INNOVATION AND SCOUTING CENTERS

State-of-the-art accelerators and incubators

4. SOSA – Shared work space founded by venture capital industry veterans. Located in South Tel Aviv (Schocken 13, Tel Aviv).

Israel is home to over 100 accelerators, managed by global corporations, Angels, VCs, research institutes, municipalities and non-profit organizations. These accelerators work with start-ups in different stages, from the "raw" idea to the seed, and further on to the acquisition or IPO. An accelerator usually gives up to 6 months' support and an initial investment, in return for equity (generally 5%–10%, $10k - $50k).

Most of the incubators are part of a program managed by the Israel Innovation Authority. Incubator programs are usually longer and last between 1 to 2 years. They often target start-ups in industries with slower and more challenging development cycles.

Selected Accelerators

1. 8200 EISP – An entrepreneurship program managed by The Alumni Association of the Elite Intelligence Unit 8200, a non-profit organization. Most of the entrepreneurs are 8200 alumni in various computer related industries, from cyber, through online advertising to mobile applications and so on.

2. AltaLab – An accelerator managed by the AltaIR VC. Its preferred industries are Internet, mobile, FinTech, AdTech and health.

3. Microsoft Ventures – A program targeting advanced start-ups where each member builds its own plan in collaboration with the accelerator. This program now cooperates with other global corporations such as Cisco, El Al and more.

4. CitiBank – This accelerator, managed by the global banking giant, aims to lower the entry barrier between young start-ups and the global banking sector. The main field is obviously Fintech, on all its levels: payments, data, security and analysis.

5. Zell – An accelerator managed by the Adelson School of Entrepreneurship at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) in Herzliya. Each year, the program guides 24 third-year students in building projects in various fields. Zell program graduates established over 85 companies and raised over $400 million.

6. IBM Alpha Zone Accelerator – Anaccelerator targeting technologies in the fields of Big Data, analytics, Cloud, mobile, security, Internet of Things, Smarter Commerce and cognitive computing. The program aims to create future business and technological

Investment industry

collaboration between IBM and the start- ups, by integrating IBM technologies into the developed solutions and vice-versa.

One of the main factors of the recent growth in the Israeli start-up industry is the availability of capital for investment.

Israel ranks 4th globally for its venture capital availability17 and 2nd in venture capital confidence.18

The investors’ community in Israel is comprised of both local and global angels, VCs, crowd-funding platforms and international conglomerates.

1. Angels: There are a few hundred active angels in the Israeli market. The angels invest in all industries, with a tendency toward Internet companies (which is the main industry of investment for 32% of the angels).19
The CleanTech and life science industries are known to have high entrance barriers, which is why the chance to conduct an exit with small investments is low, so they usually don't match the angel's requirements.

2. VCs: VCs are the engine driving the start-up industry forward. There are around 100 VCs active in Israel today.
The major VCs (in terms of number of investments) are: Singulariteam, Carmel Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, Magma, First Time, JVP, Vintage, Pontifax, Marker,
Blumberg, OrbiMed Israel, Plus Ventures and Disruptive. Most of them are Israeli firms, some are foreign with allocation to Israel and some are an Israel-dedicated foreign fund. Contrary to expectations, many of the VCs invest in companies in all stages, including the early and seed stages. In addition, there is a large industry of micro-VCs (typically managing up to $50 million), including Lool Ventures, Peregrine, Elevator Ventures and InovGate.

3. Crowd funding: Crowd funding is a new platform that brings together multiple people from around the world to create a VC. The VC approves all its members with the only restriction being a minimum annual investment. An example of this platform is Our Crowd, established by the Israeli-American investor John Medved, who leads the crowd funding trend.

4. Corporate VCs: Israel is home to several hundred MNCs, holding scouting, R&D and manufacturing facilities. Alongside those activities, many MNCs maintain a venture arm in Israel, which aims to invest in or purchase an Israeli company with interesting relevant technologies. Among these are Intel Capital, Comcast Ventures, Samsung Ventures and Cisco Investments.