2016 Massachusetts-Israel Economic Impact Study

The Massachusetts-Israel
Economic Impact Study

2016 Edition: The Boston-Israel Power Partnership
An expanding relationship that generates revenue, jobs, and
investment for the benefit of both economies
Boston
Tel Aviv
June 2016
Prepared for the New England-Israel Business Council

With support from CJP of Greater Boston
Based on research by Stax, Inc.

With additional research by TAMID @ Boston University
by David Goodtree
Table of Contents
Executive Summary........................................................................................................ 4
Israeli Innovation Is a Major Driver of the Massachusetts Economy.............................4
About the Title of This Whitepaper......................................................................................5
Israeli Entrepreneurs Choose Boston To Build Global Businesses...................... 6

Boston is a Gateway for Israel to U.S. and Global Markets.............................................6
Revenue....................................................................................................................................7
Jobs............................................................................................................................................8
Capital.......................................................................................................................................8
Acquisitions..............................................................................................................................10
Companies................................................................................................................................10
World-Changing Innovations................................................................................................14
Five Routes from Israel to Boston........................................................................................15
Why Boston?..................................................................................................................... 17
A World-Leading Innovation Economy................................................................................17
Sidebar: The State & Technology Index..............................................................................17
Global Epicenter of the Life Sciences Center....................................................................19
Top Tech Clusters Driven by Algorithms and Engineers.................................................20
Sidebar: The EMC & Israel Special Relationship...............................................................23
Why Israel?........................................................................................................................ 24
A Global Innovation Powerhouse.........................................................................................24
Boston & Israel Together............................................................................................... 28

The Specific Advantages of Massachusetts for Israeli Founders..................................28
A One-Degree of Separation Relationship......................................................................30
Sidebar: The MIT & Israel Special Relationship.................................................................35
Sidebar: A Friend in Tough Times........................................................................................36
The Intense Competition Across the USA to Win Israeli Business..................... 38
Recommendations.......................................................................................................... 40
Universities...............................................................................................................................40
Government..............................................................................................................................42
Business & Industry Associations........................................................................................44
Conclusion: Emerging Technologies Will Multiply the Mutual Gain................. 47
2 The Boston-Israel Power Partnership

Appendix A: Bostons Tech & Life Sciences Ecosystems........................................ 48
Appendix B: Israel-Related Organizations in Massachusetts............................... 56
Appendix C: Methodology............................................................................................. 60
Acknowledgements........................................................................................................ 63
Endnotes............................................................................................................................ 64
CHARTS AND TABLES
Figure 1: Israeli-Founded Businesses Create Massachusetts Revenue......................................... 7

Figure 2: Revenue Growth: 2x Faster Than the State Overall.......................................................... 7
Figure 3: Israeli-Founded Businesses Create Massachusetts Jobs................................................ 8
Figure 4: Jobs Growth: 5x Faster Than the State Overall.................................................................. 8
Figure 5: Top-Tier Investors....................................................................................................................... 9
Figure 6: Venture Investments: Attracting New Money to Boston.................................................. 9
Figure 7: Venture Investments: Significant and Accelerating........................................................... 9
Figure 8: Over $10b in Acquisitions......................................................................................................... 10
Figure 9: 200+ Massachusetts Businesses with Israeli Founders................................................... 11
Figure 10: IT & Life Sciences Lead........................................................................................................... 12
Figure 11: World-Changing Innovations................................................................................................... 14
Figure 12: Boston vs. NYC vs. Silicon Valley.......................................................................................... 29
Figure 13: Israelis Studying in Massachusetts....................................................................................... 31
Figure 14: Country of Origin for Foreign Founders of U.S. Tech Companies................................ 38
Figure 15: Governors Took 30 Trade Missions to Israel..................................................................... 39
The Boston-Israel Power Partnership 3

Executive Summary
Israeli Innovation Is a Major Driver of the while their employee base grew 5x faster
Massachusetts Economy than the states economy from 2013-2015,
and faster than the states important life
An independent study by Stax, Inc., a global sciences and IT sectors.
strategic consulting and research firm, has
revealed that Israeli-founded businesses They secured over $1.2 billion in venture
generate enormous revenue, jobs, and capital capital from 2013-2015, representing 10% of
activity in greater Boston and Massachusetts, at all VC funds raised in the state
an accelerating rate. This study, updating prior
studies released in 2010 and 2013, identified: and returned nearly $10 billion to investors
in M&A transactions from 1999-2015.
Over 200 Israeli-founded businesses called
greater Boston their home in 2015... The high-level story of this whitepaper is as follows:
booking over $9 billion of revenue in the Israel Entrepreneurs Choose Boston to Build
state that year Global Businesses details the Stax findings
regarding the economic impact of Israeli
and generating over $18 billion in innovation on the Massachusetts economy. It
economic benefit to Massachusetts, describes how Israeli entrepreneurs, due to
inclusive of their own revenue, plus the the limited size of their countrys local market,
multiplier effect of their spending in the local seek access to U.S. and global markets early in
economy, for example, on office space and the life cycle of their companies, and the major
accounting, legal, marketing, healthcare, and reasons why they like Boston.
other services.
Why Boston? provides an overview of the rich
representing nearly 4% of the states GDP Massachusetts tech and life sciences ecosystem
in 2015, in all its facetscapital, key sectors, leading
companies, and other features.
while their revenue grew more than 2x
faster than the states economy from 2013- Why Israel? delves into how this small OECD
2015, and faster than the states successful country has achieved an outsized global impact,
life sciences and IT sectors. driving world-changing innovation in almost
every sector, while attracting a disproportionate
They directly employed about 9,000 people share of global capital and M&A.
in the state
Boston & Israel Together addresses how the
and supported over 27,000 jobs based on two geographies have each accelerated their
the multiplier effect of their demand for goods economic growth by fostering deep and long-
and services in support of their businesses... standing relationships.

The Intense Competition Across the USA to Win
Israeli Business describes how Massachusetts
faces significant competition from other states
to attract Israeli-founded businesses, but
has compelling advantages over the main
challengers of NYC and Silicon Valley.
Recommendations offers specific ideas for

business, government, and universities to
expand the bilateral relationship, for the benefit
of both.
About the Title of This Whitepaper
This whitepaper is the 2016 edition of The

Massachusetts-Israel Economic Impact Study. Prior
research was published in 2013 and 2010 editions.
This most recent installment carries the sub-title:

The Boston-Israel Power Partnership.
While the series title refers to Massachusetts,

why does the sub-title refer to Boston, the
capital city? The reason is that outside the state,
Boston is the brand of Massachusetts, especially
for foreign audiences. Even for Massachusetts
residents traveling abroad, when asked Where
are you from?, the usual answer is Boston.
(Similarly, residents of northern California will say
they are from Silicon Valley or San Francisco,
rather than use the name of their state. Similarly,
residents of Redmond, WA, the suburban home
of Microsoft, will say they are from Seattle.)
The authors choice of giving emphasis to

Boston is for the benefit of Israeli readers
who may not be familiar with the state. For
the purposes of this whitepaper, please
consider Boston to be interchangeable with
Massachusetts, in order make this study more
widely understood and approachable.

Israeli Entrepreneurs Choose
Boston To Build Global Businesses
Greater Boston is a top destination for Israeli due to their neighbors struggling economies,
entrepreneurs and innovators looking to build civil wars, and animus to the Israeli state. While
global businesses. Over 200 Israeli-founded Israels small population is well suited to early-
businesses generated billions of dollars of revenue stage market testing, success and return on
in Massachusetts in 2015, employing thousands, capital only come by tapping into Americas
and attracting over $1b in venture capital. larger market and establishing partnerships that
can help Israeli firms globalize.
To measure the impact of these Israeli-founded
businesses on the Massachusetts economy, Stax, Beyond access to foreign markets, Israelis also
Inc., a global strategic consulting and research value Bostons culture, and its geography too:
firm, prepared a study for the New England-Israel
Business Council, based upon methodology Israeli entrepreneurs want to plant roots at
developed at MIT.1 The research presented in this the center of their industrial sectors. These
whitepaper addresses calendar year 2015, with founders like to establish U.S. headquarters
comparison to a previous study of 2012. early in their companies maturity to access
a larger pool of talent, managerial expertise,
To qualify for inclusion in the research, a channel partners, key prospects, and
company or identifiable subsidiary must have concentrations of venture capital in their
one or more founders recognized in company specific areas of business focus. As the life
literature who are Israeli citizens and Israeli sciences capital and a global tech hub, Boston
residents through the start of adulthood or later. meets these needs for Israeli entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurs who were born in Israel, but in many sectors of common strength.
who left in childhood and did not return, were
not included in the research set, as their Israeli Boston and Israel share innovation-driven
experience was not material to their development economies and similar cultures. With world-
towards entrepreneurship. For more details class universities at the center, Boston
about the methodology of the research, please and Israel are both research-driven and
see Appendix C: Methodology. commercially oriented economies that
produce highly educated and motivated
For the purposes of this paper, companies that workers. Bostonians and Israelis are similarly
met the research criteria are termed Israeli- inspired by challenges, excited by the
founded or qualifying businesses. opportunity to make the world better, and
put a premium on ideas and ability over
caste or pedigree.
Boston is a Gateway for Israel to U.S. and
Global Markets Boston has an East Coast geography and
a nonstop flight to Tel Aviv. When picking a
Israel has a small home market, with only about 8 U.S. headquarters location, Israelis greatly
million people, and not much of a regional market prefer the benefits of an east coast time zone

for working with colleagues and family back impact for Massachusetts. Using standard
home. Plus the BOS-TLV nonstop helps make U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis multipliers,
Boston stand above the rest, with one of the Israeli-founded businesses generated
few U.S. nonstops to Israel, saving time and billions of dollars of revenue above their own
money versus bouncing through connecting economic activity, due to their purchase of
airports. office space, professional services, and other
goods and services.
Revenue: Represented 3.8% of the states overall GDP,

