Seven years ago, Google began operations to build a 16,000 square foot building that is to be used as an incubator for Israeli startups in Tel Aviv. With Prime Minister Netanyahu in attendance, the building was finished and officially opened on December 11th.
According to Haaretz, some 100 Israeli startups will benefit from the new building per year. The incubator will have a mentoring system implemented as well, where experts from around the world will teach and educate the young entrepreneurs.
After a two week intense program in the incubator, the companies will learn about business development, how to shape their biz models, marketing, product strategy and technology from the best in the world. They also offer a space for developers and entrepreneurs to attend and organize events with speakers, mentors and other entrepreneurs; and also a “hack space” and device library to develop and test new ideas.
Incubators and their role in the Israeli startup ecosystem
Israeli startups benefit from the oversight and guidance from incubators. Given the global competitiveness in the tech space, more and more Israeli incubators and accelerators are popping up across the country. Some incubators are years long while others are just a couple weeks. This move by Google increases its investment in the ingenuity and entrepreneurship of the Israeli business startup world.
Google is obviously not alone with their investments in Israel. Microsoft launched an accelerator of its own as part of their R&D center in Israel. The accelerator was built in Israel “due to the wide-ranging activity of startups in the area and the experience and know-how to propel startups into the global marketplace.” Windows Azure Accelerator is a four-month program aimed at helping early stage startups doing big things in cloud, web and mobile.
[bra_team_member member_name=”Elan Yudkowsky” member_position=”Intern at OurCrowd” member_img_src=”https://blog.ourcrowd.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/elan.jpg” member_social_list=”LinkedIn, http://www.linkedin.com/pub/elan-yudkowsky/5a/689/649″ member_columns=”2″]Elan Yudkowsky is an intern at OurCrowd. He will be attending the University of Maryland in the Spring.[/bra_team_member]
