Earlier this week, a new report was released by Startup Nation Central, an independent non-profit with a mission to connect business, government, and leaders from around the world with Israeli innovation. The report, “The State of Innovation: Operating model frameworks, findings and resources for multinationals innovating in Israel,” was compiled by PwC.
Israel’s innovation ecosystem is a model worth taking time to understand as economies seek to transform to be more knowledge based. There are more than 6,600 start-ups in Israel, 14 times the number of start-ups per capita in Europe. Despite having just 0.1% of the world’s population, in 2018 Israel attracted nearly 20% of global investment in cyber security. It ranks first in R&D expenditures as a percentage of GDP and the highest level of venture capital funding per capita; despite having less than a quarter of Canada’s population (8.9M versus 37M), Israeli firms secured just over double the level of VC investment (US$6B versus US$2.9B).
Why Israel? The report quotes the head of Microsoft’s Israel R&D centre crediting the country’s “population diversity, a bias toward actualizing ideas, and a global mindset focused on designing for export.”
How can Canada emulate Israel’s success? What can Canadians learn? How can companies benefit and help transform Canada’s economy?
Investing in an innovation agenda has been one of the key elements in the mandate handed to Minister Navdeep Bains when he was appointed in late 2015. Indeed, he oversaw the transition of his department from “Industry Canada” into Innovation, Science and Economic Development. Minister Bains will be the closing speaker at The 2019 Canadian Telecom Summit, being held June 3-5 at the International Centre in Toronto.
In addition, there will be panel looking at “The Innovation Economy: The Ongoing Journey to Digitize Our Lives” taking place on June 5, moderated by Namir Anani (CEO of the Information and Communications Technology Council of Canada).
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