"If you're looking for oil in the Middle East, you don't need to stay in Israel, but if you're looking for talent, energy and intelligence, then Israel is the only stop," Warren Buffett said.
Today’s Israeli tech ecosystem is a global leader, driving innovation, entrepreneurship, and productivity at an elite level. Furthermore, Israel ranks first in the world in innovative enterprises per capita, with thousands of scientific and technological focused enterprises. However, the country is a bit limited in its land area, resulting in Israeli innovation searching abroad for business development and market penetration options - mainly looking towards the U.S., Europe, China, and other markets for support.
During China’s swift rise as a dominant global tech incubator, Israeli entrepreneurs have increasingly turned to China’s tech ecosystem for growth opportunities in the early startup stage. In our efforts to evaluate the best Chinese incubation programs, we’ve been conducting a month-long survey, collecting feedback from over 300 startups regarding their opinions on the top 5 Chinese acceleration programs for Israeli startup growth.
The survey studied the following five dimensions, and we ranked the programs based on the results:
5. Infinity - 5th Place
Infinity Group focuses on cross-border investment in the Chinese market, with a core strategy of seizing fast-growing Chinese economic opportunities, leveraging Israel's patented technology, and investing in companies that can leverage Israel's innovative technology to become industry leaders in China. Infinity Group's investment model of "innovative technology introduction and cross-border capital investment" has won high praise and full assistance from governments throughout China, and has formed strategic partnerships with many international and domestic enterprises in the fields of smart cities and science parks, modern agriculture, IT and communications, healthcare/life sciences, security, modern agriculture, education, energy conservation, cleantech, environmental protection and new materials. Infinity has previously made extensive tech-focused investments at home and abroad to help Chinese enterprises "go global".
4. TechCode - 4th Place
Established in March 2016, TechCode Israel China Innovation Center is an incubator built by TechCode Technology Entrepreneurship Development Co., Ltd. and equipped with TechCode Innovation Services Incubation System. The Center actively explores the new model of cross-border industrial value chain integration, starting with connecting Israel's advanced sources of technological innovation, and making every effort to open up all key links from basic research, applied research to incubation landing, and eventually bringing Israeli technology over to China for further industrialization. TechCode has integrated into Tel Aviv's innovative ecosystem, tapping the tech center for Israeli startups looking to enter the Chinese market, or receive further support in the form of investment roadshows, vertical accelerators, industrial floor consulting, etc. TechCode is searching for high growth potential startups focusing on industrial sectors, AI, healthcare, new materials and more.
3. Shengjing Peakview Capital - 3rd Place
Shengjing Peakview Capital is a Chinese innovation and entrepreneurship service platform, in July 2017, the first phase of the Ministry of Economy and Industry of Israel’s cross-border innovation accelerated project began. Shengjing Peakview Capital selected Israeli startups will receive business and capital support services to further help Israeli companies come better integrated into Chinese business culture as they seek assistance penetrating the local Chinese market. Shengjing Peakview combines Israel's innovation ability with China's capital, market and industrial abilities to effectively solve the rapid growth and development of Israeli science and technology innovation companies in China.
StartupEast China (SEC) - 2nd Place
Founded in 2014 and registered in Hangzhou, China, in 2017, StartupEast China (SEC) has established branches in Beijing, Shanghai and other cities. The SEC is an open and innovative cross-border platform for Israeli startups to enter the Chinese market. The SEC provides enterprises with three types of services, including one-stop start-up international service, one-stop start-up international financial service and international business development.
HCH Ventures - 1st Place
HCH Ventures Israel incubator opened doors in 2017, leveraging Haier Group's open industrial ecosystem, resources, and global advantages to provide Israeli innovation with acceleration and networking opportunities. In order to have an edge in Israel’s high-tech ecosystem the offshore Israeli incubator leads to a variety of new possibilities, including association with government resources, universities, and the local innovation network. HCH Ventures helps the Israeli entrepreneur establish international cooperation, raise fund, break cultural barriers, innovate resource sharing, to achieve the transformation of scientific and technological achievements. HCH Ventures’ incubator Israel program has over 260 ongoing projects in its ecosystem, with over 20 startups experiencing significant growth in recent years. The participating Israeli startups come from all over the industry board, such as biomedicine, AI, network security, MedTech, and more.
