Newsletter No. 3 - September 2015
Dear Friends,
On the Eve of the Jewish New Year, welcome to the third issue of the Israel Lithuania Technology Hub Newsletter, in which we endeavor to keep you informed of the Hub's activities, events, updates and further relevant information pertaining to the bilateral relations between Israel and Lithuania. We are delighted at a growing number of companies joining the Hub and seeking our service. We encourage all to spread the word and share this Newsletter with partners, colleagues, contacts and friends, to further grow the network. For any suggestions, proposals or comments please contact us. We, the Hub Team, wish you and your families Shana Tova, a happy, successful and prosperous new year, a year of innovation and good results! Ronen Gruber CEO, The Israel Lithuania Technology Hub ronen@ilth.org Tel:972-54-4578620
The Prime Minister of Lithuania, H.E., Algirdas Butkevičius made an official visit to Israel Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius visited Israel in September. During his visit, the PM met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Reuven Rivlin and Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz. Lithuania's progress in diversifying its export markets was presented and ways of attracting further foreign investment was discussed. Whereas Lithuania has expressed interest in purchasing natural gas from Israel, technical challenges would make such an option viable only in a few years time. Israel has not made any decisions regarding gas exports yet. The PM also visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum and met with Litvaks residing in Israel. Len Judes, ILTH Chairman, participated in a luncheon held with representatives of Israel's business community. See: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with the Prime Minister of Lithuania, Algirdas Butkevičius click here
Below: Prime Minister's meeting with Israeli business leaders, honorary consuls and Hub Chairman, Len Judes
We are excited to launch our new Website!! Our new website provides information about our team, partners and services, as well as the latest news from Israel and Lithuania. You can also find our application form for completion and approach. Send us the completed form and join the ILTH partnership!
We also invite you to visit our new pages on Facebook and LinkedIn where you can stay connected, “like”, “share”, “comment” and “follow” us.
We take this opportunity to introduce Tomas Navardauskas who joined our team here in Israel. Tomas is spending a few years in Israel, while continuing to manage his business affairs back home in Lithuania. Tomas brings management experience, an understanding of technological and business aspects as well as knowledge of the business community in Lithuania, all coupled with entrepreneurial spirit! Relocating to Israel and working in the "Startup Nation" was his next goal and ambition! Tomas joined the Hub, and is contributing to growing the bilateral business, adding his effort to strengthening the two-way bridge between the Israeli and the Lithuanian startup ecosystem. We are happy to have Tomas on board and are grateful for his good work in building these online platforms! Come visit us - www.ilth.org (our website is constructed on the platform of Wix.com, which operates a development center in Vilnius. This is yet another example of good Israeli-Lithuanian cooperation!)
PLEF - The Seventh Global Lithuanian Economic Forum is coming to Israel ! We invite all of you to participate in the 7th Global Lithuanian Economic Forum (Pasaulio lietuvių ekonomikos forumas - PLEF) to be held in Tel Aviv, on 20-21 October 2015. PLEF is the largest economic event for Lithuanians globally. The Forum brings together the leaders of international and local market economies, from a wide range of different fields, promotes the formation of valuable contacts and the exchange of progressive experience, and contributes to the development of a strong community of Lithuanian related business internationally. The event this year will focus on innovations, synergy between business and science, new technologies, breakthroughs in research and development, and the relationships between Israel and Lithuania. For more details enter the PLEF web site: http://www.plef.lt/ Below: Len Judes, Hub Chairman, introducing the Hub at PLEF 2014
Our activity over the past 6 month: The Hub held and participated in several events here in Israel over the past few months. In April, Agritech 2015, a major agricultural technology event was held in Tel Aviv and drew some ten thousand visitors from Israel and abroad. We attended the event, assisting visiting delegates from Lithuania and introduced our activity to Israeli Agro startups.
In May, we participated in BIOMED 2015, where our Hub Executive Director, Ronen Gruber, met with representatives of the Lithuanian delegation participating in the exhibition, headed by Ms. Donata Mauricaitė, Project Manager at Enterprise Lithuania. Lithuanian participants discussed with Israeli companies, the latest developments in Israel as well as opportunities in the Israeli market and prospects for new business ties with Israeli companies.
According to H.E., Ambassador Edminas Bagdonas, the timing for development of bilateral economic and business ties between Lithuania and Israel is very favorable and companies have to use this opportunity. Representatives of Lithuanian companies expressed positive views with regards to the conference and exhibition. A separate private event of the Lithuanian Embassy was held during BIOMED 2015 at which many new business contacts were established.
Another very significant and important international exhibition which will take place in Israel later this year is WATEC 2015 to be held during October 13-15.
2016 - Life Science in focus! Whereas Lithuania is well known for its excellent IT specialists, it also has a wealth of skilled talent in the Life Science sector, especially, engineers, chemists, physicists, medics and other Life Sciences experts.
