Clairfield dealmakers from 10 different countries were impressed by the scope of private and government investment in technology at Clairfield International’s TMT and healthcare conference in Jerusalem last week.

The message was clear from an impressive array of local experts: Israelis are natural risktakers, which translates into an entrepreneurial culture that values making a better world, with strong investments in young people and technology. Opening remarks were given by the Honorable Ami Applebaum, the chief scientist for the Ministry of Economy and Industry and chairman of the Israel Innovation Authority that bridges the public and private sector. He explained how government support is key to underpinning the Start-Up Nation.

Telematics is a segment that the TMT group has studied in detail. External speakers Raphael Layani from Mobileye and Dr. Anat Lea Bonshtien, the chair and director of the Israeli government’s Smart Mobility Initiative highlighted Mobileye as a success story. The company was acquired by Intel for USD 15.3 billion in 2017 and its collision avoidance technology is used by all major car manufacturers.

The tech portion of the conference ended on a high note with a dynamic talk by Jon Medved, founder and CEO of OurCrowd, the world’s largest crowdfunding platform. He emphasized that “if you’re an investor, the companies that matter are tech companies.” He then enthralled the audience with some of OurCrowd’s recent investments in technologies ranging from sugar processing to robotics.

The speakers for the healthcare portion of the meeting, Sharon Shapira, digital health sector manager at Start-Up Nation Central; and Barak Singer, CEO of Trendlines, an Israeli venture fund focusing on medical devices, addressed the disruptions needed in healthcare to address problems such as rising costs and short physician time.

The TMT sector at Clairfield is led by Bertrand Hermez, a partner based in Paris. Bertrand said “I am impressed by the capacity of both state agencies and private bodies to anticipate megatrends in the tech sector in order to devote and concentrate money, tax incentives and efforts towards future unicorn players in innovative fields such as digital health, mobility, AI, and quantum computing.”

Jack Helm of Frankfurt leads the Clairfield healthcare group. “I was extremely interested to learn more about the digital healthcare landscape where we will certainly see a lot of activity in the short term. The healthcare team came away with many ideas for further research.”

“It was fantastic to introduce so many key players in the Israeli technology landscape to our sector experts at Clairfield,” said Joseph Sabet, managing director of Clairfield Israel. “In addition to enhancing our knowledge of the market we came away with a better understanding of just why the entrepreneurial market at the ‘Start-Up Nation’ is so strong.”