The Israel Innovation Authority aims to nurture and develop the country’s innovation and resources while creating and strengthening the infrastructure and framework needed to support the unique ecosystem.
Israel Innovation Authority VP Startup Division Anya Eldan says that her organization’s incentive programs are especially relevant for high-risk areas such as the life sciences. Over 40% of projects in the Israeli Innovation Authority Incubators Incentive program are in biomedical areas such as drug development, biotech, and medical devices.
She adds, “We provide the tools that allow the establishment of the full ecosystem for supporting startups from technological concept to R&D, mentoring, raising funds, building business models, and growing through strategic cooperation and international contacts. We are looking for opportunities to help entrepreneurs and startups. Not only by giving money, but also by partnering with partners that can bring added value to the startup companies.”
The Israel Innovation Authority Assistance begins with the Tnufa Incentive Program, designed for fledgling entrepreneurs who are interested in formulating, in validating an innovative technological concept and in reaching the R&D stage, where they can raise funding for further development and commercialization. Tnufa currently supports hundreds of entrepreneurs with grants of up to NIS 200,000 over two years. The grants help entrpreneurs to reach proof of concept, to examine the feasibility of the project, to build an initial prototype, to protect IP, and to devise initial business development.
Ms. Eldan has over 25 years of executive experience in high tech companies, venture investments, and technology transfer ventures. She has a proven track record of private and public fundraising and a hands-on experience in life sciences companies management. She was responsible for the BrainTech 2013 Conference Program and was actively involved in the neurotech industry through innovation, entrepreneurship, seed investments, commercialization of proven research projects and strategy development for clinical applications.
Israel’s Incubators Incentive Program is itself an innovative idea that has enabled hundreds of startups to raise private investments. The incubators are centers for entrepreneurship designed to invest in the earliest stage startups and provide them with administrative, technological and business support.”
Since the program’s inception in 1991, more than one thousand startups have raised billions of dollars in private investment capital. There are currently 18 technological incubators in the Israeli government program - and an additional incubator dedicated to biotechnology.
Ms. Eldan said, “It is not our policy to choose an incubator’s focus, with the exception of the one incubator dedicated to biotech. We let demand dictate such matters although we do encourage high-risk and technologically challenging sectors so it is no surprise that life sciences, a sector which has a higher risk and longer development time to market, features so prominently in the incubators”.
She continues, “Our program is unique in that we do not take any equity in the startup companies, which are expected to repay the grants from royalties if products eventually generate revenue.”
The incubators cover the length and breadth of Israel from the Golan Heights to the Negev with an emphasis on peripheral regions. While the incubators started out as non-profit entities, usually owned by regional development organizations, in recent years a privatization process ,in which leading Israeli and international companies granted eight-year licenses, has been underway.
Ms. Eldan said, “We have a public-private partnership, with 18 incubators, plus the biotechnology incubator, owned privately following a competitive tender process. The companies that have won the tenders enjoy an eight-year license during which projects they support can receive government funding of 85% of the budget for each startup company in the incubators with the owners required to provide the balance plus all the infrastructure costs from the offices and laboratories to the staff, business development and much more.”
Ten of the regular incubators focus on life science projects. These include NGT in Nazareth, Alon Medtech in Yoq’neam, Incentive in Ariel, Trendlines in Misgav in the Western Galilee, VLX in Jerusalem, Sanara Ventures in Ra’anana owned by Teva Pharmaceuticals and Philips Healthcare, MindUP in Haifa, owned by Medtronic, IBM, Pitango and Rambam hospital and focusing on digital health, and Galil Ofek Innovation in Katzrin, owned by Mikal, Tav Medical, Paz Atid Projects and Next North, focusing on medical devices, and the two new licensees selected incubators: MedX in Or Yehuda, owned by Boston Scientific, Intellectual Ventures, Med-Accelerator and Tel Hashomer Hospital’s commercialization company, that invests in the fields of medical devices, combined medicine and digital health for operations, diagnostics, and treatment, and EHV in Modi’in Illit owned by Maccabi Health Fund, Cleveland Clinic, eHealth Ventures, Downing Partners, Shanghai Creation, Shafa Invesco, Medison Pharma and others, will invest in digital health.
FutuRx, the dedicated biotechnology incubator, was established in 2014 in the Weizmann Science Park in Ness Ziona near Rehovot’s Weizmann Institute. It is owned by an international consortium of Johnson & Johnson, OrbiMed Israel Partners, and Japanese company Takeda Pharmaceuticals. FutuRx has provided funding for nine projects since 2014. Each project is guaranteed an investment of up to $2 million for three years, 85% of which will be from the Israel Innovation Authority’s budget, and 15% from the consortium’s partners. The incubator expects to fund 30-40 projects in the eight years during which it has been granted a license.
Ms. Eldan said, “Perhaps the greatest proof of the incubator program’s success is that one-third of our incubators have major international partners. It’s a great example of a win-win situation. The large company comes here and finds Israeli innovation, and Israeli startups get significant added value by working with a market leader that can bring them to the market by helping them understand the segment in global terms.”
The Startup Division also offers the Early Stage Incentive Program designed for startups seeking to develop and promote an innovative technological project as well as to penetrate the market by raising investments from the private sector.
The standard sub-program offers 50% of the approved budget (and between 60%-75% in various peripheral regions) with a maximum grant of NIS 5 million for a period of up to two years. In the minorities/orthodox sub-program, 85% of the approved budget is offered up to a maximum of NIS 2 million.
Other programs offered by the Startup Division include the Young Entrepreneurship Incentive Program, which mentors the next generation of entrepreneurs in Israel to lead the country to the forefront of global technology. Working through the Unistream non-profit organization, selected in a competitive tender process, youth are encouraged to and educated for practical experience in business entrepreneurship.
“We are planning to introduce two new programs,” Ms. Eldan explains. “Innovation Visa will enable foreign entrepreneurs from around the world to develop their innovative technological project in Israel and take advantage of the country’s startup ecosystem. Successful candidates will be hosted within a Landing Pad which will offer exposure to Israel’s Eco-System, and a support The second program is Innovation Labs, which will provide a platform for large companies to collaborate with startups.”
All these incentive programs assist entrepreneurs and startup companies in developing their innovative technological concepts at the pre-seed or initial R&D stages, transform their ideas into reality, and reach significant fundable milestones.

