Ahmedabad: A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed today between the Ahmedabad-based International Centre for Technology and Entrepreneurship (iCreate) and Israel’s Start-Up Nation Central (SNC) with aims to create an enabling platform for collaboration between the innovation and startup ecosystems of the two countries.

The MoU was signed at the iCreate campus, in the presence of Dr Ron Malka, Ambassador of Israel to India, Shri Manoj Kumar Das, Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Gujarat (Chairman iCreate) and Consul General Yaakov Finkelstein. The signing ceremony was also attended via video conferencing by Shri Sanjeev Singla, India’s Ambassador to Israel; Professor K VijayRaghavan the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India; and Dr Ami Appelbaum the Chief Scientist, of Israel. Prof Eugene Kandel, CEO, SNC and Shri Anupam Jalote CEO iCreate signed the MoU.

This programme flowing from this MoU will begin by identifying a set of real world challenges faced by Industry or Society and map them to the most relevant solutions and technology providers that could address these challenges. This will be followed by a matchmaking mechanism that will leverage both countries’ networks to support the process of adaptation and piloting of these solutions in India. iCreate and SNC will jointly lead this collaboration, and based on the experience and outcomes of this programme, the terms for later programmes will be decided.



“ iCreate’s vision of Strategic Innovation is a vision in which we facilitate the invention of tech solution to problems that our society or Industry faces. As the Start-up Nation, Israel is a natural partner for iCreate in this journey. We are keen to create a bilateral online acceleration programme with Israel’s Start-Up Nation Central, for innovation and technology cooperation between start-ups and corporates,” said Mr Anupam Jalote, CEO iCreate.

Dr. Ron Malka, Ambassador of Israel said, “Today we close a circle. A circle that started in 2018 when PM Modi and PM Netanyahu inaugurated this important incubator, iCreate, and now, two years later, we are signing, on the very spot where they stood, an MoU on innovation between Israel’s Start-Up Nation Central and India’s iCreate. This agreement is an important milestone in the growing innovation collaboration between Israel and India and stands in line with the visions of the Prime Ministers. Israel has the most startups per capita worldwide, and India is the top innovation destination in Asia. Together, both countries continue to form partnerships and collaborations in technology and innovation to solve a range of global issues like Covid 19, renewable energy and more, implementing high end technologies like AI, big data analysis and more.”

Eugene Kandel, CEO of Start-Up Nation Central said, “I’m confident this partnership will pave the way for more Israeli startups to collaborate with Indian organizations and firms to develop and implement cutting-edge Israeli technologies that address India’s and the world’s most pressing needs. We look forward to collaborating with iCreate, identifying Israeli partners to jointly develop solutions to the current challenges in India.”

Sanjeev Kumar Singla, Ambassador to India to Israel said “The MoU between iCreate and Start-Up Nation Central apart from its emphasis on our needs, also stresses on the timeline.”

Professor K VijayRaghavan, Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India said as a result of this collaboration we expect to see several technologies, such as next-gen electric motors coming to public use.

The Prime Ministers of India and Israel launched the India-Israel Innovation Bridge on 6 July 2017 in Tel Aviv. iCreate was directly involved in the implementation of the international Grand Challenge, executing the complete challenge as well as hosting the Indian and Israeli winners on Campus.

The cause of building an innovation-led entrepreneurial ecosystem between India and Israel got a shot in the arm when Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu, jointly inaugurated the new iCreate campus on 18 January 2018. On the occasion, they also recognised 38 entrepreneurial projects from the two countries – 18 from India and 20 from Israel.