In reading about the Children of Israel
leaving Egypt, it is easy to imagine that Moses was the original CEO of the
very first Startup Nation. Today, the
“company mission” - to become a light to the nations - is certainly being
fulfilled by the prolific recent achievements of the Jewish State and its
current generation of young startup companies.
Israeli startups dominate the Life Sciences
market, as attendees from 60 countries will experience at MEDinISRAEL in March,
where medical solutions from 120
Israeli companies will be on display.
Lifesaving products include the tiny patch pumps
from Israeli startup ToucheMedical that deliver
meds directly into the bodies of diabetics and Parkinson’s sufferers. Or MediSafe’s medication reminder app that
sends you an alert if a dependent forgets
to take vital medication.
Lighting up the nations takes on a new
meaning with Israeli solar technology.
Thanks to Israeli startup Energiya Global, the new 8.5 MegaWatt solar
field at the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village in Rwanda
will add 6 percent to the East-African country’s electricity production. Meanwhile at the site of the huge fields of
solar panels at Kibbutz
Ketura in Israel’s Negev desert, Israeli-designers are developing mud
huts with solar panels in their roofs.
Anyone with a mission knows the importance
of “staying on message” – being focused and consistent with your ideals. Two Israeli startups have literally
incorporated that message into their products.
Glide has developed video
messaging that is so fast, you can begin watching a video on the other
side of the world before your friend has finished recording it! And years after an Israeli startup invented
ICQ (the world’s first instant messenger) another Israeli startup has invented Music
Messenger – already a huge hit in the music industry.
Israel is rated
one of the world’s most
innovative countries and the global potential of Israeli startups has
certainly been recognized by the world’s multinationals. Johnson and Johnson
together with Takeda have launched FutuRx an Israeli
biotech startup incubator in Rehovot’s Weizmann Science Park. Samsung
invested in eight Israeli startups in 2014.
Five more
recently graduated from IBM’s
Alpha Zone accelerator. And a
further eleven
have just graduated from the Microsoft
Ventures cyber-security and medical accelerator program.
The demand for Israeli innovation was
highlighted strikingly last month when overseas companies invested over $900
million in Israeli startups in just
one week! Acquisitions include
Amazon’s of Israel’s Annapurna Labs for $370 million and Harman’s of Israel’s
Red Bend Software for $200 million. The
Economist reported that Tel Aviv is the world’s
no. 2 startup ecosystem.
Although the USA and Europe are still
Israel’s biggest customers, there has been a massive increase of interest in
Israeli startups from the Asian market.
Two $100 million-plus Chinese-based
funds have recently been launched, investing in Israeli startups. Next, Startup
East is the first Israeli-Asian accelerator aiming to connect startups
in Israel with East Asia. Finally, the “Israel
Innovation in India” pavilion opened at Vibrant Gujarat 2015,
showcasing Indo-Israeli cooperation, with special focus on advanced Israeli
technologies in the fields of agriculture and homeland security.
If you had any doubts about the democratic
nature of the Jewish State, you should take note that Israeli-Arabs Aziz Kaddan
and Anas Abu Mukh were just 19 when they started development of Myndlift - an
app that teaches
ADHD children and adults to concentrate by using their brainwaves to
display a bright image. Another
Israel-Arab, Technion’s Professor Hossam Haick, is looking to incorporate his
NaNose cancer “breathalyzer” technology into a mobile phone, called
appropriately the “SniffPhone”. And Israel’s Economy ministry has just
awarded NIS 10 million to two organizations, Tsofen and ITworks, for the
training and integration of Arab,
Druse, and Circassian academics into the hi-tech sector.
Finally, the fact that the Start-up Nation
is still in its infancy can be measured by the fact that Iddo Gino heads up the
startup RapidPay, a year-old company providing a mobile payment platform for
customers without a credit card. Iddo
studies at the Hebrew Reali School in Haifa and hopes to obtain a degree in
computer science at the Open University next year. Iddo
is just 17 years old.
Israel – we’ve only just begun.
Michael Ordman writes a free weekly
newsletter containing positive news stories about Israel.
For a free subscription, email a request to
michael.goodnewsisrael@gmail.com
