iCreate (International Centre for Technology and Entrepreneurship), India’s leading startup incubator and Start-Up Nation Central (SNC), the global champion of Israeli innovation, organised a Demo Day for the five startups that were onboarded to the accelerator programme. An ‘innovation bridge’ was inaugurated by the Prime Ministers of India and Israel in September 2017 with the aim of identifying cutting-edge Israeli innovations, and adapting them to the requirements of the Indian market. Continuing the journey, iCreate started collecting problem statements from Indian companies. In all, 93 problem statements from 25 companies were identified as challenges that needed to be addressed using world class innovations. After a rigorous shortlisting process, iCreate and SNC onboarded five innovators for the first India Israel Innovation Accelerator (i3A) which was kicked off on 22 February. The Demo Day commenced with a welcome address by Anupam Jalote, CEO, iCreate, “It is very rare for intent and delivery to come together in such a short timeframe, especially when working internationally with culturally diverse stakeholders. SNC is a dream partner to work with and Israeli and Indian innovators and entrepreneurs have collaborated brilliantly in this programme. The innovation bridge that our two PMs built in 2018 has traffic flowing across it and I am confident more and more two-way traffic will ensue.” Mr. Siddharth Pareek, Manager, Programme and Alliances at iCreate said, “Our endeavour to collaborate with the best strategic minds to identify some excellent solution providers for the Indian industry has been successful. India is slated to grow at a significant pace and the integration of these technologies formulated by some of the best creative minds will only bolster its development.” Prof. Eugene Kandel, CEO of Start-Up Nation Central said, "Start-Up Nation Central has rich experience in connecting tech startups with large corporations. It takes time to earn the trust on both sides, thus it takes even longer time to get to the POC stage. The speed with which Icreate-Start-Up Nation Central partnership facilitated a number of deals is beyond expectations, and indicates that there two organizations already enjoy the trust of both sides, the commitment of the corporates, and the quality of technologies chosen." Prof. Kandel added, "We have observed how both sides learned from each other. As a result of this program and the collaboration start-Ups sharpened their focus in addressing the real challenges presented by corporations, allowing them to access one of the world's biggest markets. We look forward to scaling our partnership with iCreate, backed by the close governmental cooperation and support – can help address some of the big challenges facing the world." Dr. Ron Malka, Ambassador of Israel to India said, "I am not surprised at the program's success, and the pace with which the partnership facilitated many deals in a short time is remarkable. This program will act as a stepping stone between Israeli and Indian entrepreneurs & startups to collaborate and develop cutting-edge technologies that will address India's and the world's most pressing needs." India's ambassador to Israel, Shri Sanjeev Singla said, “As strategic partners, India and Israel are particularly focused on broadening their innovation partnerships so as to harness their complementary scientific and technological strengths in light of new challenges in our fast changing world. The collaboration between iCreate and SNC is an important and welcome vector of this growing cooperation.” Professor K VijayRaghavan Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India said, "This is a new India - a proactive India, not a crisis managing one. It is driving non linear growth in many sectors like Climate Change, Sustainability, Water and Nutrition, thereby offering a wealth of opportunities TO innovators and solution providers who can move fast and deliver. I am delighted that iCreate and Start-Up Nation Central have delivered such a strong outcome from their first India-Israel Accelerator program, THAT TOO IN A RECORD 6 MONTHS. I am confident that with Indian strengths in Analysis and handling of data, and its desire for speed, SNC and iCreate will add huge value to both our countries." Over six weeks, i3A prepared the participating Israeli innovators for the challenges and opportunities offered by the Indian market. With personalised attention and deep local insights, iCreate mentors helped the participants understand Indian culture, get clarity on their product-market fit, and identify the right partners for collaboration. This resulted in an average of 5 corporate connections getting established per startup, and a total of 20 meetings to explore synergies between them. Marking the success of the accelerator programme, a panel discussion was organised on the theme of ‘Unlocking Opportunities for Collaborative Innovation’. It witnessed participation from Dr. Ron Malka, Ambassador of Israel to India, Mr Sanjeev Singla, Ambassador of India to Israel, Prof K VijayRaghavan, Principal Scientific Advisor to the Govt of India, Prof Eugene Kandel, CEO, Start-Up Nation Central, and Mr. Parag Amin, Chief Mentor, iCreate. The Israeli innovators are in advanced stages of signing agreements to work together with Indian companies in the following areas: Electric vehicle industry: Unique powertrain solution that eliminates dependency on rare earths (IRP Systems) Pharma and chemical companies: Advanced laboratory instruments for safe & reliable hydrogen supply (Sion Tech) Data centres: AI solution for advanced analytics and performance optimisation (Correlata Solutions) Transport/logistics industry: AI solution for monitoring driver fatigue and behaviour (Jungo Connectivity) Defence sector: Precision motion technology for defence optronics and biomedical applications (Nanomotion) The success of the i3A accelerator programme has encouraged both SNC and iCreate to look at deeper collaboration on future editions of the programme as well. This is part of iCreate's approach of forging alliances with world class institutions and incubators from the world over, in order to tap into their resources, mentors, incubates and ideas. This not only helps Indian entrepreneurs develop a global outlook, but also harnesses the power of best global innovation to create commercialisable breakthroughs for some of the big challenges confronting India. About iCreate iCreate (International Centre for Entrepreneurship and Technology) is an autonomous centre of excellence of the Government of Gujarat, and is India’s leading institution for transforming startups based on tech innovation into successful businesses. Located in a state-of-the-art 40-acre campus at Dev Dholera in Ahmedabad, till date it has supported over 377 innovations and 30+ patents with a ‘high-touch, entrepreneur-first’ model, connecting them with mentors, markets and money. Embedded systems and IoT are a focus area for iCreate, in domains like Electric Vehicles, Renewable Energy, Agritech, Healthtech, Fintech, Watertech, among others. It is home to Cisco's largest Innovation Lab in India, and has partnerships with leading institutions in the US, Israel and other countries. To know more, please visit: icreate.org.in. About Start-Up Nation Central (SNC) Start-Up Nation Central (SNC) is a nonprofit organisation that helps tackle global challenges by connecting Israeli technologies with multinational corporations, governments, investors, as well as NGOs from around the world. Developed and operated by SNC, innovation discovery platform Start-Up Nation Finder is a leading source of in-depth information on Israeli startups, investors, hubs, multinational corporations, and academic technologies.

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