Israel-Valley Ties keep Growing and Growing

Hey All,

I found an interesting article which discusses the growing bond between Israel and the Silicon Valley.

The relationship between the Valley and Israel is intensifying, creating a rich two-way flow of highly skilled workers, intellectual property, finance and commerce.  Nowadays, it common for Israeli start-ups to establish front-office operations in Silicon Valley in order to access potential partnerships in the word’s biggest tech market. Israeli entrepeneurs already based in the Valley are launching new ventures while maintaining back room technology in Israel. To better network, road shows are devised by CICC (California Israel Chamber of Commerce) members intended for groups of Israeli companies and individuals to pitch ideas and seek financing from angel investors.     

Israel is known to be an “exporter” of start-ups that ultimately end up being acquired by acquistive tech giant(s) such as Cisco Systems, Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard (Cisco alone has acquired nine Israeli companies since 2005 according to CICC).

Here’s an excerpt from the article…

Eli Sternheim, a strategic adviser to Silicom Ventures, has been keeping an eye on a start-up, called 3DVU, with an intriguing technology that it says will “change the face of navigation.” Its founder, Isaac Levanov, worked in Silicon Valley for many years before moving back to Israel in 1999.

Levanov, as a helicopter pilot in the Israeli military, had routinely navigated by visual landmarks. Now 3DVU aims to enhance conventional maps found in automotive navigational devices or handhelds with a kind of low-flying perspective of the road ahead, drawn from vast databases of aerial photography.

The start-up has made some headway. But lately Levanov and his wife have been tromping to tech conferences in Silicon Valley, Las Vegas and Barcelona, Spain, in search of a breakthrough deal, or more venture capital, that would enable them to move 3DVU to Silicon Valley. Israel is a good place to start, they say, but not the best to build a business.

The Tel Aviv ICT cluster is known for its risk-taking entrepeneurial culture, innovation, R&D and tenacity in introducing the “next big product or concept” as illustrated in the above-mentioned example.  Above all, Israel’s national priority is to put the brightest students in its premier universities, such as the Technion Institute. 

source –     http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_8583206?nclick_check=1?source=sb-delicious