The Landes shortlist of promising Israeli technologies

Catarina Wylie

Insider

The Landes shortlist of promising Israeli technologies

Volume 10, Issue 12 June 15, 2011
Pages 1877 - 1881
http://dx.doi.org/10.4161/cc.10.12.16719

Catarina Wylie

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It’s an efficient model in theory. Israeli medical research facilities generate big ideas. Big ideas generate startup companies. The startups are nurtured in Israel’s incubator program, a public/private partnership between the government and the country’s leading investment firms. After two years, the startups graduate the incubator and enter the marketplace. But securing the follow-on funding needed to make the transition from solid idea to viable product takes money, and finding that money is becoming increasingly difficult. Earlier this year, the Israeli government announced a program to encourage Israeli institutional investors to put money into Israeli venture capital funds, which is expected to increase investment to about $220 million over this year and next.

Still, Israeli biotech startups will need to expand their reach beyond Israeli VCs to access international capital if they are to deliver on promising new technologies. The amounts needed to reach the next rung on the development ladder—a few hundred thousand to a couple of million—are incredibly modest given the potential of the products. Here are five pitches we think will grab your attention. Read more.