The Startup Division works in close cooperation with the other five divisions of the Israel Innovation Authority: Growth Division; Technological Infrastructure Division; Advanced Manufacturing Division; Societal Challenges Division; and the International Collaboration Division.
The Israel Innovation Authority, formerly known as the Office of the Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Economy and Industry (and MATIMOP), is responsible for the country’s innovation policy. It is an independent and impartial public entity that operates for the benefit of the Israeli innovation ecosystem and Israeli economy as a whole. Founded in 2016, its role is to nurture and develop Israeli innovation resources, while creating and strengthening the infrastructure and framework needed to support the high tech industry.
Ms. Eldan said, “We are still a government agency, but now we are more independent in our structure, and that gives us more flexibility to address the needs of the high tech industry. This can be done in a more agile way that brings products to market more swiftly.”
The Israel Innovation Authority advises the government and Parliament (“Knesset”) committees regarding innovation policy in Israel and furthermore monitors and analyzes the dynamic changes taking place throughout the innovation environments in Israel and abroad. The Authority creates cooperation with counterpart agencies to promote technological innovation in the Israeli industry and economy.

The Authority’s vision is to create economic prosperity through innovation.
This vision is divided into two complementary goals: maintaining Israel’s position at the forefront of global innovation and elevating the entire economy through technological innovation. This vision is the only business plan relevant to the Israeli economy, which is relatively small and geographically far from major markets. Despite these drawbacks, Israel enjoys a vibrant entrepreneurial culture, strong technological infrastructure, and highly skilled human capital, allowing it to grow on the basis of innovation.
The Growth Division operates a wide range of incentive programs that promote technological innovation of mature and growth companies. This division contributes to the promotion and preservation of competitiveness and technological leadership of companies, as well as the increase of their growth rates and potential.
Target audiences: high-tech companies in sales or pre-sale growth stages and mature hi-tech companies that utilize growth channels based on technological innovation and/or seek assistance in funding innovative R&D.

