Düsseldorf/Tel Aviv, 18 April 2017 – In April 2017 the new "Investment and Cooperation Scout" of NRW.International and NRW.INVEST will start its work in Israel. Both agencies work with the German-Israeli Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Tel Aviv (AHK Israel). The Investment and Cooperation Scout will create a platform to support bilateral cooperation between companies from both countries, to introduce SMEs from North Rhine-Westphalia to innovative start-ups in Israel and to acquire Israeli companies as investors for North Rhine-Westphalia. Israel is regarded as being one of the most innovative countries in the world and is home to numerous tech companies and start-ups.
The CEOs of the two companies, Almut Schmitz (NRW.International) and Petra Wassner (NRW.INVEST), as well as Grisha Alroi-Arloser, CEO of AHK Israel, underline the importance of staff reinforcement on the spot. Schmitz: "Israel is very advanced in digitization. For North Rhine-Westphalian companies, therefore, there are good opportunities to cooperate with Israeli start-ups." Wassner: "Especially for young companies from Israel, North Rhine-Westphalia, as an industrial location and with the strongest ICT cluster, offers excellent opportunities for expansion." Alroi-Arloser: "As a result of this cooperation, the full potential for innovation in Israel is opening up for companies from NRW. At the same time, NRW is also competently represented as an economic location."
Mr. Kfir Haim of the AHK Israel has been entrusted with the scouting tasks. He studied "Practical Engineering of Computers and Electronics" as well as philosophy, social and cultural anthropology in Tel Aviv and Berlin. His job will initially be to build up a network to the start-up scene, institutions, associations and the Israeli economy. He will then use these contacts to initiate cooperation between Israeli high-tech providers and start-ups and North Rhine-Westphalian companies, as well as to present North Rhine-Westphalia as a business and investment location.
Background information on the start-up scene in Israel
Israel has one of the highest densities of academics in the world and one of the liveliest technology-driven start-up scenes. It is estimated that there are more than 6,000 young high-tech companies currently in the seed stage in Israel, i.e. in a phase of product development without sales revenue and with initial income of no more than 10 million US dollars per year. Most companies are in the Internet sector, followed by telecommunications, information technology and software as well as life sciences. More than half of these companies have settled in the metropolitan area of Tel Aviv, followed by neighboring districts of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. (Source: gtai)