Billions of Dollars & Growing Faster Than predominantly in the growth sectors of life
The Economy Overall sciences and information technology, and
therefore comprising an even larger share of
Israeli-founded businesses have found the states innovation economy.
enormous success in Boston, with benefits for
the entrepreneurs and their companies, the Grew at more than 2X the rate of
Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and for the Massachusetts GDP growth. Israeli-founded
economy of Israel. businesses tracked since 2012with
appropriate adjustments for new entrants,
In 2015, these qualifying businesses: failures, and departuressaw their total
revenue increase at a 9.4% compound
Booked $9.3 billion of direct revenues in annual growth rate (CAGR). Compared to
the state. Using both public and private the state economys GDP growth rate of
data, the study conservatively counted only 4.0% during this period, Israeli-founded
sales originating from these businesses businesses grew more than 2x faster. Even
Massachusetts location(s). See figure compared with the states high-growth tech
1, Israeli-Founded Businesses Create and professional services sectors, qualifying
Massachusetts Revenue. businesses expanded more than 40% faster.
See figure 2, Revenue Growth: 2x Faster
Generated a total of $18.1 billion in economic Than the State Overall.
FIGURE 1 FIGURE 2
Israeli-Founded Businesses Create Revenue Growth: 2x Faster Than the State Overall
Massachusetts Revenue
SOURCE: STAX, INC., MARCH 2016 2012-2015 ANNUAL REVENUE GROWTH (NOMINAL CAGR)
SOURCE: STAX, INC. MARCH 2016; US BUREAU OF ECONOMIC ANALYSIS

Jobs: was more than 5X faster. Even compared with
Employing Thousands & Growing Faster the states high-growth sectors of information
Than The Economy Overall technology and life sciences sectors, the
Israeli-founded business expanded much
Israeli-founded businesses depend upon Boston faster. See figure 4, Jobs Growth: 5x Faster
talent to achieve their phenomenal record of Than the State Overall.
growth. In 2015, these qualifying businesses:
In addition to the revenue and jobs produced
Employed 9,000 in the state. See figure by the Israeli-founded businesses in the state,
3: Israeli-Founded Businesses Create exports are another source of Massachusetts
Massachusetts Jobs. revenue derived from its relationship with Israel.
Massachusetts businesses exported $197 million
FIGURE 3
in goods and services to Israel in 2015, up 46%
since 2005.2
Israeli-Founded Businesses Create
Massachusetts Jobs
FIGURE 4
Jobs Growth: 5x Faster Than the State Overall
SOURCE: STAX, INC., MARCH 2016
Supported a total of 27,100 jobs in the state.

Using standard U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
2012-2015 ANNUAL REVENUE GROWTH (NOMINAL CAGR) | SOURCE:
multipliers, Israeli-founded businesses drove STAX, INC. MARCH 2016; US BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS
the employment of thousands more due to
purchase of other goods and services to
support their enterprises. Capital:
Attracting Billions in Investments &
Grew at 5x the rate of the states Buyouts
employment growth. Israeli-founded
businesses tracked since 2012with Israeli-founded businesses in Massachusetts
appropriate adjustments for new entrants, attracted significant venture capital investments
failures, and departuressaw their total in 2013 to 2015:
employee bases increase at a 9.4%
compound annual growth rate (CAGR). 48 companies scored $1.2 billion in VC
Compared to the states employment growth investments. Some VCs are serial investors
rate during this period of 1.8% overall, the in these Massachusetts-Israel companies.
Israeli-founded businesses employee growth Battery Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners,

Cedar Fund, Globespan Capital Partners, representing 10.0% of all venture
OurCrowd, and Pitango Venture Capital all investments raised in the Commonwealth,
made investments in three or four of these during 2013-2015.4
companies between 2013 and 2015. In
addition, prominent VCs and corporates from 67% of the money came from out-of-state.
Israel, Boston, Silicon Valley, and NYC, and Only about a quarter of the investors in these
around the world participated. See figure 5, deals were located in the Boston area. Most
Top-Tier Investors.3 investors were located in Israel, Silicon Valley,
and elsewhere. The net result: Israeli-founded
companies in Boston brought new capital into
FIGURE 5
the state. See figure 6, Venture Investments:
Attracting New Money to Boston.5
Top-Tier Investors
and the pace is accelerating, with 2015
capital raised higher than any prior year. See
figure 7, Venture Investments: Significant
and Accelerating.
FIGURE 7
Venture Investments: Significant and Accelerating
SELECTED INVESTORS IN MASSACHUSETTS-ISRAEL COMPANIES
FIGURE 6
Venture Investments: Attracting New Money

to Boston
LOCATION OF INVESTING PARTNER IN 152 INVESTMENT VENTURE CAPITAL FUNDS RAISED BY 104 ISRAELI-FOUNDED
TRANSACTIONS ACROSS 46 INVESTMENT ROUNDS IN 33 COMPANIES IN MASSACHUSETTS, ACROSS 156 TRANSACTIONS,
COMPANIES, FROM 2013-2015 2010-2015.

Acquisitions: start-ups to boost their product portfolios
Over $10 billion Paid Back to Investors. and accelerate growth. Serial acquirers
in both tech and life sciencesinclude
Massachusetts and Israeli-founded companies Boston Scientific, EMC, IBM (led by divisions
have been frequent acquirers of each others headquartered in Massachusetts), Medtronic
businesses, at values from millions to $1b+. (including Covidien), and Teva Pharmaceuticals.
Since the last tech boom in 1999, these
acquisitions have totaled over $10b. Some of
the most recent deals command eye-popping Companies:
prices and are among the largest ever for Deep Tech Titans and a Strong Pipeline
Israeli-founded companies. At the top of the
Massachusetts-Israel acquisition hit parade are: The 216 Israeli-founded businesses in
Given Imaging (to Covidien for $860m in 2013), Massachusetts span the breadth of IT and life
Trusteer (to IBM Security for $800m in 2013), sciences sectors, two major industries of growth
and XtremIO (to EMC for $430m in 2012). See that both geographies have in common. For a list
figure 8, Over $10b in Acquisitions.6 of the most notable companies, some large and
some small (but with promising signs), see figure
Whats driving these deals? Most often, 9: 200+ Massachusetts Businesses with
acquirers want to tap outside innovation from Israeli Founders.
FIGURE 8
O v e r $ 1 0 b i n A cqu is ition s
SELECTED DEALS BETWEEN MASSACHUSETTS & ISRAELI-FOUNDED BUSINESSESSELECTED ACQUISITIONS 1999-2015; COMPANY HQS OR
DIVISION HQS ON BOTH SIDES OF THE DEAL WERE LOCATED IN MASSACHUSETTS OR ISRAEL AT THE TIME. ACQUISITION VALUE, WHEN
KNOWN, IS FROM AMOUNTS REPORTED IN SEC FILINGS OR NEWS REPORTING.

FIGURE 9
200+ Massachusetts Businesses with Israeli Founders
A SELECTED LIST IN IT, LIFE SCIENCES, AND OTHER SECTORS
IT businesses take the lead on all three measures applications, and providing tools to manage
of revenue, jobs, and capital, because of performance, three companies are at the
sustained growth over the past two decades top of the list: Applause, Perfecto Mobile,
in everything related to data, networking, and VMTurbo. Together, they have raised
and software. But over the past few years, almost a quarter-billion-$ in total VC funding
life sciences has come on strong, with Israeli and employ about 500 in Massachusetts.
researchers tapping into Boston as a gateway to And they have risen to the top of American
the U.S. and global markets, drawn by the states tech, too, earning industry awards such as:
standing as the worlds leading life sciences Forbes Fastest Growing Private Companies,
cluster. For the share of revenue, jobs, and American Business Awards Most
capital by major industry for the Israeli-founded Innovative, Boston Business Journals Best
businesses in Massachusetts, see figure 10, IT Places to Work, and Mass TLCs Private
and Life Sciences Lead. Company of the Year, among many other
competitive recognitions.
Here are the top sectors for Israeli-founded
businesses in Massachusetts: Cybersecurity. RSA, a division of EMC
and the first major cybersecurity company
App development & management. Improving worldwide, makes its home in Massachusetts
the user experience, helping businesses test and runs its global Anti-Fraud Command

