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Florida-Israel Business Accelerator brings four more tech companies to Tampa

 
Aron Di Castro, head of global business development and partnerships for Waze, will be a keynote speaker at the Florida-Israel Business Accelerator event, Innovation Fusion, on June 13. Photo courtesy FIBA
Aron Di Castro, head of global business development and partnerships for Waze, will be a keynote speaker at the Florida-Israel Business Accelerator event, Innovation Fusion, on June 13. Photo courtesy FIBA
Published May 7, 2018

TAMPA — One makes a small, high-definition screen you can wear on a necklace or hat to express yourself through images, messages or GIFs.

Another uses military-grade encryption to allow law enforcement officers to communicate securely over off-the-shelf smart phones and devices.

A third created an "interview simulation engine" that employs predictive analytics to screen job applicants.

The fourth has software for retailers to track inventory, prevent stores from running out of stock and facilitate filling online orders.

These four companies — Say, GlobeKeeper, Intervyo and WiseShelf — head from Israel to Tampa starting this week to work on expanding into the U.S. market through the Florida-Israel Business Accelerator (FIBA).

FIBA, which was established with support from the state of Florida and Hillsborough County, works to build the bay area's tech and startup culture by recruiting young companies from Israel, which has a reputation for over-achieving in the zone where innovation and entrepreneurship overlap.

"Ultimately, we look at it as a piece of the overall puzzle of raising up the Tampa Bay entrepreneurial ecosystem," FIBA executive director Rachel Marks Feinman said. "We think we can grow companies that are going to be successful and set Tampa apart, but we also think we can attract those companies."

With an 8 percent acceptance rate, FIBA considered about 50 companies before inviting the four selected. FIBA looks for startups that already have a market-ready product, preferably in industries with good prospects in Florida like health care, security, defense and cyberspace, agriculture, retail, hospitality and general enterprise software.

"Our focus is not on product development, but more on business development," said Rakefet Bachur, FIBA's executive director of marketing.

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Selected companies spend at least four to six weeks in the Tampa Bay area meeting prospective partners and investors. Three of four companies that started the FIBA program in February — ECOncrete, Nucleon and UC-Care — are now in discussion with local businesses about pilot projects and exploring opening offices and hiring in the Tampa Bay area.

As part of the program, FIBA will host a half-day event, Innovation Fusion, on June 13. It's partly a look at the state of the art, with keynote speakers from Waze, which achieved unicorn status when Google bought it for more than $1 billion, and Wix, an Israeli-founded company now traded on the Nasdaq stock market.

It's also partly a showcase for the companies from Israel. Last year, Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik was a featured speaker who ended up meeting the founder of Stemrad, which makes protective gear for astronauts, soldiers and workers who could be exposed to gamma radiation. Within six months, Vinik became the lead investor in a $6 million round of fundraising for the company.

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That kind of networking environment is one of the things that brings the Israeli companies to FIBA.

"The opportunity for them to be on stage and present in front of 500 people is very attractive," Bachur said.

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Contact Richard Danielson at rdanielson@tampabay.com or (813) 226-3403. Follow @Danielson_Times