As December turned to January, here at the Embassy of Israel’s Trade and Economic Office, in London, we took the opportunity to look back over 2012, to reflect on our activities and to analyse some of the major developments from the Israeli industries.
Yet again, this proved to be a source of great satisfaction and inspiration.
So far in 2013, it would seem that Israeli innovators, from across the disciplines, continue to receive great acclaim and reward for their ingenuity, their dedication, their passion and their vision.
Two Israeli applications made the Apple App Store’s “Best of 2012 list”, which was published at the end of December. Apple chose Any.Do, an Israeli task-management application, and GroupShot, a photo-editor created by the Israeli company Macadamia.
However, the rewards for Israeli innovations come not just in the form of accolades and prizes, but also, more importantly, in the manner in which these Israeli companies and the Israeli markets are growing.
In 2012, Israeli tech start-ups were bought out for a record total of $5.5 billion, according to a report by PwC. The report also showed that the size of the deals increased in 2012 to an average of $111 million from an average of $81 million in 2011.
According to Mr Rubi Suliman, who leads PwC’s high-tech practice, these figures reflect a shifting position in Israel from the building of small or average sized companies (and then selling them) to an ability to build large multinational enterprises. Mr Suliman also said the growth in deal size showed the increasing maturity of the market.
Ensuring the continued ability to innovate, and the provision of resources to that end is arguably, one of the single greatest ways to reward the successes Israeli innovators and scientists have enjoyed thus far.
The British Israel Research and Academic Exchange Partnership (Birax) has recently announced the grant of $7 million (US) over five years for seven joint Israel-UK stem cell research programs. Under Birax, joint projects have already been established in the UK by Cambridge University, Oxford University, the University of Edinburgh, and the University of Nottingham, along with Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
As we move forward, ever-deeper into 2013, much like the Israeli innovators themselves, the Trade and Economic Office in London continues to develop new thinking that will go some way to exploring potential and exploiting opportunities.
Immediately on the horizon are three major international conferences, in which we will be playing a vital role to provide those Israeli innovations with the adequate platforms from which they can be showcased to the world.
‘Mobile World Congress’ in February and
‘Cosmoprof’ and
‘World Biofuels Markets’ in March are just the beginning.
‘Biomed’,
‘The Paris Air Show’,
‘IBC’,
‘Anuga’,
‘Watec’,
‘Milipol’ and
‘Medica’ are just some of the other conferences throughout 2013 that will offer these Israeli innovations, the fruits of their company’s R&D labour, the chance to
navigate the market, and the opportunity to create new business realities.