Naiot incubator boasts 80% success rate

The Yokne'am incubator focuses on medical device start-ups

The Naiot Venture Accelerator was one of the last government incubators to be privatized. However, de-facto the incubator has been run like a private company for years and many claim it was the model for the government privatization program.

If the success of an incubator start-up venture is its subsequent ability to raise investment funds then most Naiot graduates are successes. Naiot CEO Haim Eliash said, "80% of the companies that have graduated up until today raised funds of $500,000 or more. "We try very hard to see that the funds are not only raised from Ofer Hi-Tech but bring in at least one more partner to fix the company's value"

Successful graduates of the Naiot Venture Accelerator include: cardiovascular balloon developer Angioslide, biofunctional ingredients supplements company Enzymotec Ltd., CorAssist Cardiovascular Ltd., catheter device developer Endocross Ltd., retractor maker EZ Surgical Ltd., stem cell company Multi Gene Vascular Systems Ltd. (MGVS), and Rimon Medical Ltd., which was sold to Boston Scientific for $135 million.

The Naiot Venture accelerator is owned by Ofer Hi-Tech Group the venture capital investment arm of the Ofer family and Udi Angel, and it only officially became a private company several months ago. According to Assif Stoffman a partner with Ofer Hi-Tech, a member of Naiot's board of directors and a former CEO of the incubator, the pre-privatization management structure suited Ofer Hi-Tech.

He said, We loved the government model. We allocated supplementary funding and the companies paid us back with royalties."

He added, "We did not build companies designed for a huge exit, but medium sized companies that quickly reached sales revenue and paid the incubator handsome royalties."

In effect, Naiot is the seed fund of Ofer HiTech.

In the medical device sector investments are varied and 20-30% of investments in software,

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