Collaboration with the best strategic minds
India and Israel are particularly focused on broadening their innovation partnerships so as to harness their complementary scientific and technological strengths in light of new challenges in our fast changing world, according to the Indian Ambassador to Israel, Sanjeev Singla.
He outlined this at the announcement of a collaboration between iCreate and SNC, calling it an important “vector of this growing cooperation”.
India Israel Innovation Accelerator (i3A) is a one-of-its-kind bilateral acceleration programme aimed at adaptation of technologies and business models, to create sustainable collaboration between the innovation and startup ecosystems of the two countries
Dr. Ron Malka, the Israeli Ambassador to New Delhi, added, “I am not surprised at the program’s success, and the pace with which the partnership facilitated many deals in a short time is remarkable.
“This program will act as a stepping stone between Israeli and Indian entrepreneurs & startups to collaborate and develop cutting-edge technologies that will address India’s and the world’s most pressing needs,” the envoy said on 12 April 2021.
The diplomats inaugurated the Demo Day organised by iCreate (International Centre for Technology and Entrepreneurship), India’s leading startup incubator and Start-Up Nation Central (SNC), the global champion of Israeli innovation. The Demo Day was for the five startups that were onboarded to the accelerator programme.
An ‘innovation bridge’ was inaugurated by the Prime Ministers of India and Israel in September 2017 with the aim of identifying cutting-edge Israeli innovations, and adapting them to the requirements of the Indian market.
Continuing the journey, iCreate started collecting problem statements from Indian companies. In all, 93 problem statements from 25 companies were identified as challenges that needed to be addressed using world class innovations. After a rigorous shortlisting process, iCreate and SNC onboarded five innovators for the first India Israel Innovation Accelerator (i3A) which was kicked off on 22 February.
The Demo Day commenced with a welcome address by Anupam Jalote, CEO, iCreate, “It is very rare for intent and delivery to come together in such a short timeframe, especially when working internationally with culturally diverse stakeholders. SNC is a dream partner to work with and Israeli and Indian innovators and entrepreneurs have collaborated brilliantly in this programme. The innovation bridge that our two PMs built in 2018 has traffic flowing across it and I am confident more and more two-way traffic will ensue.”
Siddharth Pareek, Manager, Programme and Alliances at iCreate, said, “Our endeavour to collaborate with the best strategic minds to identify some excellent solution providers for the Indian industry has been successful. India is slated to grow at a significant pace and the integration of these technologies formulated by some of the best creative minds will only bolster its development.”
Prof. Eugene Kandel, CEO of SNC, elaborated, “Start-Up Nation Central has rich experience in connecting tech startups with large corporations. It takes time to earn the trust on both sides, thus it takes even longer time to get to the POC stage. The speed with which Icreate-Start-Up Nation Central partnership facilitated a number of deals is beyond expectations, and indicates that there two organizations already enjoy the trust of both sides, the commitment of the corporates, and the quality of technologies chosen.”
Prof. Kandel added, “We have observed how both sides learned from each other. As a result of this program and the collaboration start-Ups sharpened their focus in addressing the real challenges presented by corporations, allowing them to access one of the world’s biggest markets.
“We look forward to scaling our partnership with iCreate, backed by the close governmental cooperation and support – can help address some of the big challenges facing the world,” he said in a release from Ahmedabad. #technology #startups #innovation #incubators #investment /fiinews.com
