Much has been made of the laid back business culture of Israel. Sandals and untucked shirts are as much the norm as neckties are uncommon. But despite Israel’s casual approach to business our full slate of company visits last Monday was anything but laid back. With an aggressive schedule that started in Tel Aviv suburb Herzeliya at 9:00 AM and ended 10 hours later in Ceasaria, we met the full spectrum of Israeli business.
The morning began with one of the stars of Israeli innovation: Better Place. Founded with the mission of ending oil dependence, this company has taken the vision of electric cars beyond just hybrid and plug-in electrics by envisioning an entire infrastructure of battery switch stations. In addition to the network of battery switch stations, Better Place actually purchases and maintains the car battery for the consumer, removing an expensive barrier for many electric car customers. Better Place has begun to roll out their network in Israel, Denmark and Australia but will need to expand into larger markets to repay the billion dollars of funding their founder Shai Agassi has raised. With the world finally realizing that oil cannot be the answer in the long run, it’s safe to say they have a head start on the competition in an industry that can do nothing but grow.
With so many of our teammates pitching ventures in the bio medical industry, meeting the management of a company that specializes in seeding and growing medical technologies provided some great insight for our own projects and upcoming venture capitalist pitches. Of their portfolio technologies, Rainbow showed off the Nano Retina, an implantable chip that restores sight to people who have gone blind due to acute macular degeneration. What felt like something taken from a science fiction movie is currently being tested in animals and is one year from human trials.
Whenever an entrepreneur has a chance to network with top tier venture capitalists, he or she must capitalize on the opportunity. At Benchmark, we did just that, talking to venture capitalists on the current state of their industry, both in Israel and the US. Before concluding the meeting, we of course took the opportunity to pitch our own ventures and gain valuable feedback from an experienced business builder.
While not always the hottest industry, water treatment is not only of utmost importance to the desert dwelling Israelis, but will soon be a concern for the entire world. At Aqwise, innovation has transformed a sewage treatment company into a cleantech leader, as this Israeli company now treats a quantity of water in 8 hours that used to take 10 days. With the obvious benefits of their technological solution, Aqwise is now global, counting the likes of Walmart and Coca-Cola as customers.
Employing 600 people in their Herzeliya research and development facility, Microsoft has marked Israel as a key asset in their drive to innovate and constantly reinvent themselves. In meeting the management of their Innovation Labs, we saw first-hand how they create value by improving on and redefining Microsoft’s existing current product line. And more importantly, we saw some of the new management techniques that Microsoft is employing to encourage innovation and outside the box thinking as a part of its larger strategic goal of remaining relevant in a rapidly evolving marketplace. Whether we go into the high tech industry or not, their innovative techniques such as Out of the Box Week are implementable anywhere.
On our way back to Haifa from Tel Aviv we made on last stop in Ceasarea to visit new water technology startup Emefcy. This company has developed the technology to not only eliminate energy consumption used in waste water treatment but in some case leverage the treatment process to generate electricity. The paradigm shift that results from their innovation has clearly caught the eye of industry, as they recently announced an investment from General Electric.
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