FIGURE 10
IT & Life Sciences Lead
REVENUE, JOBS, AND CAPITAL BY INDUSTRY FOR ISRAELI-FOUNDED BUSINESSES IN MASSACHUSETTS | SOURCE: STAX., INC. MARCH 2016
Center in Israel. Co-founded by Turing Award envelope of scalability, enterprise flash, and
winner and MIT researcher Adi Shamir (the data recovery, having raised $450m in total
S in RSA) of Israel, the company is the king VC funding. 500 people already work at
of cryptography, two-factor authentication, these three firms across the two geographies
and security operations for 30,000 per LinkedIn. The founders are all EMC
customers worldwide. Today, more than 30 alumni, while Infinidats special pedigree is
years after its founding, the company is still industry pioneer Moshe Yanai, who helped
the leader in its field, employing almost 1,000 bring EMC to towering success and scored
in Massachusetts and about 250 in Israel, per two big exits to IBM with his prior startups,
LinkedIn. including Diligent (another Massachusetts-
Israel success story.)
The next generation of Israeli-founded
security titans in the state is led by CyberArk, Also driving the Massachusetts-Israel storage
the category leader in privileged access dominance is EMCs acquisition of XtremIO.
management, which capped 2015 with Purchased for $430m in cash in 2012, EMC
$160m in annual revenue, on top of a quickly commercialized the companys
successful IPO in 2014, and now sports a enterprise flash technology and scored over
market capitalization of $1.3b. With global $1b in sales in the products first 18 months,
headquarters in Israel and U.S. headquarters blowing past the revenue of the next three
in Massachusetts, its a great employer too. competitors combined. How did it happen
The companys 400+ worldwide employees so fast? The tight working relationships,
give their jobs a >97% approval rating in enterprise reach, and technical talent of the
atmosphere, rewards, pride, and bosses teams in Hopkinton and Herzliya.8
earning the business a top 10 ranking for
Best Workplace in Technology.7 Networking & data center. Co-founded by an
Israeli PhD candidate at MIT, Akamai created
Data storage and management. Infinidat, the content-delivery network industry, today
Kaminario, and Zerto are pushing the grossing more than $2b annually, while

continuing to grow and dominate its sector combined with the go-to-market aptitude of
almost two decades after its founding. the Boston life sciences cluster is enabling
Simplivity, Bostons Fastest-Growing Tech these pioneers to tackle orphan diseases,
Firm, is reimagining the data center and diabetes and obesity, blood cancer, anti-tumor
delivering extraordinary efficiencies with drug delivery, and neuro-degenerative illness.
its OmniCube, winning $276m in venture
funding and hiring over 350 in MetroWest Medical Devices. Its a proven pathway: Tap
Boston along the way. These are just two of into Bostons ecosystem to take a startup
the success stories that make network and through trial, FDA approval, and sales ramp-
data infrastructure hum, contributing to a up. The most recent companies with Israeli
sector that has long been a sweet spot of founders to take this road and who have
excellence between Boston and Israel.9 each raised more than $50m in VC and IPO
funds, include: Cheetah Medical with its real-
Software and all types of SaaS. From time cardiac output monitor; Corindus with its
eCommerce back-office services to vertical coronary surgical robotics; EarlySense with
enterprise software, this sector goes deep its contact-free continuous patient monitoring
into how businesses operate. With three system; OmniGuide with its minimally-
prior exits under his belt, Israeli and Technion invasive laser surgery system; Ornim with its
alumnus Jonathan Yaron is going for four-of- bedside cerebral monitor; and ReWalk with its
a-kind with ZoomInfo, his B2B prospecting exoskeleton that enables paraplegics to walk.
database. ClickSoftware, employing over 300
in Petach Tikvah and Burlington, scored a eHealth, energy & water tech, 3D printing,
$438m buyout to take the company private, and other sectors expand the envelope.
and attracted the former President of RSA Ventures in newer industries are taking root,
to lead it to the next level in field service too, especially when deep tech is involved.
management software. BlueSnap, founded Especially notable is American Well, from the
in Israel, which moved its U.S. HQ from San serial entrepreneur Schoenberg brothers,
Jose to Boston, employs 100+ in Waltham who are making telehealth a reality for the
and Herzliya Pituach, and is racking up global U.S. market, with $123m in funding (from Teva
eCommerce payments with $183m in funding Pharmaceuticals of Israel, and others) and
under its belt. over 200 employees.
Bio-pharma. Two blockbuster drugs with In other sectors, Formlabsco-founded by

over $1b in sales each, both based on Israeli an Israeli PhD candidate at the MIT Media
intellectual property, are Velcade and Rebif. Labis forging a new class of professional-
Respectively, they fight bone marrow cancer grade desktop 3D printers, and scored a
and multiple sclerosis, and were developed big series A round from a whos who of U.S.
by Millennium Pharamaceuticals (Cambridge) and Israel investors, including Eric Schmidts
and EMD Serono (Rockland), based on Nobel Innovation Endeavors, Pitango, DFJ, and
Prize winning research from Technion and others. Also, Israeli-founded Desalitech,
licensed research from Weizmann. which makes clean water from industrial
wastewater, was the winner for the Global
Beyond these proven drugs, Israeli scientists Trade Award from the Associated Industries
are behind some of the most promising of Massachusetts, and captured the coveted
clinical-stage companies in the state: Breakthrough Water Technology of 2016
Chiasma, Gelesis, Karyopharm, Mersana, by Global Water Intelligence.
and NeuroPhage. In aggregate, these five
companies have raised $875m in VC funds, Other companies shown in figure 9 have
private equity, and IPOs. Israeli research strong capitalization and bright prospects

across diverse engineering-oriented sectors. defensible IP, new technologies, and compelling
Whether they substantially lower energy customer propositions.
consumption in building HVAC systems,
or reinvent the wheel with electric hybrid
bicycles, tech is thriving in all sectors of the World-Changing Innovations
Massachusetts-Israel relationship.
Beyond the economic impact of Israeli innovation
True, Boston doesnt do burst-the-bubble games on the Massachusetts economy, the bilateral
and frothy apps. And the social media frenzy has partnership is characterized by products that
made its home on the west coast. But Boston is improve health, raise quality of life, or irrevocably
tops when it comes to deep tech, the real and change the nature of business. While many of
enduring businesses that are built on algorithms, the successes of this relationship would certainly
engineering, and even more importantly, solving qualify, figure 11, World-Changing Innovations
the worlds more difficult problems through identifies a few of the most meaningful examples.
FIGURE 11
World-Changing Innovations
SELECTED PRODUCTS FROM ISRAELI-FOUNDED BUSINESS IN MASSACHUSETTSEARLYSENSE, REWALK, & CYBERARK WERE FOUNDED IN
ISRAEL AND CHOOSE MA FOR THEIR US HQS. GIVEN IMAGING WAS BOUGHT BY COVIDIEN (MA), WHICH WAS BOUGHT BY MEDTRONIC. REBIF,
BY EMD SERONO (MA), IS BASED ON IP LICENSED FROM ISRAELS WEIZMANN INSTITUTE. VELCADE, BY MILLENNIUM PHARMACEUTICALS (MA)
IS BASED ON NOBEL PRIZE-WINNING RESEARCH OF THREE PROFESSORS, INCLUDE TWO FROM TECHNION (ISRAEL). AKAMAI (MA) WAS CO-
FOUNDED BY AN ISRAELI PHD CANDIDATE AT MIT. RSA (MA) WAS CO-FOUNDED BY AN ISRAELI RESEARCHER AT MIT, AND ACQUIRED BY EMC
(MA). XTREMIO (ISRAEL) WAS ACQUIRED BY EMC (MA).

Five Routes From Israel to Boston and became ready for the U.S. market, Arazi
chose to setup shop in Bedford, MA. At its
How do these Israeli entrepreneurs and peak, Scitex America employed about 700,
innovations find their way to the Boston area? and had annual revenue of $300m. In the
The research shows five main paths: 2000s, Scitex sold its divisions to Creo,
Kodak, and HP for a combined acquisition
Launch a company in Israel, then expand into value of close to $1b, perhaps Israels first
the U.S. Originating at an Israeli university or unicorn.11
incubator, and/or funded by Israeli angels or
VCs, these businesses accomplish their initial This pattern continues today of Israeli
R&D and commercial launch in Israel. Then students and researchers at Massachusetts
they chose Boston as their home away from universities who subsequently becoming
home to tackle the American market. This founders of Boston-Israel businesses. Its
group follows a proven model of capitalizing also how the states Holy Grail of student
on early-stage success in Israel before going retention is achieved. Some of todays
abroad, while maintaining a core team in successful examples include Akamai,
Israel of original employees, R&D, and other American Well, CloudLock, Formlabs,
functions that sustains the vision and DNA NeuroPhage, OmniGuide, and Simplivity.
of the company. Some of the most notable
examples include BlueSnap, Chiasma, Get acquired or be the acquirer. Since 2000,
CyberArk, Cybereason, EarlySense, Infinidat, more than 70 Israeli-founded businesses have
and Zerto. been acquired by Massachusetts companies.
The acquired Israeli company gains expanded
Go to university in Boston, then choose to market access and a return of invested
grow the company here too. Israeli alumni capital, while the acquiring Boston company
of Massachusetts colleges started 30% of secures new technology or important talent
the Israeli-founded companies in the state. to grow the business. Serial Boston acquirers
Foreign students who come to Boston of Israel firms include Avid, Boston Scientific,
for study and research go on to develop EMC, IBMs divisions headquartered in
connections and familiarity that result in Massachusetts, and Medtronic MITG (the
lasting relationships. Sometimes they stay former Covidien). See the earlier figure 8,
after graduation, but just as often, they return Over $10b in Acquisitions.
to Israel to work, create businesses, and
when one of those ventures scores success, As the Israeli tech and life sciences
the entrepreneurs often chooses Boston for ecosystems have matured, some Israeli
expansion because of prior connections, companies have become acquirers too,
knowledge of the local ecosystem, and landing them on Massachusetts shores. Most
appreciation of the citys vibe.10 notably, Teva Pharmaceuticals purchased
three Boston firms (Copley Pharmaceuticals,
One of Israels earliest great tech companies Gecko Health, and Immuneering),
illustrates this route to Boston-Israel success, Osem acquired hummus-maker Tribe
and also the longevity of ties between the Mediterranean, and Syneron purchased
geographies. Efi Arazi graduated MIT in 1963 medical laser company Candela.12
and got a job with Itek, a Massachusetts
tech company. He later returned to Israel Win a Nobel, or create IP, that gets
and founded his own business, Scitexa commercialized in Boston. Although unusual,
pioneer in the digital revolution of the printing some of the greatest successes of the
industrywhich his former Massachusetts Boston-Israel business superhighway are
employer helped fund. When Scitex grew Massachusetts firms that develop products

based on research performed at Israeli
institutions. The most notable examples are:
Velcade, developed by Millennium (aka the
Takeda Oncology Company) of Cambridge,
based on Nobel Prize winning research by
three professors, including Ciechanover
and Hershko of Israels Technion Institute;
and Rebif, developed by EMD Serono of
Rockland, which is based on research and
intellectual property licensed from Israels
Weizmann Institute.
Start a company in Boston (and do it again).

