Gilad de Vries explains why education and training have made Israel a hotbed of technological innovation

 If you watch the news, too often when it comes to Israel, the story is one of conflict. But there is another story to tell. Unbeknownst to many in the UK, Israel has, in recent years, become a global technology hub. Many don’t realise that the products they’re using every day are developed in Israel – for example, the Intel microprocessor in your laptop or the first Xbox’s 3D Kinect camera. From traffic app Waze and instant messenger ICQ to genealogy’s MyHeritage and video platform Kaltura, Israeli tech firms have become leading names in their fields – all without waving their national flag.

In fact, companies in what they call the ‘Startup Nation’ have even greater influence than that, many have gone on to reshape US giants through acquisitions by American parents. The technology that auto-tags your face on Facebook was acquired from Israel by the social network, for instance.

It’s no wonder – most of the global hi-tech corporations have research centres in Israel, including Apple, IBM, Motorola, Cisco, Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Samsung and Intel. The amount spent on research and development in Israel, in relation to gross domestic product (GDP), is the highest in the world. With close to 4,000 startups in Israel, the country ranks second only to the US on that count. For a country of just 7m people, that is certainly impressive.

The reason for this track record is education and training. To those in the know, Israel is recognised for its engineering and development talent. Israeli universities do an excellent job training students for a life in coding and entrepreneurship. It starts even younger, too – earlier this year, three academic institutions teamed up to offer engineering scholarships to much younger teenagers. Youngsters who are conscripted to the country’s military often receive high-level computer science training, on par with that from the best US colleges. 

One value proposition is clear – Israeli startups’ impact on Wall Street has never been greater. The country has the largest number of Nasdaq-listed companies outside North America. But, 2013 was a record year for New York stock market exits for Israeli tech firms, with a total of $7.6bn raised, according to PwC. And 2014 is already breaking that record. In just one week this summer, six companies went public to raise around $890m. In August, one company alone floated to raise that much by itself. Jerusalem-based Mobileye, which makes software that gives drivers autonomous alerts to collisions, lane changes and pedestrians, stands to play a big role in the coming driverless car revolution, saving many lives in the process.

As an executive of another firm whose development efforts began in Israel and which operates from New York, London and around the world, I realise both the challenges and the advantages of such a set-up. 

Being an Israeli tech company, or for that matter a startup, isn’t always easy. But I’m proud that so many are building products that can help the whole world. And like the Silicon Valley and Roundabouts that have come before, I believe its time to shed some light on startup nation’s innovation credentials, inherent ingenuity and the positive investment it is making in driving entrepreneurship and the global technologies of the future. 

But if I could change one thing about Israel’s tech market, it would be the way it communicates about itself. Many young entrepreneurs are expert product creators, but not great marketers. As more of them gain experience in large markets, we will begin to see this change, as the new wave adds skills in sales, marketing and communications.

Gilad de Vries is SVP, products, marketing and strategy at Outbrain