Itzik sitting at his desk, computer in front of him

Israel’s tech scene is red-hot, but there are few Arab-led startups — a top venture capitalist thinks he knows why

  • Israel is often called the “Startup Nation” due to the sheer number of entrepreneurs and tech companies in the country of 9 million people.
  • While Arabs make up 21% of Israel’s population, they currently only make up about 3% of the tech workforce.
  • Itzik Frid, a longtime Israeli tech entrepreneur and the CEO of a startup incubator focused on Arab-led startups, thinks that the lack of Arab representation comes down to four factors, including geography.
  • Most Arabs in Israel live far from Tel Aviv, Israel’s tech hub. But he thinks that could be starting to change.
  • This post is part of Business Insider’s series on Better Capitalism.

Israel produces an impressive number of highly successful tech companies for a country with just 9 million people, from social navigation app Waze, which sold to Google in 2013 for $US1.15 billion, to autonomous driving company Mobileye, which sold to Intel last year for a whopping $US15.3 billion.

 

Read the full article by Harrison Jacobs at Business Insider Australia.i