15 Israel firms parade technologies to investors in China
Life sciences and ICT companies pitch products in Changzhou, Shanghai and Beijing as delegation seeks investments and other forms of cooperation
Shoshanna Solomon was The Times of Israel's Startups and Business reporter
Fifteen Israeli companies from the life sciences and information communications technology (ICT) sectors took part in a roadshow to China as part of a delegation organized by the Israel Innovation Authority together with the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology.
The participants were selected out of 40 companies by Chinese investors, who visited Israel in July and took part in a preliminary pitching event organized by Israel Innovation Authority. More than 160 Israeli companies signed up to pitch their technologies to the investors. The 15 Israeli companies selected were thought to have the technologies that are most interesting for and relevant to the Chinese market.
During the roadshow, the Israeli companies visited Changzhou (in Jiangsu Province), Shanghai and Beijing and held more than 100 business-to-business B2B meetings to promote various forms of cooperation. In Changzhou and Beijing, the companies also took part in pitching events, presenting their products and technologies to dozens of investors, investment groups and companies such as conglomerate Fosun International, VC fund Ping An Ventures, private equity firm Go Capital and Sanpower Group, the Innovation Authority said in a statement.
The pitching events in Changzhou and Beijing were organized in a form of a competition and in each location three winning Israeli companies won a modest monetary award.
The winning companies in the life science competition in Changzhou were: Brainsway, a company that develops a medical device to treat obstructions in the brain; Vectorious Medical Technologies, which uses a miniature wireless sensory implant to measure pressure on the heart’s left artery, enabling the monitoring and management of congestive heart failure patients; and OrthoDrill Medical, which has developed a technology to enable fast, easy and safer orthopedic drilling procedures for bone operations.
The winning companies in the ICT competition in Beijing were: Myndlift, a company developing a solution to improve concentration using wearable technology and smartphones; CellO-Photonics, a company that develops an optical engine for high speed data transmission; and Brainster, a firm that develops cloud-based software to research neuro-marketing, to measure the effectiveness of advertisements.
Over the past few years, the Israel Innovation Authority has been working to bolster cooperation with China, out of an understanding of the “extreme potential” existing in a range of fields, said Avi Luvton, a senior director of the Asia Pacific Department at the Israel Innovation Authority.
As the world’s second-largest economy shifts its identity from a manufacturing and labor-intensive economy to a high-end innovative force, Asian giants including Alibaba Group, Hutchison Water Ltd., and Huawei have set up R&D centers, invested in funds and snapped up startups and companies in Israel.
In March, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu led the largest-ever Israeli business delegation to Beijing on a three-day visit marking 25 years since Israel and China established diplomatic relations.
“There was an impressive turnout by a pertinent Chinese audience,” Luvton said, of the event, in a statement. “They were highly impressed by the Israeli startups’ presentations and showed enormous interest by presenting numerous questions, proving again what great interest, the Chinese market has in the achievements of Israeli innovation.”
The pitching events and the face-to-face meetings are a good way to generate opportunities for R&D cooperation and investment, he said.
