UK executives from Mastercard, Citi in Israel to scout out partnerships
UK Israel Business-organized delegation to meet with Israeli tech leaders in a bid to seek out ‘cutting-edge innovations’
Shoshanna Solomon was The Times of Israel's Startups and Business reporter
Ann Cairns, vice-chair of Mastercard, is in Israel this week leading an investment and technology delegation with executives from the UK’s financial system.
The group, organized by the chamber of commerce for UK Israel Business (UKIB), also includes senior executives from Citi, International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG); Scanner maker Zapper, payment firm Payzone and telecom equipment supplier BigChange.
Mastercard sees the Israeli market as “a leading source for technological innovation,” UK Israel Business said in a statement, aiming “to create a collaborative infrastructure with Israeli companies” to provide new innovation and technologies for customers and businesses.
“The world of payments has long been at the cutting edge of new innovation and technologies and through great partnerships and a focus on the future we have the ability to drive new and transformative technologies that will benefit people wherever they are in the world,” Cairns said in the statement.
As Britain proceeds with its Brexit from the European Union, it has started to court new trading partners, among them Israel.
While in Israel, the delegation will meet with Check Point Software Technologies CEO Gil Shwed, OrCam Technologies CEO Ziv Aviram, Viola Ventures General Partner Avi Zeevi, Jerusalem Venture Partners Chairman Erel Margalit, Start-up Nation Central CEO Eugene Kandel, and others from Israel’s startup and technology scene.
In addition, together with Amazon Web Services and Tel Aviv-based attorneys Meitar Liquornik Geva Leshem Tal, UKIB and Mastercard will host a talk by British venture capitalist Ronald Cohen and Chemi Peres, the son of late president Shimon Peres, and one of the founders of Israel’s Pitango Venture Capital, on impact investing.
In the past two years, UKIB has organized a number of delegations from the United Kingdom to Israel, helping create partnerships between companies in the two countries.
“It is hard to find a British company not using Israeli innovation and UK Israel Business sees huge benefits to UK companies in adopting more cutting-edge innovations from Israel,” said Hugo Bieber, the CEO of UK Israel Business.