Access to capital, talent, early customers,
or proximity to family are other reasons why
Israeli-founded businesses choose Boston to
open their doors. Some of these founders are
serial entrepreneurs, with multiple successful
companies in both Boston and Israel.
Quite often, after establishing the Boston
headquarters, these Israeli entrepreneurs
then open an Israeli office to tap R&D talent,
sometimes even acquiring an Israeli company
to tap their talent and technology.

Why Boston?
Why is Boston ranked among the best places

in the world to grow a global technology or life
sciences business?
Its because Bostons strengths closely align with

an entrepreneurs needs for a deep bench of
well-educated and experienced talent, access to
capital, a strong innovation ecosystem, and other Massachusetts ranks No. 1.
factors. For Israeli-founded start-ups, Boston has The state has a near-perfect record and
become a preferred home-away-from-home as maintain its dominant position by ranking first
they look to launch or grow a business. in 80% of the studys composite indicators.
The state turned in an incredible performance,
Perhaps one of the most widely regarded not only maintaining but improving its score in
measures of the U.S. states, and their comparative Human Capital Investment.
strengths as hubs of innovation, is the Milken
Institutes State Tech and Science Index. California ranks No. 3.
In six consecutive surveys from 2002-2014, Its principal weakness remains human capital
Massachusetts scored #1. Using dozens of investment, which continues to be an area
indicators, the state has consistently posted of relative mediocrity. The state also lags far
the strongest results to keep it ahead of all U.S. behind Massachusetts in graduate students
competitors, including California and New York.13 in science disciplines, a direct indicator of
See the State Tech and Science Index in the a population prepared to work in the tech
sidebar on the right. economy. Similarly, in the key category of
Industry R&D Dollars Per Capita, the state
also trails national leader Massachusetts.
A World-Leading Innovation Economy
New York ranks No. 11.
Compared with other leading technology In the category of Technology and Science
states, Massachusetts has unparalleled Workforce, NY placed in the bottom 50%.
strengths, including:
The top workforce in the United States.

The state ranks #1 in awarding new college
degrees per capita, a key indicator for
satisfying the hiring needs of a dynamic tech
sector. Focusing on science and math, the
SOURCE: THE 2014 STATE TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE INDEX,
state remarkably outpaces all other states by
MILKEN INSTITUTE
50% or more per capita in granting degrees in
STEM fields.

Of course, Harvard and MIT need no
introduction, except to say that their impact
The startup on the global economy is each equal to the
culture in Boston GDP of an OECD country. In combination,
is Astounding Harvards and MITs 500,000+ alumni have
GEs CEO Jeff Immelt created organizations with $5.8 trillion in
annual revenue and over 24 million jobs.
Together, the economic impact of these two
Massachusetts universities is equal to the
Looking to the future, Massachusetts placed fourth largest global economyahead of
#2 globally in the Trends in International Math Japan, Germany, and the UKand just behind
and Science Study (TIMSS), which measures the EU, USA, and China.16
8th grade education, pointing to a well-
prepared future workforce for tech and life Beyond these two Cambridge educational
sciences companies. exemplars, the long list of Boston-area schools
ranking at the top of national or subject-
Beyond new graduates, the state also boasts specific rankings includes: Babson, Berklee,
the most highly educated population of any Boston College, Boston University, Brandeis,
state in the country, with a greater percentage Clark, Northeastern, Olin, Tufts, UMass,
of residents who earned bachelors or higher Wellesley, and Worcester Polytech.
degrees.14 And the Boston-area scores three
of the top ten cities in the entire country with The combined power of these institutions
the most highly educated residents (and two produces a highly educated workforce,
of them happen to be the most common research-driven innovation, cultural diversity,
addresses for Israelis living in the state, and an enlightened population that drives the
Brookline and Newton.)15 global economy.17
Whether companies need experienced talent R&D thats more productive than
or fresh faces, Massachusetts demonstrably any other state. The concentration
has a deep talent pool and the top workforce of corporate and academic R&D in
in the United States. Massachusetts is unparalleled.
Notable measures of success include:
The top-ranked universities and #1 city No. 1 in U.S. corporate and academic R&D
for students in the USA. Boston and per capita, and pulling farther ahead of all
Massachusetts are widely recognized as the other states.
higher-education capital of America. In the City No. 1 in U.S. production of science
of Boston alone, 35 colleges enroll 152,000 academic articles per capita.
students (not even including Harvard and MIT, No. 1 in U.S. tech licensing overall,
which are located in next door Cambridge.) twice as much as any other state,
Not surprisingly, Boston is honored as the demonstrating the commercial value of
highest-ranked North American city in the the states research productivity.
Best Student Cities by the respected QS No. 1 in Small Business Innovation
World University Rankings. Research (SBIR) and Small Business
Tech Transfer (STTR) grants per dollar of
More degrees are conferred in Massachusetts GDP, twice as much as any other states
per capita than any other state, which hosts federal grants.
close to 100 colleges in total. Over 100 No. 1 in National Institute of Health (NIH)
additional colleges in New England bring a research funding per dollar of GDP, also
world of students to Boston as the regions hub. twice as much as any other state.

These key indicators point to how tech and life Center, CIC Boston, LabCentral (for
sciences businesses thrive on innovation from biotech), WeWork, Workbar, and dozens
the states pre-eminent position in U.S. R&D.18 more.
Start-up education from Intelligent.ly,
Top of the charts for VC and IPO funding. General Assembly, and Startup Institute.
Venture capital investment in Massachusetts Networking events like Boston Innovators
was $5.8b in 2015, which was 10% of all VC Group, Boston TechJam, New Tech
dollars deployed in the U.S., the same share Meetup, Lean Startup Circle, EmTech MIT,
as the entire State of New York. On a per MIT Enterprise Forum, MIT Hackathon,
capita basis, the state ranks #1 in placing Revolve Nation, TiE Boston, Venture Caf,
venture investments, higher than California. and countless more.
The state even scored second in IPOs in Student-focused and mentoring programs
2012behind California, but beating New like Rough Draft VC, IDEA @ Northeastern,
York again.19 Harvards iLab, MassTechs MTIP, and the
MIT $100k Entrepreneurship Competition.
Dozens of Fortune 1,000 firms and more
than 80 with $1b+ revenue or valuations.
At the head of the list are 27 Fortune 1,000 Global Epicenter of the Life Sciences
companies, including tech giants GE, EMC, Industry
and Raytheon, plus life sciences behemoths
like Biogen Idec, Boston Scientific, and The unparalleled depth and breadth of the
Thermo Fisher Scientific. Another 15 private life sciences sector makes greater Boston the
companies escaped the scrutiny of the undisputed center of the global industry, in every
Fortune methodology, but ring up more stage from basic research to large-scale success.
than $1b in sales each, including Fidelity For a list of major companies from well-funded
Investments, audio technology pioneer Bose startups to major multinationals see Appendix A:
Corporation, and workforce software leader Boston Tech & Life Sciences Ecosystems.
Kronos. Plus scores more in tech and life
sciences that have valuations at the unicorn
level or much higher, like eHealth kingpin
athenahealth, RNAi therapeutic company
Massachusetts is
Alnylym, and speech recognition market- The Most Innovative
leader Nuance. State in America
2016 Bloomberg State Innovation Index
Energized by world-class start-up resources.
From Cambridges Kendall Square to
Bostons Innovation District, entrepreneurs The states industry has four major categories of
and experienced hands gather together to global leadership:
network, learn, play, dream, mentor, and
pitch at a daily smorgasbord of events The global hub of bio-pharma innovation.
and programs. A short list of these start-up Nearly 1,500 drugs are in the pipeline,
turbochargers include:21 representing 11% of all American drug
Incubators and accelerators like development. All of the worlds top 10 bio-
MassChallenge, TechStars, Bolt (for pharma firms are present in the state, plus
hardware), Cleantech Open Northeast and 500 other companies, who employ 60,000
Greentown Labs (both for energy & water), people. Almost half of them work in R&D
LearnLaunch (for edTech), and many more. more than any other state, including the much
Co-working spaces for tech and life more populous California. 20
sciences, such as Cambridge Innovation

