The Innovation Authority announced this morning (Tuesday) the winners of the operation of five new technology incubators in the fields of climate, food technology, space and health. Through the greenhouses, the authority is expected to support the establishment of about 150 start-up companies, with a total budget of about NIS 500 million, of which about NIS 150 million is from the entrepreneurs.
The incubators, which focus on diverse high-risk areas, provide assistance and support to early-stage ventures, set up and operated by venture capitalists, local corporations and global giants, who can provide substantial added value, and support start-ups and start-ups. In the greenhouses that the Innovation Authority has supported over the years, groundbreaking companies have sprung up in their field, such as Alef Farms, Biomix, Mick and more.
Israel’s climate incubator will be set up by Net-Zero Entrepreneurship. The main areas in which it will engage are hydrogen, reducing emissions in transportation, construction, energy production and water treatment. The new incubator consists of an association of venture capital funds and leading global corporations: DK innovation, Total Energies Carbon Solutions, Eren Industries, IP Innovative Power, Blue Minds, BGV, OSEG Group.
The Innovation Authority defines the climate sector as an issue of “paramount importance”, when only recently did Prime Minister Naftali Bennett declare that Israel strives to contribute to the global fight against the climate crisis through innovations in the technological arena.
The storm surrounding Chevron’s participation in the tender
One of the groups that lost in the bid to establish the climate incubator is a consortium of companies, including Capital Nature, which has already won the PA’s support in the past, and the oil and gas company Chevron. Chevron’s bid to establish Israel’s climate incubator was exposed in Globes and caused a stir: MK Gabi Lasky and environmental organizations including Green Trend, Greenpeace, Housekeepers, Green and Clear Network, turned to the CEO of the Innovation Authority, Dror Bin, and demanded not to let a company considered one of the donors The biggest for the climate crisis, a foothold for a state-sponsored climate venture, thus ‘spitting up’ its image, while standing in a conflict of interest between its business model that relies entirely on polluting fuels, and technological start-ups challenging the same industry.
According to environmental organizations, Chevron invests about NIS 10 billion a year in lobbyists around the world to advance its goals and delay the transition to a low-carbon economy, and employs 2,000 lawyers who fend off lawsuits against it, including environmental and climate issues.
“Chevron is the second company in the world in greenhouse gas emissions, so it is in fact the second company in the world responsible for the climate crisis,” the organizations wrote. “It is absurd to let it run the incubator whose job it is to deal with the crisis, which has a significant part in exacerbating it. ‘Chevron’ is a money-rich company that originated in years of abusive and polluting activity, The long-term polluter. “
Entrepreneurs in the field have also raised an eyebrow at the ability of a company that contributes to the climate crisis to deal with the PA tender in the first place, without threshold conditions that prevent this. Finally, as stated, the group in which Chevron is a member did not win the tender.
The greenhouse that receives renewed trust from the Innovation Authority
An incubator focused on the environment and another sustainability, is “The Kitchen Sabbath 2”. This is an incubator that is now gaining renewed trust from the Innovation Authority, having in recent years been operated by the Strauss Group, and has operated extensively in the field of podtech. Now, it is expanding its operations by joining new partners, to promote the local ecosystem in the field.
Israel is considered a world leader in the field of food technology, with a high concentration of technological companies in the fields of cultured meat, alternative proteins and fermentation. In the “Kitchen” incubator, the esteemed cultured meat company “Alef Farms” was founded, which plans to launch a first product subject to regulatory approvals during the coming year. The “Kitchen The Father 2” incubator will be operated together with Strauss by food giant Unilever, along with other partnerships and leading investment funds.
In the field of health, “Incentive Incubator” was chosen to operate a greenhouse, which will focus on precise and customized medicine, combining engineering and biology to identify, monitor and treat health challenges. The greenhouse will be led by the Peregrine Venture Capital Fund. Peregrine’s Incentive Incubator is one of the most successful incubators in the incubator program of the Chief Scientist / Innovation Authority for generations, and companies such as Valtech, Aximo, Cartihill and others have grown out of it.
The Peregrine Fund often makes follow-on investments in greenhouse companies. Now, for the first time, other powerful entities are joining the incubator, two of the world’s leading pharmaceutical and medical device companies that are investing for the first time in an Israeli incubator, and Elbit.
Another incubator in the field of health, will be established by NGT, which will in fact continue the activities of the existing incubator under its leadership. The incubator focuses on companies that develop technology in the fields of tomorrow’s medicine and combine biology and engineering and groundbreaking solutions for forecasting, identification and treatment.
In addition, the incubator, which has worked extensively to promote the entrepreneurial ecosystem among Arab society, plans to focus at least 50% of its activities on promoting innovative technological ventures of entrepreneurs from Arab society and to this end has integrated investors from Arab society as part of the new incubator. NGT is located in Nazareth, and its prominent companies include Norami Medical and Verility. Investors The Arkin Group and IBI, were also involved in the previous incarnation of the incubator.
The “Space & Land” group will establish a greenhouse in the field of space. The new incubator consists of an association of leading leading companies and investment funds such as: Kyocera, Croning Blue Sky Capital (Samtec), Oceancap, Rhodium, Moon 2 March Ventures, Space-Communications. The incubator will promote the establishment of new companies with technologies with dual applications and will work to make knowledge and expertise accessible as well as ongoing investments for the incubator companies and to establish Israel as a global leader in the field.
The start-up companies that will be established with the help of the greenhouses will receive a budget of up to NIS 6.5 million for a project that constitutes a 60-85% grant from the Innovation Authority and supplementary funding from the greenhouses. In addition, the companies will benefit from the support of the greenhouses in the early stages, as well as continued investments through dedicated investment funds that the greenhouses will provide for the benefit of the companies. The companies will also benefit from the assistance of the incubator teams and their shareholders in technological and business support, in contacts with experts from the entire value chain, in contacts with strategic partners and other investors from Israel and abroad, and in access to laboratory infrastructure.
The winning groups will enjoy a 5-year franchise period (with the possibility of an extension for another 3 years) in which they will establish high-risk breakthrough start-ups, and will support and invest significant money and added value in them. The Innovation Authority will participate in reducing risk through support grants in start-up companies. The winning groups will also be able to establish an R&D infrastructure that will meet the free use of the greenhouse companies and other companies in the ecosystem, with a budget of up to NIS 4 million, with 50% participation from the Innovation Authority.