“The kind of innovation going on in Israel is critical to the future of the technology business,” Microsoft founder Bill Gates foresaw a decade ago.
Experiencing a 50-year-long standoff with Palestine, Israel had problems with developing equipment-heavy industries, which is why it applied stimulus to the tech sector.
Yet in 1993, Israeli government started Yozma, a project for attracting venture capital for the local startups. It provided public guarantees for $100 million of investments in the local tech scene with the diaspora contributing a substantial part of this amount. This turned an orange-exporting country into a globally recognized “startup nation.”
Local experts say Israeli information technology industry grows by 400 percent each year, mostly due to rapid development of instant messaging, cryptography and voicemail.
Guy Klajman
Guy Klajman launched EMonetization, a Tel Aviv-based company, to help companies globally distribute their products and solutions, optimize their online monetization, help raise capital or sell their company.
He came to Kyiv give a lecture and meet Kyiv’s tech scene.
“In order to succeed, one must have the entrepreneurial spirit. That means discovering new ways of earning money, addressing people’s needs in the smartest ways, creating innovative businesses from scratch,” Klajman says.
Israeli dream, a vision of 8-million nation’s future, changed the local tech scene very substantially. “If in the 1990s mothers wanted their kids to become doctors or lawyers, now they dream of them becoming engineers. This is prestigious,” Klajman explains.
“I’ve served for 10 years myself,” Klajman tells. While in the military, young men and women are being taught computer coding among other technological courses in order to be capable of operating high-tech weaponry.
“Many technologies and knowledge gathered during the mandatory military experience are being utilized for civilian use afterwards ,” Klajman says.
Ilia Kenigshtein
Ilia Kenigshtein, Israeli by citizenship, was born in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv. He moved to Israel in 1991 and came back in 2007.
A managing partner at Hybrid Capital, Kenigshtein was involved in preparing the launch of a 3g internet connection in Ukraine.
“There is a “wow effect” constantly present in Israeli companies,” Kenigshtein emphasizes. “While Silicon Valley is full of effective business-to-business solutions, e-commerce projects and mobile consumer products, Israel creates things never seen before.”
“The entrepreneurial spirit and business development skills are the most valuable things that Ukrainian tech specialists lack in order to occupy a big spot on the global tech scene,” he concludes.
However, today his thoughts are devoted to the military conflict between Ukraine and Russia. “The war united Ukrainians. Same happened in Israel and pushed them to innovate and create new ways of fighting the enemy,” Kenigshtein says. “I see just one problem in Ukraine – a discord in the government’s actions.”
“There should be direct partnership between businesses, army, volunteers and the government. Right now there are just chaotic actions,” he adds.
Ukraine has a lot to learn from Israel. The latter has a special military unit called 8200, which does cyber exploration and deals with information threats which could be a useful experience for Ukraine as it fights the separatist troops in the east, Kenigshtein tells.
Military experience unites people and helps to build long-lasting business partnerships afterwards, he believes. “When you sleep, eat and fight with your army colleagues for three years or even more, it builds genuine bond of confidence and trust, that is why in Israel many army friends start their businesses together and build extremely effective companies.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Bozhena Sheremeta can be reached at [email protected]. The Kyiv Post’s IT coverage is sponsored by AVentures Capital, Ciklum, FISON and SoftServe.