Major bio-pharma companies headquartered to MeHI, the states industry development
in the state include Alnylym, Biogen Idec, EMD initiative. Combined with the states position as
Millipore, EMD Serono, Genzyme, Hologic, the #1 bio-pharma sector, the strong medical
Millennium, PAREXEL, Sunovion, and Vertex. devices cluster, and the countrys leading
hospitals, the Boston area has been (and
Looking at capital, VCs placed $2b in 2015 promises to be) fertile ground for eHealth
investments in the states bio-pharma industry, industry growth.24
over 3x the amount of a decade before.
The IPOs raked in $2.2b in 2014/15 for 21 The diagnostics & lab services industry titans.
companies. Additional government research With such a density of bio-pharma, medical
funding of about $2b in 2014 was split evenly device, and eHealth companies, the demand
between hospitals (such as Massachusetts for diagnostic gear, testing, analytics, and
General Hospital and Brigham & Womens) lab services drove the development of an
and non-profits such as the Harvard Medical industry sector to serve the home market and
School. Lab space is everywhere, with over 20 the world. From cord blood banking to PCR
million square feet in service, equal to about assays, the local industry has a preeminent
350 American football fields.22 global position in this multi-billion-$
industry, anchored by Alere, PerkinElmer,
A top-tier medical device sector. The state ThermoFisher, Waters, and many others.
is firmly rooted as one of the leading U.S.
medical device industry clusters, with rankings
that include: Top Tech Clusters Driven by Algorithms
No. 1 in VC funding for medical device and Engineers
startups in the U.S. per capita; Boston entrepreneurs choose hard problems to
12% of all American VC investments in solve, and arent motivated to build the easy app.
medical devices; and The remarkable Boston ecosystem of innovation
Over $5b in exports, or about 12% of the industries draws start-ups and giants from
entire U.S. industry; around the world to tap the talent that defines
technology revolutions. To identify the titans
Over 400 companies in the state are of the Boston tech economy, see Appendix A,
reinventing surgery, medical instruments, and Bostons Tech & Life Sciences Ecosystems, a
therapeutic appliances, including the home of compilation of the largest and best capitalized
giants Boston Scientific, the Medtronic MITG companies in each sector.
division, and Philips Healthcareplus 22 firms
that have raised capital of at least $50m since Heres a brief rundown of the many industries
2010, along with the innovation factories of where Boston is a global haven for technology
hundreds of others.23 change-makers:
A commanding eHealth presence. Greater Cybersecurity that keeps scaling bigger.

Boston is firmly in the winners circle of this RSAthe cryptography and two-factor
rapidly growing industry, led by athenahealth, authentication groundbreaker co-founded
eClinicalWorks, and Meditech, who are a just by an Israelimakes its home in the state.
a few of the 15 leading Massachusetts firms Akamai, also co-founded by an Israeli, is the
in the Healthcare Informatics 100. Capital go-to vendor for mitigating DDoS attacks for
is flowing too, with 72 companies receiving any corporation.
venture funding in just 2014 and 2015. Even
the states primary and second care providers Coming up behind them are large or well-
are committed to eHealth, with over 90% capitalized firms with hockey-stick growth
adoption of EHR in Massachusetts, according including Black Duck Software, Carbon Black,

CounterTack, Digital Guardian, Mimecast, Perfecto Mobile, and VMTurbo;
Rapid7, Veracode, the headquarters of IBM Industry- or application-specific software
Security, and a major presence of Symantec companies AspenTech, Cross Country
plus two more firms of Israeli origin, CyberArk Group, Fleetmatics, InterSystems,
and Cybereason. Kronos, LogMeIn, Nuance, OnShape,
Pegasystems, PTC, and the US HQ of
Petabytes of data center success. The data Dassault Systemsplus another Israeli-
center and storage sector in Massachusetts is founded firm, ClickSoftware;
simultaneously at the forefront of its industry Multinationals with major software
and decades-deep. Six of the most well- development centers of >250 employees
funded and largest firms have raised over $1b in the Boston area (excluding sales
in total funding: Infinidat, Kaminario, Simplivity, personnel) of Adobe, Apple, Autodesk,
Stratoscale, and Zerto all founded by Israelis CA, Google, HP, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle,
plus Actifio and Nasuni. Also headquartered Red Hat, Salesforce, DAP, and VMware.
in Boston is Iron Mountain, the multi-billion-
dollar data recovery company, which has 94% Among the multinationals worthy of special
of the Fortune 1000 as clients. note, IBM has its largest North American
software lab in Massachusetts. Following IBMs
Of course, the storage titan that defines acquisitions of 23 Massachusetts companies
the global industry is EMC, which is more than any other geography worldwide
headquartered in Massachusetts and has the IBM Mass Lab today employs thousands
spawned an enormously successful sector who work on machine-learning, fraud
around it. EMCs leadership traverses a multi- detection, data analytics, supply management
billion-dollar product line that pioneered software, and other technology. Boston/
scalable storage arrays and pushes the Israel companies have been a big contributor
envelope with converged infrastructure, to seeding IBMs presence in the state, with
hybrid cloud architecture, virtualization, seven of them accepting offers totaling
and data protection offerings. EMCs latest about $2b to be acquired by Big Blue. The
advance, the flash array, leads the market list includes one of Israels largest exits ever,
with over $1b in global sales in its first 18 Trusteer, as well Guardium, Emptoris, and
months on the marketand grew out of the others. Deep technical topics define the
companys acquisition of Israels XtremIO.25 work of the IBM Mass Lab, as employees in
For more, see the sidebar The EMC & Israel the state have been awarded nearly 3,000
Special Relationship. patents over the past 20 years.26
Serious depth in app management and Mathematicians who are the masters of
enterprise software. The Boston industry marketing and ad tech. Big data rules in
has considerable coding ingenuity when it the marketing world, which plays right into
comes to building the latest tools and more Bostons strengths. The biggest and best
importantly, wildfire success at penetrating capitalized firms in this sector include:
global IT. In addition, Boston software Inbound, outbound, and website
companies have achieved worldwide success unicorns: Hubspot, Constant Contact, and
in vertical applications to become the design Endurance International cover the major
or operational backbone of entire industries bases;
or business processes. The largest and best Marketing analytics get sliced and
capitalized firms in this sector include: diced by DataXu, Localytics, and Visible
App management companies Acquia, Measures, who see patterns where others
Basho, Netscout, and Progressplus see none;
three firms founded by IsraelisApplause, Ad tech is lead by Brand Networks,

ChoiceStream, & Extreme Reach; Power, and VionX;
And many others with a big lead in their Equipment provider Circor;
domains, including BrightCove, Energy management firms Ameresco
Litmus, and Placester.27 and EnerNoc;
Renewable energy companies 1366, Cape
Major eCommerce icons. Category leaders Wind, Harvest Power, Joule Unlimited, and
that have billion or multi-billion-dollar Mascoma; plus
valuationsand who make Boston home Multinationals GE Current and major
include: travel titan Trip Advisor, furniture outposts of Schneider and Veolia.
seller Wayfair, custom printer Vistaprint, and
the eCommerce platform-of-choice for major Regarding GE, in 2015 the industry titan chose
retailers, Demandware. Boston as the HQ of its new energy innovation
business named Current. Starting with
Other well-capitalized and large firms include $1b in annual revenues, Current combines
Care.com, CarGurus, DraftKings, Jana, and the companys LED, solar, energy storage,
two Israeli-founded payment companies, and electric vehicles businesses in a new
BlueSnap and Credorax. software-driven entity.
Leading the way on energy innovation. All this energy leadership makes Massachusetts
Massachusetts is quickly rising to the forefront a tech superstar in energy efficiency, innovator
of the global clean energy sector, with: in energy generation and management, and
Over 6,400 firms in the state; driver of global deployments.28
Nearly 100,000 jobs and 64% growth over
the past five years; Even a robust water tech sector. Despite its
A workforce with the highest percent abundant natural water sources, the states
focused on R&D of any state; and technology prowess has spawned a multi-
More firms named to the 2015 Global billion-dollar water tech industry employing
Cleantech 100 than any other state. over 5,000 people. Strengths include
desalination technology, treatment, energy
Further, Boston continues to top the chart as efficiency, engineering, filters and membranes,
the #1 most energy efficient city in the USA, valves and other hardware.
beating out San Francisco and all others,
underpinned by 1GW of installed renewable Research powerhouses MIT, UMass, Woods
capacity statewide in solar, wind, and biomass. Hole, and Tufts graduate scores of masters
VCs voted with the checkbooks too, placing degree recipients in water disciplines,
the state as the #1 destination per capita for contributing to the state ranking #2 in water
early-stage energy tech investments, with innovation patents per capita of all U.S. states.
even more funds deployed for project finance The Boston-area has also scored more EPA
and growth equity. SBIR/STTR grants in water than any other U.S.
metro area.
To further propel this global center of energy
innovation, the state has generous grant Led by the New England Water Innovation
programs to help early-stage companies Network (NEWIN), dozens of venture-backed
commercialize, offered by the Massachusetts water tech start-ups call Boston home. Many
Clean Energy Center. find their footing by participating in incubator
and accelerator programs at Greentown
The largest and best-capitalized firms in Labs (the countrys largest cleantech
energy tech include: incubator), Cleantech Open Northeast, and
Battery tech pioneers Ambri, Boston MassChallenge, or winning awards like the

