Israel’s Success on the Tech Scene
Israel has emerged as a major participant in the tech startup space. In fact, Israel gained 28 times more capital compared to the U.S., solidifying its reputation as a startup nation. Israel is currently considered second in the world in terms of R&D expenditure and third for the number of AI and machine learning startups.
Israel hosts R&D centers for companies like Cisco Systems and Google as well. The city of Tel Aviv has great startup potential as the 7th largest startup ecosystem in the world in 2022 with a value of $120 billion. In just 2021 alone, startups brought in $20 billion, or 63% of the nation’s total. The city also created 30 new unicorn companies, increasing their total to 92 unicorns in 2022.
Israel supports tech entrepreneurs and innovators through their various government programs and tax incentives. One government program launched in 1983 is called Yozma, which matched outside venture capital (VC) investment in a startup in Israel. The program had the VC company return its investment if the company had a successful exit. The country granted over 30 grants and tax incentive programs for R&D as well that helped reduce tax rates and more. Other support Israel has provided includes intellectual property incentives and R&D grant programs for multinational companies, entrepreneurs, and research institutions.
The Abraham Accords helped normalize relations with the Kingdom of Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, extending Israel’s economic ventures to the Middle East and creating more than 100,000 new jobs. With a tenth of the world’s unicorn companies coming from Israel, there are several notable Israeli startups to know. One of them is TytoCare, which raised $155 million in funding, and Onavo, a mobile intelligence service acquired by Meta that empowers business decision-makers with market intelligence data.
The OurCrowd 10th Annual Global investor Summit in Jerusalem witnessed a packed venue with over 900 entrepreneurs, more than 300 press, and 111 delegations in attendance. Israel has been dominating all sectors of technology for many years and will probably continue doing so far into the future. People like Avi Wigderson, an Israeli mathematician and computer scientist, and Yoelle Maarek, an Tunisian-born Israeli computer scientist, are leading the revolution with their innovations and achievements in the field of tech.
Israel’s continued efforts to gain new innovations, especially in technology, are helping them achieve success in the startup space, and they will undoubtedly continue to provide significant impact for years to come.
