Waze, Wix, Mobileye. These are just three of the thousands of startups born in Israel, known globally as the Startup Nation. Why does this tiny country produce the highest number of tech startups per capita and exits per startups in the world? Theories abound. Is it because mandatory military service provides fertile ground for budding entrepreneurs? Does Israel’s high demographic of immigrants produce people who are used to starting from scratch and not averse to risk?
It doesn’t matter why. Bottom line is that Israel produces more early stage investment opportunities than Silicon Valley, Sydney, Waterloo or Cambridge.. The stats say it all. Israeli startups created $15 billion of investor value through exits and 17 IPOs in a single year (2014). Here lies the world’s most capital efficient start-up ecosystem for early-stage investors.
Come to visit — or attend a tech conference here. Professional BizDev scouts say they can feel the buzz when they step out of customs and enter the country. When they sit at a Tel Aviv café. Or visit one of the incubators that Apple, Intel, IBM, Microsoft, Johnson and Johnson, Google, Amdocs or that SAP built — to profit from Israel’s ingenuity.
Waze, Viber, Rewalk, MobileEye, PillCam, NDS, NT, XT, Medgenics and tens of thousands of other start-ups that quietly exited out of the spotlight, creating wealth for investors with vision — humbly bringing innovation to the world. Here is a place where only insiders know what’s going on until the deal has been made and the news appears in the international media.
Israel’s heroes and pioneers are not athletes or movie stars. They are math, science, engineering and business stars, excelling in their fields and breaking new ground. Former President Shimon Peres called Israel ‘a nation that harnesses curiosity and dissatisfaction…and turns it into invention.’