MIT $100k, GWIs Global Water Awards, and The EMC & Israel Special Relationship
the Artemis Top 50.
With $24 billion in revenue and a $50
Among the largest and best-capitalized billion market cap, EMC is the states largest
firms in water tech are: CDM Smith, Koch tech giant, and one of its most successful
Membrane Systems, Watts Water, and a major companies. EMCs long history with Israel
outpost of AECOM.29 traces back to when the company transformed
from selling minicomputer memory boards
Boston is also a proven gateway for Israeli to enterprise storage arrays. The makeover
water innovation to reach world markets, began when Moshe Yanai, an Israeli recruited
including the: to EMC, led a team in the 1980s and 1990s to
Invention and wide-commercialization of create and develop Symmetrix, the companys
the sensor-activated faucet; flagship product, which remains the worlds
Project finance for Californias $1b by IDE most successful computer storage system. In
was raised in Boston; testament to the importance of his technology
Global Trade Award for Massachusetts- leadership, EMC named Yanai a Founder
Israel company Desalitech; in 2001, more than twenty years after the
And other examples noted in the footnote.30 company was first formed.31
Plus robotics, fintech, semiconductors, and Since 2005, EMC has acquired nine Israeli
other brainy industries. Beyond the sectors companies, as well as RSA, a company co-
above, there are even more big or well-funded founded by Israeli cryptographer Adi Shamir
companies, in a bevy of other math and (the S in RSA). See figure 8 for a complete
science intensive industries: list of EMCs Israeli-founded acquisitions. The
Robotics companies including Amazon most notable recent acquisition is XtremIO
(following its acquisition of Kiva), iRobot, for $430m in cash, even before the company
Jibo, and ReThink; had released a product. But the companys
Fintech pioneers Circle Internet (bitcoin), technology was tailor-made for the needs
Goji (insurance), and Kensho (analytics); of EMCs corporate clientele. After being
Network hardware & telecom businesses commercialized by EMC and rolled out to its
including Affirmed, Altiostar, American sales force, the EMC XtremIO All-Flash Array
Tower, Fuze, IPG Photonics, M/A Com, racked up $1b in sales in its first 18 months,
Seaborn Networks, a major hub of making it the fastest product launch in EMCs
development for Cisco, and the Israeli history, and grabbing the #1 market share
founded company Xura (nee Comverse); position versus competitive offerings.
Semiconductors and equipment firms
including Analog Devices, Brooks Today, EMC employs over 1,000 people in
Automation, Skyworks, and Teradyne; and Israel per LinkedIn. In addition, many Israeli-
Homeland security giants, including the founded companies choose Massachusetts for
global HQ of Raytheon (partner to Israeli their U.S. headquarters to be at the epicenter
defense firms on Iron Dome, Davids of the industry anchored by EMC, including
Sling, and Arrow 3), and major outposts EMC alumni who founded CloudLock, Infinidat,
of General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Kaminario, PeerApp, Simplivity, and Zerto.
and QinetiQ.
Looking ahead, the next decade of EMCs
growth will take place as Dell EMC, following
the implementation of the worlds largest tech
deal ever, expected to be finalized in 2016.

Why Israel?
Israel is famously known as the Start-Up enormous global market acceptance and
Nation, a term coined in the title of the Wall reshaped business and saved lives. Some of
Street Journal best seller of the same name, the most notable include: the worlds leading
now translated into 30 languages. Israels network firewall that protect thousands of
amazing tech success creates economic companies and millions from Internet fraud
growth for itself and also for companies and (Checkpoint); the worlds leading drug for
nations worldwide that have embraced its multiple sclerosis (Copaxone); and the
entrepreneurship and innovations. bandage of choice for the U.S. Army and
special forces (Israeli Bandage). Less earth-
shattering inventions, but no less popular,
A Global Innovation Powerhouse have come from Israel too, such as Google
Maps real-time traffic updates, Amazon
Highlights of the Israeli innovation economy Kindles Java platform, the memory chips
include the following: used in Apples iPhone and iPad, Showtimes
Homeland, SodaStream, the USB flash
Inventions that have changed the world. memory drive, and Xbox Kinect.32
Countless Israeli advances have achieved

World-class start-up fundraising, especially
from foreign capital. 2013 to 2015 were
record-setters for venture investment in Israel.
Each year established a new high in total
amount invested, with more money being put
to work in more deals and larger rounds.
In 2015, $4.4b was invested in almost 700

Israeli companies. This figure topped the
amount invested in startups in Canada,
France, and Germany, as well as the major
clusters of London, Beijing, or Shanghai. No
other geographic ecosystemother than the
big three of Silicon Valley, Boston, and NYC CYBERARK CEO UDI MOKADY AND TEAM ON THE DAY OF THE
COMPANYS NASDAQ INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERING, SEPTEMBER 2014
scored as much funding.
About 80% of the funding in Israeli following the U.S. and China, most impressive
companies is foreign capital, demonstrating for a small country. But its the ongoing quality
the magnetism of Israeli innovation for and quantity of the IPOs that really impress.
foreign funds and corporates. Among the 2014 saw 18 deals, which raised $9.8b.
best known of foreign investors is Li Ka- Among the brightest lights in public offerings
shing, Asias richest man, and his Horizons over the past thee years are CyberArk (of
Ventures, which has made an equal number Israel and Massachusetts), MobilEye, and
of investments28 each since 2006in U.S. Varonis, who together still tally about $3b in
and Israeli companies.33 market capitalization.35
Huge M&A from across the world, getting A white-hot cybersecurity sector. Israel is
even bigger. Even though Israels home grabbing attention as the worlds innovation
market is smallwith only ten companies on and growth leader in cybersecurity, with
the Forbes Global 2,000Israeli start-ups $6b in 2014 exports, double the year before.
have attracted whopper-sized buyouts from Thats about 10% of the global market
abroad. Some of the most notable purchases impressive for a country with just 0.1% of the
include: Berkshire Hathaways acquisition worlds population. And the future promises
of tool-maker Iscar for $6b total; Ciscos even more growth, with a full pipeline of Israel
embrace of cable encryption inventor NDS cyber startups that are getting funded. In
for $5 billion; SanDisks purchase of USB 2015 alone, 78 of them attracted over $500m
flash drive inventor M-Systems for $1.6b; in VC funding, representing about a sixth of
and Googles gobble-up of real-time traffic all venture funding of Israeli companies, up
mapmaker Waze for about $1b. about 10x versus five years ago.
In total, M&A of Israeli-founded companies Some are getting big too, while others are
during 2013 to 2015 ran at the highest pace scoring exits for their investors on their way
ever, over $11b per year. Average deal size in to scaling-up through an acquirer. 19 Israeli
2015 was more than $150m across 70 deals, cyber firms are public today, including global
about 300% of the average acquisition price segment leaders Checkpoint and CyberArk.
of five years earlier.34 18 were acquired in 2015 for $1.5b in total,
usually by foreign tech firms like Cisco, EMC
IPOs that impress. Israel has the third-largest and its subsidiary RSA, Intel, Microsoft, and
number of companies listed on NASDAQ, Paypal, who expand their Israeli presence,

valuing the Israeli R&D talent that keeps the Serial acquirers include Boston Scientific,
pressure on the worlds cyber criminals.36 Medtronic / Covidien, and J&J. Over 700
companies comprise the Israeli medical
Tech depth in almost every sector. Israel device industry, of whom 89 attracted
startups and large companies are found $410m in VC funding in 2014, with recent
in every corner of tech. The strongest concentrations in fields such as imaging,
sectors include enterprise IT, data storage, neuroscience, and surgical robots.
adtech, big data analytics, fintech, network
technology, and semiconductors. Some of the eHealth is ramping up too, due to Israelis
companies with substantial revenue remain globally leading position of 100% EHR
independent like My Heritage, Netafim, penetration (electronic health records), 96%
NICE, Verint, and Wix. But most get acquired use of electronic prescriptions, and 60% of
and become the Israeli R&D outpost for many care providers that are part of a healthcare
of the worlds largest tech companies.37 information exchange. Almost 300 Israeli
eHealth companies are pushing the envelope
And a full range of life sciences companies. of innovation, about half of whom have been
The Israeli industry is led by global giant established since 2010, with the greatest
Teva Pharmaceuticals, which pioneered the concentration in big data analytics, personal
worldwide generics markets and is one of health, and provider administration.
Israels largest companies, posting over $20b
in annual sales. Following an acquisition spree The technology Israel brings to the world also
of smaller companies to diversify its business helps the country keeps its healthcare costs
into research-based therapies (including three low and outcomes high. Israeli health care
firms in Massachusetts), Teva intends to plant expenses run at about 7% of GDP and are
itself among the worlds top ten global bio- decreasing, compared to more than double
pharmas with its announced acquisition of that rate in the U.S. in 2007 and increasing
Allergan Generics for $40b in 2016. even while Israel maintains a higher life
expectancy rate.38
In bio-pharma, more than 50 Israeli
companies raised private funding in 2014, New tech sectors like IoT, water tech, and
totaling close to $300m. Seven more had energy tech are coming on strong. The
IPOs in 2014 about 10% of all bio-pharma VC firm of Google Chairman Eric Schmidt,
companies that went public that year Innovation Endeavors, counted over 300
attracting an additional $1.4b in capital. Some Israeli IoT startups, and wrote this about the
of the worlds top 100 commercialized drugs industry: If Israeli entrepreneurs can capitalize
have come from Israeli R&D, including Azilect, on their existing IoT-related proficiencies, they
Copaxone, Rebif, and Velcade. Promising can dominate in this space.
drugs are in the pipeline too, such as
NurOwn, which has been shown in phase 2 In water tech, Israel is fast-becoming
trialsat Massachusetts General Hospital for acknowledged as the global innovation
exampleto moderate the effects and inhibit leader, based on its unparalleled success
the progression of ALS disease. turning a parched, arid country towards
water abundancedue to innovations in
More than 40 acquisitions of Israeli medical desalination, recycling, drip irrigation, and
device companies over the past decade big data. This triumph has been compellingly
illustrate the success of this sub-sector, led told in The New York Times bestseller, Let
by the purchase of Given Imaging, maker of There Be Water: Israels Solution for a Water
the PillCam, to Covidien (of Massachusetts, Starved World.
now part of Medtronic) for $970m.