In light of this, Life Science Baltics, a bi annual conference and exhibition was launched in 2012, inspired by the Israeli Biomed, conference. LSB is organized by Enterprise Lithuania, and is showing very encouraging results. Hundreds of Israeli life science companies have attended so far and the feedback is extremely positive! We highly recommend this article written by Sonata Brokeviciute , Enterprise Lithuania - click here
We hereby call upon Israeli Life Science companies to explore the opportunities which are available to them in Lithuania and the high standards of this sector there. We invite you to engage with us for the examination of such opportunities in Lithuania. Looking forward to Life Science Baltics 2016...
Sharing expertise and knowhow Since joining the Hub, Zvika Kezurer, our ICT Director, has visited Lithuania several times. He participated in the first international conference and exhibition of unmanned aircrafts, which took place in Lithuania on May 27-28. Zvika was invited to lecture on the foreign best practices and future prospects of unmanned aircrafts. This is one of the first major events in this field ever held in Lithuania, which was heavily attended by sector developers and users. Zvika also held meetings with representatives of both Enterprise Lithuania and Invest Lithuania who are seeking to attract foreign investors into Lithuania. Zvika considers the suitability of such a conference to be adapted to other areas, such as Cyber Security, a sector which has become a focus area for Lithuania. Zvika is working on creating a Cyber Security conference in Lithuania, bringing Israeli expertise and knowhow to Lithuania, and is promoting it with major relevant organizations in both countries.
Cyber Security collaboration between Israel and Lithuania Looking at regional moves in the region, Vilnius recently increased its defense budget and is trying to counter attempted cyber attacks and airspace violations. As Israeli Ambassador Amir Maimon explains: “The Israeli abilities to deal with security challenges and threats are valuable to Lithuania, therefore, the Lithuanian Government sees Israel as a role model for a small country fighting for its existence, both in the economic realm and the security realm”. Defense Minister Mr. Juozas Olekas agrees, and points to the Government’s decision earlier this year to reintroduce conscription, with the Israel Defense Forces serving as a leading model. “We need expertise and experience - and Israel is one of the best,” he says. To read the full article click here
Examples of Hub matters, work in progress: 1. A Lithuanian Project Management Company, the owners of which are foreign investors, provides turnkey set up, consultancy and management services to their clients who wish to set up business in Lithuania. Such services are in the technology, life science and general manufacturing sectors. The Lithuanian company considers co-investing in such ventures on merit. Discussions are being held with Israeli medical devises/services companies, as to starting a manufacturing installation in Lithuania. The Hub brought the parties together and is assisting. 2. A Lithuanian private equity investment company is seeking co investment from Israeli private equity investors in Lithuanian start ups. The Hub is facilitating with introductions and a significant introduction for strategic cooperation is under consideration. 3. Following several requests from a few Lithuanian businessmen, the Hub has made introductions to relevant Israeli homeland security technology companies. Negotiations between the sides are in progress. 4. The Hub / Israel-Lithuania Chamber of Commerce, has effected several significant introductions made to the Lithuanian Embassy in the fields of energy/natural gas and truck transpiration, where Lithuania has interest in developing specific cooperation with Israel. Ongoing engagement is in progress.
5th Call for Proposals for Joint Industrial R&D Projects between Lithuanian and Israeli Companies Lithuania and Israel are jointly announcing the fifth Call for Proposals for joint R&D projects. This call was announced on September 1st within the framework of the MOU signed between the two countries for cooperation in the field of industrial research and development. For more details from the ISERD website click here.
Lithuania Start-up map We are happy to share with you Mapped in Lithuania - a gateway to the Lithuanian startup & high-tech ecosystem. It's main concept is to amass all Lithuanian startups, high tech industry players, investors, accelerators, co-working, tech hubs, R&D centers in one place. It provides free and easy access to data and reviews about the Lithuanian high-tech ecosystem. This data can be leveraged by persons anywhere for job search, industry research and funding using the platform. This content is entirely crowd sourced - companies will approach Mapped In Lithuania to create and update their profiles. The Mapme platform was founded by Israeli entrepreneur Ben Lang. We invite all our Lithuanian friends to join Mapped in Lithuania and place information about their activities.
2015 Israeli tech “exits” could beat past records! During the first six months of 2015, “exits” in the Israeli high-tech field netted more than 75% of the total received in “exits” in 2014. During January - June 2015, 54 “exits” occurred among Israeli tech firms, worth $5.29B, whereas the total for 2014, netted $6.98B, in 107 deals. In 2013 $6.62B was received in 91 “exits". For full article by David Shamah click here.
Doing business in Lithuania With its business-friendly ethos, young population and staggering skills base, the high-flying Baltic state is an entrepreneurial hotspot that offers UK firms a warm welcome. For the full article by Nick Scott click here
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