UK-based Halma seeks to tap into Israeli tech to push business forward

Halma plc, a UK-based technology firm with activities ranging from water security to medical and fire protecting sensors, has teamed up with Jerusalem-based crowdfunding VC firm OurCrowd to tap into Israeli technologies that will help propel its business forward.

The partnership constitutes the first time Halma, whose shares are traded on the London Stock Exchange, is engaging in operations in Israel.

The two companies will focus on finding opportunities in the field of life protection technologies, ways to detect hazards and digital health, the companies said in a statement on Tuesday.

Halma, which is seeking to apply new digital technologies to its processes and products, is looking to Israel to tap into capabilities that the firm doesn’t have, through investments, joint ventures or mergers and acquisitions, said Inken Braunschmidt in a phone interview as she landed in Israel with a delegation of company officials on Monday. “The idea is to drive business forward together.”

Israel is a “hot spot” for all things connected, she said, whether digital health, artificial intelligence or the internet of things, and “we want to play a part” in these fields in a “fast and smart way, not invent by ourselves what is there already.”

OurCrowd will help Halma grow faster by “identifying new investment opportunities within the Israeli tech ecosystem,” Braunschmidt said.

Halma operates in four business sectors: process safety, specializing in creating and marketing instruments for the safety of workplaces; infrastructure safety products; medical safety products; and environmental and analysis technologies that measure and record environmental data, including water quality monitoring and treatment.

The firm, whose fire protection sensors are placed in landmarks such as Buckingham Palace, London’s The Shard building and the White House, posted revenues of £962 million ($1.3 billion) in 2017, and has a market value of  £5.2 billion.

Braunschmidt said the firm plans to visit Israel every three months to study strategic areas of interest. On this visit the team will focus on infrastructure, process safety and smart and safe building technologies, she said. On upcoming visits, the teams will focus on environmental technologies and environmental data analysis and monitoring, and also on digital health and medical technologies, she said.

The partnership will give OurCrowd’s “portfolio companies and other promising global startups a quality gateway to world markets,” said Jon Medved, the founder and CEO of OurCrowd. The crowdfunding firm has raised over $750 million to date and has invested in 150 companies and funds, the statement said.