Google Israel headquarters (archives)
Photo: Yehonatan Zur
Google to set up startup incubator in Israel
Search engine giant to endorse 20 initiatives at a time by providing office space and information, Internet, consultation, financial and legal services
Google is falling in line with other global companies and plans to establish a startup incubator for Israeli startup companies, scheduled to become operational next August.
The incubator will endorse 20 startups at a time which will rotate every few months. Google stresses that the technological incubator will be separate from the R&D center and operate as a community in its own right.
Google will rent an entire floor at the Electra office tower in the heart of Tel Aviv. The initiative is scheduled to begin operating at the same time Google Israel headquarters and its R&D center move into the Electra tower as well.
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Google Israel will not invest in the companies in return for stock but it will assist them to procure loans and find guarantors.
Furthermore, Google will provide the startups with the utilities and infrastructure for their operations: Office space, meeting rooms, internet access, information services, tools and consultation from Google professionals, guidance from external bodies and experts as well as ancillary services such as legal, marketing and financial consultation.
The project will be headed by Amir Shavit, who is the company's liaison with its developers in Israel, and Eyal Miller, head of business development at Google Israel.
According to head of R&D at Google Israel, Professor Yossi Matias, the incubator will welcome startups from various fields with an emphasis on open technologies, including from sectors which usually are not represented in Israel's technology industry.
Google will establish a team that will work in cooperation with universities and colleges and most probably choose companies that can develop complementary products for Google's products.
Recently a number of global companies have been establishing incubator-like initiatives, among them Red Hat, which announced last week it would launch a program to assist Israeli startup companies.
Other recently established initiatives include Genesis Fund's Junction and Gil Ben Artzy's UpWest Labs.
Microsoft also announced that it would establish together with the Technion an academic research center for the development of technological commerce technologies.
Click here to read this report in Hebrew
