Israel's Social Impact Startups Love India. Here's Why With India's vast agricultural lands, Israel's technological agricultural expertise makes for the perfect partnership
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Israeli startups are globally known for their applaudable work in the technology space, especially in areas like the Internet of Things (IoT), Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) space. Though the size of these startups might appear small, these companies have a big vision - to enter into world's most lucrative markets. Needless to say India is their top pickned out to be among larger rivals US, and China.
Indian-Israeli Start-ups as Partners is a Match Made in Heaven and optimists says India and Israel's partnership can cultivate a better start-up ecosystem in both the countries.
India, with its own strong start-up ecosystem has partnered with Israel for the Indo-Israel Innovation corridor that allows start-ups from both countries to collaborate and build a business together. Earlier, Indian PM Narendra Modi's visit to Israel saw the launch of India Israel Innovation Bridge - a bilateral innovation challenge for start-ups.
For Israeli startups, the most attractive area to cater to in India has turned out to be agritech. With India's vast agricultural lands that can produce gold equipped by innovation, Israel's technological agricultural expertise makes for the perfect partnership.
In the latest, we have seen the launch of The India Israel Business Innovation Forum, which will help Indian entrepreneurs and investors build business opportunities with their Israeli counterparts.
In fact, according to our recent meeting with Alina Shkolnikov, Global iCoach Program Manager at Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), India is the among the most preferred countries when Israeli social impact startups go global. These collaborations can be boosted through subsidies routes and more Israeli tech companies can venture into Indian markets, she added.
On the other side, Indian start-ups that have a know-how of the market and local challenges can adopt these technologies to solve problems. Companies like Kheyti, a Hyderabad-based startup that has developed a modular greenhouse bundled with full stack services, had recently won a cash price along with an award MassChallenge Israel contest.
Shkolnikov is glad to have learned that Indian startups are focusing on current day innovations and technology, unlike international companies who are working on futuristic technologies. Her advice to Indian startups is tap into futuristic technologies and understand how they can compete in the market not just today but in the next few years
The mentor feels there is an opportunity for Indian start-ups to educate the local market and develop solutions for the present-day industries. However, according to Shkolnikov's experience, she also feels Indians startups have turned a blind eye to international competition and are focused only on the local market.
(Interview by Aashika Jain)