In energy, Israeli was ranked #1 out of 40 Grounded by research and academia. Israeli
countries in the Global Cleantech Innovation civilian R&D expenditure is more than 4% of
Index as having the greatest potential to the countrys GDP, higher than all 34 OECD
commercialize energy innovation. In solar, nations other than South Korea. Israel has
Israeli companies BrightSource, Energiya, the highest percentage of college graduates
and SolarEdge are achieving new efficiencies other than Canada. The Nobel Prize has been
and ramping up deployments around the awarded to twelve Israelis, an impressive
globe, while in geothermal, Ormat has number considering the countrys size, and
captured the position as the worlds leading that the prize has been awarded for almost
power producer. In auto tech, food tech, and 50 years before modern Israel was founded.
neuroscience, Israeli companies are similarly And R&D doesnt just stay in the lab. For
attracting global capital and producing new example, the Weizmann Institute of Science
solutions to world challenges.39 records among the highest tech transfer
revenue of any academic center worldwide,
300 multinationals doing R&D in Israel. based on commercialization of research in
Even with all the startup activity, about 2/3 areas such as multiple sclerosis treatments
of all R&D employees in Israel are employed (Tevas Copaxone and EMD Seronos Rebif),
by over 300 multinationals there. The list chemotherapy (Lillys Erbitux), and cable set-
is a whos who of the Fortune 1,000. Top top box encryption (Ciscos VideoGuard).41
employers in Israel include Intel with 10,000
in research and manufacturing, where the And a government that pushes innovation
companys first microprocessor (the 8088) towards commercialization. The Israeli
and the first laptop processor with Wi-Fi government has an enlightened (and
(Centrino) were developed. successful) policy for tech sector economic
development through the Office of Chief
IBM has 1,000 employees in Israel Scientist (OCS) at the Ministry of Economy.
following its 13 acquisitions therewho For example, the governments R&D Fund
file an average of over 100 U.S. patents and the Technological Incubators programs
per year. HP has 6,000 Israeli employees; support dozens of pre-commercial companies
Cisco has 1,800; Apple has 1,000 following and 20 business start-up hubs, focused on
its acquisitions of Anobit and PrimeSense; verticals such as medical devices, water tech,
Microsoft has 1,000 at its first R&D center new media, or neuroscience innovations.
outside the U.S.; and Google has about These programs invest in commercialization,
500 after it bought Waze for $1.3b. And help launch products, and attract foreign
after Stratasys (U.S.) acquired Objet (Israel), capital to co-invest alongside OCS programs
the company established both locations as from companies like J&J, Nielsen, Philips
equal global headquarters, and became the Healthcare, and Takeda.
worlds largest 3D printing company. Plus
GE, GM, Philips, Samsung, and more.
As an EMC Senior VP puts it, In Israel,

multinational acquirers have found high-
performing teams solving complicated
problems in sophisticated ways... [We
have] also found teams that share our most
fundamental corporate mandates (integrity,
absolute attention to customer needs, ability
to execute, etc.)40

Boston & Israel Together
The impressive characteristics of Massachusetts Competitiveness and Innovation Project said

(and its capital Boston) make it attractive to that the cost of doing business and home
entrepreneurs from all over the world. But values are in critical need of attention,
especially for Israeli founders, Massachusetts trending down. And The Wall Street Journal
has special advantages and connections that reported, Americans are starting to leave the
meet their needs and interests and that are often techie hub [of Silicon Valley] faster than theyre
superior to what other geographies can offer. arriving due to cost and quality of life issues.
When a new venture starts raking in the
The Specific Advantages of Massachusetts revenue, the Big Apple and the Bay Area will
for Israeli Founders keep a much bigger bite. Better to make the
right choice to slow the burn rate, get to profit
For a snapshot view comparing Boston to other sooner, and avoid relocating later.43
major U.S. startup ecosystems, see figure 12,
Boston vs. NYC vs. Silicon Valley.42 Here are a Boston beats NY hands-down for size of
few of Bostons highlights specific to the needs of the start-up community. For U.S. residents,
Israeli entrepreneurs: Boston is understood to be the superior
startup ecosystem to NY in general, and in
Massachusetts deeply undercuts California most sectors. Some key stats:
and NY on costs of business, living, and taxes. Boston has about 40% more VC-backed
Which states are among the worst taxers in startups than NYC.
the nation? New York at 49th and California Boston has almost twice as many IPOs in
at 48th. By comparison, Massachusetts is in the past three years versus NYC.
the middle of the pack at 25th. According to Boston has twice as many companies
the annual analysis of the Tax Foundation, that succeeded after an IPO, measuring
the combined burden of corporate, individual, these scale-ups as companies that have
sales, and property taxes is what sank the achieved at least $100m in sales.
other states compared to Massachusetts. Massachusetts and NY run neck-and-neck
in venture capital, with a quarterly variation
Taxation matters for startups if they have a of plus-or-minus 10% between them.
longer term view to scaling up. Ask GE, who
moved its corporate HQ from Connecticut The widely watched Bloomberg State
(44th in taxation) to Boston in 2016, prompted Innovation Index sums up the advantages:
by excessive government levies. Massachusetts is ranked The Most
Innovative State in America.44
When it comes to cost of living, NYC comes in Boston is a lot easier (and cheaper) to reach
almost 20% higher, even accounting for those than the West Coast. Silicon Valley has its
who live in the suburbs of NJ or Connecticut. attractions, but one of them is not distance
or cost to reach Israel. Even the new TLV-
The 2016 update from the Silicon Valley

FIGURE 12
Boston vs NYC vs Silicon ValleyBoston comes in 1st or 2nd in every measure
BOSTON NYC Silicon Valley

COMPARISON & MA & NY & CA
Cost of
Index of costs, USA = 100 134 #1 159 #3 153 #2
Living
Cost of Index of costs for software & digital firms,

101 #1 106 #3 105 #2
Business USA = 100
COSTS
Taxes 2016 rank among all 50 U.S. states #25 #1 #49 #3 #48 #2
Travel Cost 1 week round-trip, compact car rental or

$3,726 #1 $4,024 #2 $5,526 #3
Israel-U.S. Uber, 3-star Hilton, TLV nonstop flight
Number of
Number of VC backed firms 1990-2013 1,892 #2 1,367 #3 3,859 #1
Startups
Number of 1990-2014 IPOs that had

161 74 414
STARTUPS
#2 #3 #1
Scale-Ups 2014 sales of $100m-$500m
VC $$$ Share of all U.S. VC investments, 2015 10% #2 10% #2 47% #1
IPOs Percentage of all U.S. IPOs, 2013-2015 9% #2 5% #3 23% #1
Education & K-12 rank among 50 U.S. states 1 27 30

#1 #2 #3
Workforce Population w/ graduate degrees, U.S. rank 1 9 13
TALENT
# highest-level universities per Carnegie 7 4 2

R&D #1 #3 #2
U.S. SBIR & STTR grants per $1m GDP, 2014 $539 $ 71 $206
Time
Time zone vs. Israel 7 hours #1 7 hours #1 10 hours #3
Difference
TIME
23 hrs, #2 22 hrs, #1 29 hrs, #3

Flight time Minimum nonstop round-trip duration
10 min 27 min 15 min
Work 4 hrs, #1 6 hrs, #3 4 hrs, #1

Average weekly round-trip commute
Commute 54 min 37 min 55 min
COMPARISONS ARE AMONG MSAS WHEN POSSIBLE (BOSTON, NYC, AND THE COMBINED SAN FRANCISCO & SAN JOSE), ELSE AMONG THE
STATES OF MA, NY, AND CA). | SOURCES: SEE ENDNOTE 42.

