Thirty business, legal and medical professionals assembled at Vandeventer Black law offices on Wednesday, April 17 to learn about Israeli innovation and the opportunity for Americans to invest in start ups in Israel.
According to presenter Brian Rosenzweig of JANVEST, an American venture capital firm which helps seed and incubate Israeli high tech companies, Israel’s best resource is its brainpower. The program was sponsored by the Business & Legal Society of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater, the Tidewater Jewish Foundation, and the Virginia Israel Advisory Board.
Rosenzweig says there is great opportunity to invest in these innovative Israeli companies, as many Venture Capital firms have shied away from start-ups due to the recent recession, leaving a huge gap in investment for Israeli companies fueled on the extraordinary talent of Israeli graduates of the Technion, the IDF and other training grounds for innovation. Notable companies ‘hatched’ by JANVEST are: Book, which charges readers per page read on Kindles and other e-readers enabling them to download an unlimited amount of publications at no expense unless they are actually read, gauged by the amount of time a reader lingers on a page; and BIOCATCH, formed by former IDF intelligence officers, which develops a personal profile of computer owners through their unique keystrokes and mouse manipulation, alerting them of potential hackers.
Companies such as Google have established major presence in Tel Aviv in order to incubate Israeli high tech ventures, but there is still much opportunity for investment. The cost-risk of investing in Israeli high tech start up is relatively small in the global market with enormous return, Rosenzweig says.
For more information on the UJFT Business & Legal Society, call Carolyn Amacher at 757-452-3181 or email camacher@ujft.org.