Israel's Start-up Nation: The Rise of Female Entrepreneurs

The State of Israel is young, celebrating its 72nd year in May, it comes with little surprise that the tech sector, the second-largest tech hub in the world, is young as well. However, in recent years, the Israel start-up scene has risen dramatically because of a considerable increase in academic programs, lectures, competition, meet-ups, events, and investment prospects [such as angels, incubators, and accelerators]. Today, Israel continues to produce an impressive number of highly successful tech companies within various fields such as marketing technologies, cloud encryption, insurance and more. Perhaps more interesting is the slowly yet surely noticeable alteration in the diversity of the entrepreneurs, with more and more women entering the previously male-dominated technology sector. This is seen as a vital shift that should have occurred sooner, but thankfully it is already here, and it is here to stay.

Why the Recent Rise? 

In the 2015 Global Startup Ecosystem Ranking, Tel Aviv ranked as the fifth city with the highest percentage of enterprises founded by women. The percentage stood at 20%, soaring 2% more than the global average. A variety of factors have played a crucial role in this statistic. Firstly, as mentioned previously, diversity appears to be encroaching upon previously held conventions, and there are now several new opportunities making it possible, appealing, and easier for women to join the startup habitat as founders and co-founders. One such opportunity is the establishment of Yazamiyot (Hebrew for "female entrepreneurs"), an initiative launched in 2012 by a business mogul, Hilla Ovil Brenner. The goal was to empower and support women working with biotech, high-tech, and innovation fields.

Yazamiyot also works in tandem with Google Tel Aviv on 'Google Campus for Moms,' an initiative meant to empower mothers to hunt for entrepreneurial roles, while working alongside other programs such as WIX, Rise - Barclays innovation program, and Microsoft Accelerator, as a way of presenting accelerated business programs to female entrepreneurs. A similar new opportunity for women is the WMN, a beautifully designed hub that targets women entrepreneurs, strategically located at the port of Tel Aviv complex. This hub has allowed the genesis and rise of a variety of successful women-led startups that are now fully working companies, including Sidekix and TRENCH. With that said, it is correct to say that the efforts created in Israel's startup nation are increasingly creating opportunities for female entrepreneurs, where women are founding startups, leading successful innovative companies, leading ventures, and venture deal-flows, and winning competitions.

Secondly, for several years now, it appears that the startup scene in Israel is attempting to break the convention to bring more women into the spotlight. For instance, Eisen-Livner, the CEO and co-founder of Aida, a unique application that captures the space and time between two people, Israel startup habitat continues to create business platforms that many women felt are missing for years and fix many problems men had but could not articulate. The more women enter the tech sector and create startups that break the convections, the more the industry continues to achieve much-needed diversity. In line with breaking convections, there is a group of Israeli women entrepreneurs leading successful companies who have devoted their time and effort to give inspiration to other female entrepreneurs.

One such woman is Orit Hashay, the founder of Brayola, a crowd-recommendation site for choosing and buying brassieres. She believes women are less represented in the tech world both locally and internationally because they lack proper inspiration and early education. She believes that women should be encouraged to speak up and be competitive from a young age in a similar way boys are. Lastly, the continued blossoming of female entrepreneurs in the Israel tech sector is encouraged by the rise of the 'mom entrepreneurs.' As suggested prior, there are various programs intended for women entrepreneurs or future entrepreneurs, including moms, being led by entrepreneurs such as Ovil-Brenner. Such programs and initiatives specialize in reaching out to female entrepreneurs in tech and helping them fulfill their passion. Some of the most popular establishments include Women in Wireless, Women of Startup Nation (WOSN), WMN, and Let's Get to 51%.

At the crux, the discussion regarding the rise of female entrepreneurs in the Israel Startup nation is centered on the support and opportunities for women to secure funds. The demand for women-led startups is increasing, as case studies for such businesses show increased results as well as higher ROI. With the right mentorship and support, women in Israel can participate more successfully. Some of the success stories are increasing with a number making their presence noticeable globally, including Feetler a plugin for commerce founded by Smadar Landau, Shupperz, a worldwide social network founded by Tal Rubinstein, Sidekix, an urban discovery app co-founded by Jenny Drezin, and Missbeez, a mobile marketplace for beauty products co-founded by Mara Gura.

What's next? 

Despite continued improvement in terms of participation in the tech ecosystem, on average, the actual change remains considerably low. In this respect, the European and American counterparts continue to outpace Israel by far. Such geographies have set up a remarkable collection of tools that can evocatively support effective inclusion efforts, encourage uncomfortable discussions, and drive transparency on diversity statistics. The Israel tech community needs to keep up to avoid witnessing the massive departure of women talent for more friendly shores in America, Europe, and emerging nations such as India. There is also a need to put in stark comparison on the gap in Israel and other global tech hubs, and enact the change they claim to support. 

The support can be extended by providing women in tech and with sufficient funds to integrate them into the community, while also offering a single directory of valuable resources to which such entrepreneurs can continually refer. These recommendations are integral even with an overall innovation culture that's commendable at collaboration, connection, and support. It's easily noticeable that everything in Israel's startup nation is moving on an upward trend and the nation's female entrepreneurs are no exception to that. Although they are still a small group, they might really be the first to finally explode!