In February Rudolf Kinsky (Executive Chairman) and Christian Bouda (Board Member) undertook a study trip to Israel that included many fruitful networking events in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. The goal of the visit was to explore the Israeli start-up ecosystem by connecting with the local start-up and venture capital scene and key players who could facilitate future cooperation between Israel and Austria.

A particularly fruitful exchange took place with Israel Advanced Technology Industries (IATI), a think tank and umbrella association for all players in Israel’s technology sector. The discussion yielded scope for future cooperation and follow-ups. Amongst others, AVCO extended an invitation to Karin MR, IATI’s president as keynote speaker at AVCO’s Annual Conference in October.

Furthermore, the delegation met with members of the IVC Research Centre – an Israeli High-Tech, venture Capital and Private Equity Online Database – to gather knowledge on the Israeli investment ecosystem and discuss potential cooperation and support in collecting market data in Austria.

AVCO also met with relevant accelerators in Israel such as Shizim (home to promising Israeli MedTech start-ups) and AVCO member BSD Fund (health-tech accelerator).

To top it off, Rudolf Kinsky and Christian Bouda attended the ‘2020 OurCrowd Global Investor Summit’ in Tel Aviv, attended by 7.000 delegates.  They met with its founder Jon Medved and seized many opportunities to network with a mix of other participants, e.g. MaterialsZone (a research platform), Kymera Labs (creates synthetic data for financial institutions), H2 EnergyNow (developed an innovative technology in the field of renewable energy), Müller-Medien (a German media company), Nanomedic (nanotechnology company), IXDen (IoT Security).

The trip was a great success and should pave the way for building bridges between the start-up scenes of Israel and Europe.