"I think that it's about time to stop talking about haredi (ultra-Orthodox) startups as something unusual in Israeli high-tech," Moshe Friedman, who founded and manages the Kama-Tech accelerator for encouraging haredi employment, told "Globes" today. A demo day event of the Kama-tech's first official class was held on Sunday in Tel Aviv.
"Look at the numbers," Friedman said. "224 startups registered for this accelerator, and the judging investors committee had to choose only seven of them. We were simply limited in resources."
Among other things, the participants received a NIS 20,000 grant and support from professional mentors, an accountant, and a lawyer. In addition, each startup was hosted for four months by an already successful startup, such as Outbrain Inc., Taboola, and Wix.com Ltd. (Nasdaq: WIX). "This is an innovative model that has really proved itself," Friedman says.
"Globes": Was there a connection between the hosting companies' business and that of the startups?
Friedman: "We tried to arrange a connection, but it obvious couldn't be exactly the same business, because then there would be competition. What did happen is that two of the startups have already started doing business with their hosts."
As reported by "Globes," Kama-Tech began operating in May, with the preliminary selection beginning in January. The class finished in September, and on Sunday, a demo day event was held with a large audience that included representatives of the local high-tech industry.
"We have handsome achievements, and we're completely proud of them," Friedman said. "These startup began with zero investment, and today, even before the demo stage, they have already raised an aggregate $2.5 million. More precisely, four of them raised $600,000 each.
"Besides money, they also recruited employees. We started with a total of 12 founders, and they now have 35 employees. Some of them began without customers, and now all of them are working with customers, including large banks, and even companies like Alibaba. By the way, of the seven startups, three are led by women."
The demo event was held in cooperation with LeumiTech, which also hosted it. "Fortunately, we have many partnerships," Friedman says. "The main sponsor is Mobileye(NYSE: MBLY) founder Prof. Amnon Shashua. We're also getting advice from Yossi Vardi, Zika Abzuk from Cisco Networks, Yizhar Shai, Jeremie Berrebi, and many others.
"When the media talks about a startup from the sector, they always portray it as a heroic venture that succeeded despite all the obstacles. Yesterday, we saw how wrong that was, and how different things are already. I'm tired of seeing insulting headlines like, 'Meet the haredi Mark Zuckerberg.' The numbers and amounts of yesterday have proven otherwise."
Where will the haredi high-tech industry be five years from now?
<p>"I believe that the same thing that happened to the sector as a result of the immigration from Russia will also happen now. Look how they fitted in and moved the sector forward. I really hope that we'll soon see a high-tech company with a haredi CEO. I've no doubt that successful companies like Outbrain will soon arise."
Yocheved Seller, owner of the DBA Squared, who took part in the accelerator, says that her company "is developing a platform for changing data in a financial system. Israel Discount Bank (TASE: DSCT) is our first 'design partner,' thanks to the accelerator. I can attribute a lot of things to it.
"We were hosted by survey company SQream Technologies, headed by cofounder and CEO Ami Gal. We were with them for four months, and we got a lot from them. All of their team leaders helped us; even their CFO pitched in. It gave us the feeling that we knew how our startup would look four years from now. It's a completely different feeling from the feeling we had when we first started. We even celebrated their triumphs with them. With God's help, Ami Gal will be on our board of directors. It will be a great honor for us."
Is he haredi?
Seller: "He's completely secular."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 17, 2015
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