The Intesa Sanpaolo Start-Up Initiative international road-show made its first stop in Israel as part of the prestigious Israel BioMed 2013 Conference held in Tel Aviv from 10-12 May.
The new international expansion phase of the acceleration platform promoted by Intesa Sanpaolo, envisaging strategic coverage of the most important non-European markets in terms of global development of high technology start-ups, was inaugurated yesterday with the first Israeli-Italian Life Science Investment Forum.
During the forum, 10 of the most promising Italian and Israeli start-ups in the biotech and medical devices industries presented themselves to over 100 international investors, corporate, incubators and accelerators. The event has been organised in partnership with MATIMOP, the Israeli government agency for the promotion of innovation through international bilateral cooperation agreements for the development of advanced technologies. A memorandum of understanding was signed with the agency in October 2012, in order to offer the group’s corporate customers the opportunity of rapid access to the most advanced technologies available on the market.
The aim of the event is to promote cross-border investments and technology trading between Italy and Israel, in line with the Intesa Sanpaolo Group’s international strategy to facilitate access to new financial resources for start-ups and to increase cooperation and know-how flow between the Israeli and Italian hi-tech industries.
After Silicon Valley, Israel is considered the number two innovation hub in the world, with around 300 research centres and over 4,000 technology start-ups. “The Start-Up Nation” attracts two billion in venture capital investments every year.
The Start-Up Initiative is the international acceleration platform developed by Intesa Sanpaolo. The programme selects the most promising high-tech start-ups, sets them up and puts them into contact with financial and corporate investors.
