A new digital health accelerator was announced this week in the northern Israeli city of Haifa, led by JVP, Road2, Margalit Start-Up City, and the Israel Innovation Authority, in partnership with Super-Pharm, U-Bank, Phillips, NVIDIA, Asensus Surgical, and Clalit healthcare services.
The new Start-Up City Haifa-Digital Health Accelerator is a unique platform for start-ups in the field of digital medicine, enabling them to benefit from collaborations with international companies, investment funds, health organizations, and leading consultants, together with mature companies in the field.
The announcement of the new initiative included a call for candidate start-ups to apply for the program, with a deadline for applications at the end of January 2022. After that, a maximum of eight promising Israeli start-ups operating in the field of digital health will be selected.
The goal of the program is to identify technology companies at various stages of growth, developing innovative medical and healthcare technologies, and to accelerate their transition to the next stage on the way to becoming the next big thing in the field of digital health.
“The pandemic has caused a huge global crisis in the field of health, in light of which digital health especially, has become a vital and vibrant field,” Erel Margalit, chairman and founder of the JVP Foundation and Margalit Start-Up City, noted during the event. “This is reflected in every quantifiable measure – in the type and volume of investments, and in the various stages of the companies receiving the investment. From 2019 to 2021 there was a 220% increase in digital health, and moving forward, the issue of digital medicine is going to be one of the leading hi-tech issues in Israel.”
Eitan Kyiet, CEO of Road2, said, “The entrepreneurial ecosystem in Haifa and the North of the country in general, is gaining momentum – and the partnership between Road2 and Margalit Start-Up City clearly indicates that there are great opportunities in the north”
Anya Eldan, VP of the Israel Innovation Authority’s Start-Up Arena, said, “This activity is part of the authority’s strategy to promote technological entrepreneurship in the city of Haifa, aimed at strengthening the local ecosystem, and increasing the number of start-up companies operating in the city, providing quality employment”
Avigdor Avni, CEO of U-Bank of the International Bank Group, said, “The U-Bank Platinum Banking brand has developed U-Bank Tech, which specializes in banking services tailored to the unique needs of companies in this important industry”.
Eric Cole, senior director of the NVIDIA Inception Program in Israel, said, “The digital health sector continues to be one of the most important sectors in the start-up ecosystem in Israel and around the world.