The Israel Innovation Authority, formerly known as the Office of the Chief Scientist is responsible for the country’s innovation policy

The Technological Infrastructure Division focuses on collaboration between industry and academia to produce advanced technologies and innovative products. The incentive programs offered by this division promote cooperation, exchange of knowledge and experience, and development of generic groundbreaking knowledge by an integrated group of researchers from academia and industry. These incentive programs seek to strengthen the long-term technological advantages of Israeli industry in face of fierce international competition.
Target audiences: university researchers interested in transforming their discoveries into products; academic research institutions looking for new and practical research directions for the industry; industrial corporations interested in developing innovative products.

focuses on promoting the implementation of R&D and innovation processes in companies in the manufacturing sector, in order to strengthen their competitiveness in the global arena and improve productivity across a variety of industrial sectors. The incentive programs offered by this division boost manufacturing-oriented industries and encourage the owners of mainly small and medium-sized factories and plants to develop innovative products, technologies, and manufacturing processes to realize these goals.
Target audiences: Israeli industrial enterprises whose main activity is in its essence manufacturing, and that operate in the low- and medium-low-technology sectors; Israeli industrial enterprises that have at least one active production line, as well as distinctive characteristics of a manufacturing-oriented industrial company - high rate of production operations, low rate of R&D activity, low level of R&D infrastructure, lack of significant intellectual property, etc.

The International Collaboration Division offers a variety of international cooperation and incentive programs operated by the International Collaboration Division desks (Europe, the Americas and Asia-Pacific/Africa), and by the desk responsible for collaborations with multinational corporations. The support for international cooperation projects is carried out through the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, bi-national funds that finance joint projects of Israeli and foreign companies, or by bilateral parallel support programs, in which each party offers financing through existing programs.
Together with its counterpart organizations abroad, the International Collaboration Division defines the objectives of the programs and the criteria specific to each incentive program, publishes calls for proposals, assists in finding partners for projects, and coordinates the evaluation of projects and their approval on both sides. Moreover, the division’s desks assist with “matching” between partners in Israel and abroad to create joint R&D projects, as well as organize meetings between Israeli and foreign companies and investors, in addition to facilitating participation in conferences, exhibitions and more.
The activities of the International Collaboration Division are relevant to other divisions of the Authority, so target audiences of other divisions can also benefit from the array of programs, tools and international connections available through this division, which acts as a bridge between economies and business cultures. The division’s activities are directed at both Israeli and foreign clients.
Target audiences: foreign clients: R&D companies, multinational corporations, foreign investors, etc.; Israeli clients: Israeli companies, as well as academia and research institutes that are looking for comprehensive assistance in penetrating foreign markets; foreign governments and foreign funding agencies seeking to establish cooperation agreements with the Israeli government (on whose behalf the Authority operates).
The Societal Challenges Division focuses on improving the effectiveness and quality of public sector services, as well as enhancing social welfare and quality of life through technological innovation. The purpose of this division is to harness the high tech industry to find solutions for a variety of substantial problems in society and the public sector in Israel and to raise awareness of the special needs of the disabled population in areas such as health, security, and food, which require technological solutions. This division’s role is to identify these needs at the national level and to mediate between them and the Israeli entrepreneurial community by encouraging and creating demand for technological solutions. The division operates according to the double bottom line principle and takes into account the social profit generated by the project, along with its economic value.
The Societal Challenges Division also deals with a major social challenge – the diversity of workers employed in high-tech industry in general, and the integration of ultra-Orthodox and Arab employees in high-tech industry.
Target audiences: companies and non-profit organizations interested in developing technological solutions for populations with special needs; entrepreneurs interested in developing innovative products and services that will address public sector challenges.