Mosad sets up fund to invest in tech firms

Israeli startups recruit elsewhere

JERUSALEM, June 28, (Agencies): Israel’s Mossad spy agency is starting a fund to invest in technology firms creating products that could assist its work, including those involving robotics and encryption, the prime minister’s office said Tuesday.

The fund, to be called Libertad, will invest in research and development programmes at “cutting-edge technology startup companies,” a statement said.

It said it was calling on firms to submit proposals, particularly in areas including robotics, encryption and personality profiling.

The statement said Mossad would not publicise the names of the firms in which it invests.

It said Libertad would be open to anyone and provided an email address to submit proposals (apply@libertad. gov.il), adding that it would offer up to two million shekels ($570,000, 500,000 euros) for projects.

More could be granted for exceptional cases, it said. It will not act as a typical investor. Libertad will not hold equity in the firms in which it invests and will instead receive a licence to use the technology developed, it said.

The CIA in the United States has created a similar investment fund, known as In-Q-Tel.

Israel is seen as a global leader in the technology industry, particularly regarding cyber-defence.

Libertad was the name of a ship that carried Jewish emigrants to what was then British-mandate Palestine in 1940 before the creation of the state of Israel.

Meanwhile, when Alexey Chalimov founded software design firm Eastern Peak in Israel four years ago he knew he would not find the developers he needed at home.

He went to Ukraine and hired 120 people to develop mobile apps and web platforms for international clients and smaller Israeli startups.

“I worked for years in the Israeli market and I knew what the costs were in Israel and I knew there was a shortage of workers,” he told Reuters.

Driven by startups, Israel’s technology industry is the fastest growing part of the economy. It accounts for 14 percent of economic output and 50 percent of exports.

Strip, through a series of measures.

A spokesman for the health ministry at Abbas’s Palestinian Authority (PA) however denied there had been any change in

But a shortage of workers means its position at the cutting edge of global technology is at risk, with consequences for the economy and employment.

The government’s Innovation Authority forecasts a shortage of 10,000 engineers and programmers over the next decade in a market that employs 140,000. Israel has dropped six spots in three years to 17th in the World Economic Forum’s ranking of the ease of finding skilled technology employees.

The shortage is particularly painful for Israel’s 5,000 startups which compete for talent with development centres of technology giants such as Google, Intel, Microsoft and Apple. They offer big incentives that a startup cannot afford.

Israel will lose its edge if the shortage isn’t tackled, said Noa Acker, head of policy at the societal challenges division at the Innovation Authority.

“Salaries will be very high and the industry will shrink to only very high level R&D while much of the work will be exported,” she said.

The main reason for the shortfall is a sharp drop in the number of computer science, maths and statistics graduates, down from a peak of 3,000 in 2005 to a low of 1,600 in 2008.

Problems

This is partly due to problems in secondary and primary schools where lack of funding means some classrooms do not have computers and advanced maths teachers are in short supply.

“Why do we still have classes where there are no computers?” said Yifat Turbiner, a researcher in entrepreneurship and innovation at Ben-Gurion University.

“If more budgets aren’t allocated to generate a technological state of mind ... from elementary school, I believe all industries will suffer, not just high-tech.”

Another reason for the shortage of computer science graduates is that after the dotcom bubble burst in 2000 many Israeli high tech workers lost their jobs, Acker said.

This meant that students lost interest in tech careers and university applications declined.

The Education Ministry has announced plans to boost studies of maths and science, especially in highschools

policy regarding such health documents.

To leave Gaza and travel through Israel to receive treatment in the occupied West Bank, Gazans must first apply for documents outside the cities where advanced classes are not always available. But Turbiner said initiatives are also needed for a higher standard of maths at a younger age including training more teachers.

The government also has long-term initiatives to integrate ultra-Orthodox Jews and Arabs — two fast-growing segments of the population with low labour participation — into the industry.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews make up about 11 percent of the population and many prioritise religious studies over science and maths.

Military technology expertise gained by soldiers during their service has been behind several successful Israeli firms including the country’s biggest tech company, Check Point Software Technologies.

The government is also running “boot camps” of up to 18 months to train tech workers without technology degrees.

While the government takes steps to stimulate organic growth of workers at home, it is also making changes to visas for a quick fix of importing foreign workers.

The government is preparing 500 visas for students from abroad who studied science and engineering at Israeli universities so they can stay to work at tech firms for a year. It is also working on easing bureaucratic hurdles to unlimited “expert visas”.

In the meantime, many Israeli startups are looking abroad.

Ukraine is the top destination with about 100 Israeli development centres. A strong tradition of maths and computer science teaching that is present in many countries in former Soviet Union countries means Ukraine has more than 20,000 IT graduates each year.

The 1990s arrival of a million immigrants from former Soviet countries, many of them scientists who went to work for technology companies, has also created strong ties.

Israeli companies have also recruited workers in other eastern European countries such as Poland and Bulgaria.

Wix.com, which helps small businesses build websites and is one of Israel’s hottest tech companies, employs 120 workers in two development centres in Ukraine and another 80 at a site in Lithuania.

from the internationally recognised PA before applying to Israel.

The number of PA permits granted has decreased hugely in recent months, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said.

In recent days three children have died in Gaza after failing to receive permits to seek treatment outside, the ministry added, accusing the PA and Israel of responsibility.

“Since the beginning of the year 11 people, most of them children, have died as a result of refusal of travel permits to them by either Israel or the Palestinian Authority,” ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told AFP.

Gazans have reacted angrily on social media after it was alleged a sick cat had been granted a permit to leave for medical treatment. “There is a real fear of more deaths with the ongoing banning of medicine from entering (Gaza) and for the sick travel permits for treatment,” Yusef Abu Rish, undersecretary of health at the Gaza ministry, told a press conference.

“The crime of banning children from travelling for treatment is part of a series of crimes against the health sector in Gaza.”

The Israeli military body responsible for exit permits did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Hamas seized the Gaza Strip from Abbas’s Fatah party in a near civil war in 2007 following a dispute over parliamentary elections won by the Islamist movement. (AFP)