In the heart of Israel’s startup nation

Tel Aviv is known for its thriving tech scene, drawing venture capitalists and startup founders to events like Cyber Week.

The scene remains fairly exclusive, centred around Tel Aviv and employing mostly non-Orthodox Jewish men. Now, there are promising efforts underway to expand and diversify Israel’s tech sector — and to open it up to travellers.

Increasingly, there are opportunities for travellers to discover the city through its entrepreneurial side. A new museum, a startup-inspired restaurant, boutique tours and myriad formal and informal events around Tel Aviv and beyond are some of the ways travellers can explore this evolving tech landscape.

Tel Aviv has tried tech-tourism before, offering tours of startup offices and establishing a permanent exhibition on Israeli innovation in the Stock Exchange building, for example. But new opportunities encourage travellers to dig deeper into the roots of the industry, as well as reconsider its place in Israeli culture.

The Israeli Innovation Center opened in February 2019. Picture: Tzachi Ostrovsky / The New York Times

“Everyone knows that Israel is the startup nation. Most people, both Israelis and internationals, don’t necessarily know why,” said Yarden Leal, deputy director general of The Peres Center for Peace & Innovation, home to The Israeli Innovation Centre, which opened in February last year.

Part museum, part homage to former President Shimon Peres, the new Mediterranean-facing venue in the Jaffa neighborhood makes the idea of startup nation “something tangible,” Leal said.

An interactive hologram exhibition, for example, lets visitors converse with Israeli innovators, such as the USB flash drive inventor, Dov Moran, while another exhibition showcases Israeli products ranging from autonomous vehicles to a space telescope.

And inside a virtual reality tunnel called the Capsule, travellers can get a feel for the future by trying to solve impending global challenges, like food shortages, with technological tools.

The “Dream Big” sign is in front of the Mediterranean-facing entrance of The Peres Center for Peace & Innovation. Picture: Tzachi Ostrovsky / The New York Times

Another organisation spreading entrepreneurial energy beyond Tel Aviv is Start-Up Nation Central. Occupying a modern building on Lilienbaum Street, near tech-centric Rothschild Boulevard, the nonprofit connects young companies from throughout Israel with funding sources, and offers meeting spaces and professional workshops.

In November 2018, the organisation opened L28, a startup-inspired restaurant next to its offices. Every six months, a new chef-entrepreneur will occupy the light-filled eatery and experiment with Israeli cuisine.

Such endeavours speak to the fact that more travellers are looking to experience how culture and tech collide in Israel, according to Tova Wald, a tour operator who creates customised itineraries for luxury corporate and leisure clients.

In recent years, she said, both business travellers and tourists have requested that tech be somehow woven into their itineraries in Tel Aviv and beyond.

tart-Up Nation Central is a nonprofit that connects young companies from throughout Israel with funding sources and offers meeting spaces. Picture: Tzachi Ostrovsky / The New York Times

“About half are coming to travel, but they’ve heard so much about the innovation and are curious to see it firsthand,” Wald said.

She has guided travellers through the hub of cybersecurity companies known as Cyber Spark, located in the Negev desert city of Beer Sheva, and on tours with Orthodox Jewish women entrepreneurs of the city of Bnei Brak, 30 minutes from Tel Aviv.

But Wald’s itineraries might also explore innovations from thousands of years ago, such as Caesarea, an ancient city on the Mediterranean, and Masada, a fortress in the Judean Desert used against the Roman army in 73 A.D.

“High tech is a great bridge between people and cultures and ideas,” Wald said.

That possibility fuels organisations working to expand Israel’s tech sector, such as The Hybrid, which helps Arab-led startups scale up, and WMN, an advocacy and mentoring organisation for women entrepreneurs in Tel Aviv and the north of Israel.

L28 is a startup-inspired restaurant that opened in November 2018. Picture: Tzachi Ostrovsky / The New York Times

Tech has also taken hold in Jerusalem, and is growing in Nazareth as well as cities near Tel Aviv like Herzliya and Ra’anana-Kfar Saba.

And the entire industry has been throwing its doors open, said Orlie Dahan, executive director of Tel Aviv-based EcoMotion, an organisation building Israel’s smart-transportation sector.

While in the recent past, companies might have done everything in-house and under wraps, “the new world is all about consortiums; everyone bringing something to the table and together creating bigger, greater things”, Dahan said.

She encourages travellers to sign up for one of EcoMotion’s twice-a-year hackathons, where teams spend 36 hours trying to solve a mobility challenge presented by industry heavyweights, such as auto manufacturers.

If a hackathon sounds like too much, less formal tech events abound in the evenings throughout the year. Many opportunities can be found through Meetup.com, and offer travellers a peek behind the industry curtain.

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