Catalan Government visits Israel to strengthen collaboration between innovation ecosystems of both territories

• The Minister of Enterprise and Knowledge of the Government of Catalonia, Àngels Chacón, will meet with the main agents of innovation and entrepreneurship of the country in Tel Aviv and will visit the DLD innovation congress, which last year had more than 20,000 participants.
• The general director of Industry, Matilde Villarroya, the CEO of Catalonia Trade & Investment, Joan Romero, and the CEO of Barcelona Tech City, Miquel Martí, also participate in the mission.
• With more than 6,600 hi-tech companies and 1,500 investors in local companies in 2018, Israel is considered one of the most advanced innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems in the world.

The Minister of Enterprise and Knowledge of the Government of Catalonia, Àngels Chacón, heads an institutional mission in Israel in order to foster collaboration between the ecosystems of innovation in both territories and position the Catalan startups hub. The mission, which begins this Monday and will last until Thursday, is also attended by the general director of Industry, Matilde Villarroya, the CEO of Catalonia Trade & Investment, Joan Romero, and the CEO of Barcelona Tech City, Miquel Martí.

The agenda of the institutional delegation includes several meetings with the main agents of innovation and entrepreneurship in the country in the Tel Aviv region. Thus, Chacón will hold work meetings with entities such as Technion, a leading university in the field of research and technology transfer in Israel and worldwide, and organizations such as Start-Up Nation Central, The Peres Center for Peace and Innovation, CityZone and the venture fund capital RED Capital Partners. The delegation will also visit and meet with the managers of the accelerator Drive TLV, specializing in technology startups in the area of smart mobility, and the accelerator DOCK Innovation Hub, focusing on the maritime, port sectors and logistics sectors.

Among others, the Minister will also visit the facilities of SOSA, a global open innovation platform that connects Israeli and international startups with a network that includes over 15,000 startups and 250 investors, venture capital funds and international corporations. Chacon will also meet with executives of the Israeli company WIX, a unicorn (a technology company with a value of over 1 billion dollars) specializing in the development of websites, listed on the NASDAQ.

DLD, the main innovation event

This institutional mission coincides with the celebration in Tel Aviv of the DLD Congress, which this year reaches its 9^th edition. The Minister will visit the Catalan traveltech companies that participate in the event through Mobile World Capital. Last year, DLD brought together over 20,000 participants and 190 international delegations. Companies like Amazon, IBM, Microsoft, HTC or PepsiCo will participate in this edition.

2,400 Catalan companies export to Israel

With an economic growth rate of 3.3%, Israel currently has a population of almost 9 million people. It is considered one of the most advanced innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems in the world, with over 6,600 hi-tech companies.

Catalan exports in this country reached 442 million euros last year, headed by the automotive, plastics and electrical equipment sectors. In fact, 2,400 Catalan companies currently export to Israel, 900 of which do so on a regular basis, that is, the last four years in a row.