As we begin to imagine emergence from COVID restrictions only to have to attempt to solve the ongoing social and financial crises. This year also accelerated investment in both time and money to advance technological innovation that can be applied at scale and on time to combat the aforementioned crisis challenges.
With an eye to the new year and beyond, multinational IT giant UST teams up with Israel’s Sarona Partners Group, and its 365x Scale-Up program, to unearth disruptive innovation from Israel’s crisis fighting tech ecosystem. Following the establishment of an Innovation center in Israel, UST has realized that locating disruptive tech solutions in the Israeli startup ecosystem demands boots on the ground.
The initial announcement came during a recent combined UST, Sarona Partners seminar on innovation and the changes in technology. The webinar was led by UST CEO Krishna Sudheendra, who captivated the ears of listening Israeli entrepreneurs, and by Sarona Group partner, and 365x CEO Toot Shani, who said: “We believe in the collaboration and think that we are talking about an exceptional opportunity for the Israeli ecosystem and for all UST's customers, who now have access to blue and white (Israel’s flag colors) innovation, adapted to the needs of COVID and post COVID reality." Shani further added that, "the aim of UST and Sarona Partners is to allow the global and local markets to continue to grow and to adapt to the changes created from current global challenges, such as working from home, healthcare, remote services, online consumption, digitization, and more."
As Israel has increased its attraction to global investors and corporations, UST looks to leverage its newly formed partnership with Sarona Partners and 365x Scale-Up to provide its global network of customers, including Fortune 500 companies, with the relevant solutions to help enterprises adapt to the ever-changing reality. This cooperation joins Sarona's November announcement of its partnership with another global player, in SUSE.
The tech-based cooperation will search the Israeli tech ecosystem for COVID reality solutions to service UST’s global customer base, operating in a variety of sectors: cyber-security, healthcare, Fintech, infrastructure, energy, and more. With a significant growth in digital transformation among small/medium/large scale organizations, Sarona Partners’ 365x Scale-Up program gains a market giant partner that will help accelerate the next game-changing solutions and expand new market reach for 365x’s over 100-company portfolio.
Michael Marx, Head of UST Innovation Israel, noted: "UST opened its first innovation center in Israel during a very challenging time for its Fortune 500 customers, who were rapidly shifting their market strategies. The cooperation with 365x give valuable exposure to promising growth stage startups, and the mentor program has created several promising opportunities."
