix Believes In Tracking Granular Details". Inc.com. Retrieved 2025-07-02.
  8. ^ Shlomo Maital (19 February 2015). "Needed: Goliaths instead of Davids". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  9. ^ "Wix to use artificial intelligence to improve DIY website creation". The Times of Israel. 27 October 2017. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  10. ^ "Wix.com Ltd. 2024 Annual Report". SEC.gov. Retrieved 2025-07-02.
  11. ^ "Wix Rings The NASDAQ Stock Market Closing Bell In Celebration Of Its IPO". NASDAQ. November 8, 2013. Retrieved 2025-07-02.
  12. ^ "Website builder Wix raises $127M in largest ever IPO for Israeli firm". VentureBeat. November 5, 2013. Retrieved July 11, 2025.
  13. ^ "Twitter Friends Ahead Of Its Public Debut Wednesday, Wix Prices IPO At $16.50 Per Share With Valuation Near $800M". TechCrunch. November 5, 2013. Retrieved July 11, 2025.
  14. ^ "Wix.com Ltd. 2024 Annual Report". SEC.gov. Retrieved 2025-07-02.
  15. ^ "Wix's CEO on generative AI web, Google Search, and more". The Verge. November 29, 2023. Retrieved 2025-07-02.
  16. ^ "Wix launches automated web design service built on artificial intelligence". VentureBeat. December 2, 2016. Retrieved July 11, 2025.
  17. ^ "Wix's CEO on generative AI web, Google Search, and more". The Verge. November 29, 2023. Retrieved 2025-07-02.
  18. ^ "Wix Splits Chairman And CEO Roles, VC Named Chairman". Seeking Alpha. February 24, 2016. Retrieved 2025-07-02.
  19. ^ "Wix.Com Names Mark Tluszcz Chairman of the Board and Ron Guttler Lead Independent Director". GlobeNewswire. February 24, 2016. Retrieved 2025-07-02.
  20. ^ "Wix.com Ltd. 2024 Annual Report". SEC.gov. Retrieved 2025-07-02.
  21. ^ "Wix CEO talks helping small businesses transition online amid pandemic" (video). CNBC. May 15, 2020. Retrieved July 11, 2025.
  22. ^ "Wix CEO Avishai Abrahami on Black Friday's online sales" (video). CNBC. November 30, 2020. Retrieved July 11, 2025.
  23. ^ Pick, Adi (July 15, 2020). "The odd couple that runs a $12 billion company". Globes. Retrieved July 11, 2025.
  24. ^ "Wix.com Ltd. 2019 Annual Report Exhibit 99.1". SEC.gov. Retrieved 2025-07-02.
  25. ^ "Wix.Com (WIX) CEO Signature Series Interview: Abrahami, Avishai". Nasdaq. November 19, 2013. Retrieved July 11, 2025.
  26. ^ "Wix.com Ltd. 2023 Annual Report". SEC.gov. Retrieved 2025-07-02.
  27. ^ "Wix.com Ltd. 2023 Annual Report". SEC.gov. Retrieved 2025-07-02.
  28. ^ "Wix.com Ltd. 2023 Annual Report". SEC.gov. Retrieved 2025-07-02.
  29. ^ "Wix.Com (WIX) CEO Signature Series Interview: Abrahami, Avishai". Nasdaq. November 19, 2013. Retrieved July 11, 2025.
  30. ^ "Wix.com Ltd. 2023 Annual Report". SEC.gov. Retrieved 2025-07-02.
  31. ^ "Wix.Com (WIX) CEO Signature Series Interview: Abrahami, Avishai". Nasdaq. November 19, 2013. Retrieved July 11, 2025.
  32. ^ "Abrahami suing NY law firm MSF for malpractice". Globes. December 23, 2022. Retrieved July 11, 2025.
  33. ^ Dover, Shiri (2017). "Promising Startups 2017 - 01 - monday.com - גלובס". Globes. Retrieved July 11, 2025.
  34. ^ Dover, Shiri (2017). "Promising Startups 2017 - 01 - monday.com - גלובס". Globes. Retrieved July 11, 2025.
  35. ^ "Board of Directors". monday.com. Retrieved July 11, 2025.
  36. ^ Orbach, Meir (May 27, 2021). "Monday.com aiming for $5.8b valuation in Nasdaq IPO". Calcalistech. Retrieved July 11, 2025.
  37. ^ Levy, Dotan (May 27, 2021). "Monday.com aiming for $5.8b valuation in Nasdaq IPO". Globes. Retrieved July 11, 2025.
  38. ^ "On the same day he took his company public, Wix CEO also sold a startup for 130 million". Business Insider. November 19, 2013. Retrieved 2025-07-02.
  39. ^ Eric, Blattberg. "Asurion snaps up Soluto for $100M+ to offset insurance risks". Retrieved 19 June 2014.
  40. ^ "Lumen raises $X from Y". Calcalistech.com. Retrieved 2025-07-02.
  41. ^ CTech (June 10, 2021). "Monday.com shares jump 26% in NYSE debut, valuation hits $7.59 billion". Calcalistech. Retrieved July 11, 2025.
  42. ^ "Board of Directors - monday.com Investor Relations". monday.com. Retrieved 2025-07-02.
  43. ^ "Wix.com Ltd. 2023 Annual Report". SEC.gov. Retrieved 2025-07-02.
  44. ^ "Wix.com Ltd. 2023 Annual Report". SEC.gov. Retrieved 2025-07-02.
  45. ^ "About Us - OpenWeb". openweb.com. Retrieved 2025-07-02.
  46. ^ "Unlimited Robotics unveils Gary service robot and developer platform". Robotics 24/7. November 7, 2023. Retrieved July 11, 2025.
  47. ^ "Wix's CEO on generative AI web, Google Search, and more". The Verge. November 29, 2023. Retrieved 2025-07-02.
  48. ^ "Wix's new tool taps AI to generate smartphone apps". TechCrunch. June 5, 2024. Retrieved 2025-07-02.
  49. ^ "Wix's new tool taps AI to generate smartphone apps". TechCrunch. June 5, 2024. Retrieved 2025-07-02.
  50. ^ "Black Belts". AKBAN. Retrieved July 11, 2025.
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