SFO nonstop is three hours longer each way. one of the most desirable locations in
Plus, a one-week trip, inclusive of all travel America. And really, the snow isnt so bad,
expenses to the super-expensive locale of especially for those who might enjoy building
San Jose, is about $1,800 more per trip than a snowman with their kids, or taking up skiing
comparable travel to Boston. or snowboarding.45
For companies with dozens of trips per

year, an extra $1,800+ per trip adds up fast. A One-Degree of Separation Relationship
Choosing Silicon Valley is a great way to
burn through cash for travel expenses, and Boston is more than an attractive place to grow
throws away valuable time with employees, a business for Israeli entrepreneursand Israel
customers, and family. is more than a nice place for Bostonians to visit
or do business. The decades of connection,
Plus, EL ALs Boston nonstop and its Sunday diverse institutional partnerships, and special ties
/ Tuesday / Thursday nighttime flying between the residents make for a relationship
schedule in each direction makes the that can best be characterized as one degree of
trip easy. separation. Specifically,
Boston has an outstanding quality of life An established Israeli community of 20,000

that bests NYC in every consumer survey. makes Boston especially comfortable.
Greater Boston routinely places at the top of Decades of Israeli entrepreneurship in
the charts for best places to live in America. Massachusetts have resulted in a well-
For example, the Pew Research Center tells established community of Israeli expatriates,
that 43% of adults who are college graduates who now number over 20,000 living in towns
want to live in Boston, but only 28% would such as Brookline, Lexington, and Newton.
choose NYC. These bi-nationals enjoy helping their visiting
( friends and colleagues) figure out the
Similarly, Mercers global study ranks Boston best places to live, where their kids can get
ahead of NYC at #34 to #44. a great education in English and Hebrew,
perhaps taking them to a Celtics game, or
Another study on the Best Cities for putting their names on the guest list for the
Quality of Lifewhich measures income, Israel Independence Day / party.46
affordability, health benefits, the local
economy, and work-life balanceplaces Dozens of organizations in greater Boston
Boston at #18, well ahead of NYC at #92. cater to the interests of its Israeli residents
in feeling at home and forming business,
Looking at specific suburbs favored by tech academic, cultural, and community
executives to buy a home, Livability.com puts connections. For a complete list, see
the Boston town of Newton, MA ahead of Appendix B, Israel-Related Organizations in
White Plains, NY at #42 to #57. Massachusetts.
Why the buzz about greater Boston? A lot Massachusetts universities serve as the
of reasons in combination: Superior K-12 first calling card for many Israelis. The initial
education, outstanding healthcare, abundant exposure for many future Israeli founders
cultural institutions, manageable size, the of Boston businesses is higher education.
sports-crazy culture, and the states history as Nearly 300 Israelis are studying or doing
the Birthplace of the American Revolution. research in undergraduate through post-
For those who need to choose a home away doc programs, most often at Harvard, MIT,
from home, Massachusetts is considered Brandeis, Berklee, or Boston University.

(See figure 13, Israelis Studying in New partnerships continue to arise, like
Massachusetts). MassChallenge Israel. In 2016, the worlds
most startup-friendly accelerator opened
Israeli students who attend college in its Israeli branch, to bring its unique brand
Massachusetts usually leave the state of no strings attached participation and
after graduation. But tellingly, if they start global access to the Israeli market. In just
or expand a business, they often chose its first year of operation, this Boston export
Massachusetts for their U.S. HQ, leveraging has vaulted to the top of the Israeli market,
the ties they developed previously. MIT has becoming the largest of all incubators and
notably deep and fruitful connections to accelerators there by the number of teams
Israel, as described in the sidebar The MIT & accepted to the program, in a country that
Israel Special Relationship. reportedly already has 100 of them operating.
Plus, MC-IL is bringing the world to Israel,
with the presence of foreign finalists, bridge
programs, and corporate sponsors from the
FIGURE 13 U.S., Germany, Australia and elsewhere.
Israelis Studying in Massachusetts

The Massachusetts governor and state
government are active partners with Israel.
The most recent former governor, Deval
Patrick, led two trade missions to Israel that
set the bar for state outreach to an economic
partner. Many real outcomes came from these
trips, such as the initiation of nonstop flights.
State Senate President Stan Rosenberg and
Speaker of the House Robert DeLeo have
also led their colleagues on Israel study tours,
and have promoted bills in their legislatures
to tighten ties.
The Israeli government prioritizes Boston

ABOUT 300 EACH YEAR, CONCENTRATED IN 5 SCHOOLS
LAUNCH EVENT FOR MASSCHALLENGE ISRAEL WITH MANAGING DIRECTOR ISRAEL GANOT AND MASSCHALLENGE FOUNDER AND CEO JOHN
HARTHORNE, JERUSALEM, JANUARY 2016

THE DELEGATION OF MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNOR DEVAL PATRICKS INNOVATION PARTNERSHIP MISSION, AT THE YITZHAK RABIN CENTER,
TEL AVIV, MAY 2014
& New England relationships. Boston is

one of only a handful of U.S. cities that have
merited Israeli Consulates, which brings
extra attention to local opportunities. (For
example, cities with more than double
the population of Boston, such as Dallas,
Phoenix, and San Diego, havent yet earned
that level of attention, and Philadelphia lost
its Consulate in 2015, despite the presence
of Teva in the state.)
Notably, the New England office was the first

Consulate worldwide to establish a full-time
economic affairs office in 2011, recognizing
the enormous opportunity for Israeli-founded
business in the greater Boston area. It
organizes an endless stream of events, such
as the CEO Forum series and the annual
mega-sized Israel Independence Day Party.
And Israeli Chief Scientist Avi Hasson landed
Massachusetts as the first U.S. state for its
cooperative R&D grant program backed by
real financial resources.
In addition, BIRDthe U.S-Israel Binational

Industrial Research and Development
Fundprovides grants for promising
THE ISRAELI FLAG RISES TO THE RAFTERS IN LOGAN AIRPORTS
TERMINAL E AT THE DEDICATION CEREMONY FOR THE NEW BOS-
commercial R&D opportunities between
TLV NONSTOP FLIGHT, JUNE 2015 the U.S. and Israel. A notable success story

is ReWalk, which secured BIRD support
for product development, subsequently
leading to FDA approval of an exoskeleton
walking device for paraplegics, and the
companys successful growth in Israel and
Massachusetts. Since 2007, Massachusetts
businesses have received 13 BIRD grants,
placing it in the top 5 recipient states. Some
of the other companies that have benefited
from BIRD grants and anchored new
Massachusetts-Israel partnerships include
BigBand, Desalitech, enVerid, EMC, and
Houghton Mifflin.47
REWALK FOUNDER AMIT GOFFER AND TEAM ON THE DAY OF THE
COMPANYS NASDAQ INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERING, SEPTEMBER 2014
Boston professional service firms have
built Israeli practice areas. Helping U.S.-
Israel businesses succeed is a specialty
that requires knowledge of cross-border events for Boston-based residents. A
transactions, international IP, taxation, brief list of its many successes includes
employment agreements, and cultural the Boston-Haifa Connection, the Boston
differences. Boston law firms recognized for Cybersecurity Mission to Israel, and the
their U.S.-Israel acumen include Goodwin Harvard Deans Academic Mission to
Procter, Foley Hoag, Mintz Levin, and Israel.
othersas well as Israeli firms with Boston American Technion Society, which brings
offices like Pearl Cohen and the joint-venture world-renowned academicians to the
ZAG/S&W. Bay State throughout the year for public
presentations in fields such as robotics,
Beyond law firms, many other Boston stem cells, and tech transfer.
professional services firms specialize in Jewish National Fund, which connects
helping Israeli startups enter the U.S. market, Massachusetts residents to the land,
such as media relations experts Rainier water, environment, and communities of
Communications and Northwind Strategies, Israel through briefings and travel.
as well as the medical device gurus at Boston The Jewish Community Relations Council
MedTech Advisors. runs annual Beacon Hill legislators
missions, as well as clergy tours, to
Non-profits create lasting connections. connect non-Jewish leaders to Israel in
Dozens of NGOs in Massachusetts count areas of their interest, such as innovation
building relationships with Israel as a core in environmental policy, social service,
part of their missions. Among the most notable: and Christian heritage.
The New England-Israel Business Council Additionally, many other organizations
sponsors a steady stream of networking operate annual missions between
events and seminars that attract hundreds Boston and Israel to train and connect
of participants throughout the year, in dozens of leaders, such as the
sectors as diverse as cybersecurity, water MAOZ-Seal Leadership Program, Our
tech, and life sciences. Generation Speaks, the Wexner Israel
CJP, which fosters relationships with Fellowship at Harvard University, and the
Israel through expert speakers, missions, Ruderman Fellows.
and celebrations, supports an astonishing
number of ongoing programs and special A robust Jewish community cherishes its

deeply connected to Israel. The states
Jewish community is over 200,000 in
The first-known prototype of
population and growing, representing more
than 9% of the greater Boston population.
Israels flag was designed and
The majority of households are engaged displayed in Boston in 1891,
in Jewish lifein all major categories of more than 50 years before the
affiliationincluding synagogue membership, State of Israel was formed.
Jewish learning, communal service, and
philanthropy. And the connection to Israel is
strong, with 95% report feeling attachment
to Israel. Local community leaders observe
that Jewish life in Boston, one of the
oldest Jewish communities in America, is
experiencing a renaissance that has been
on a steady uptrend for thirty years. Some of
the earliest connections for Israeli-founded
businesses were established with the help of
the Jewish community, and continue to find
fertile ground for new ventures with the help
of their Boston brethren.48
Something unfamiliar to most people: The

first-known prototype of Israels flag was
designed and displayed in Boston in 1891, REPLICA OF THE FIRST-KNOWN PROTOTYPE OF THE FLAG OF THE
STATE OF ISRAEL, DESIGNED AND DISPLAYED IN BOSTON IN 1891,
more than 50 years before the State of Israel MORE THAN 50 YEARS BEFORE THE NATION WAS FORMED
was formed. The Boston prototype included
the core elements of todays flag, with a
white background, two horizontal blue bars,
and a blue Star of David. Even before Israels
modern founders established the State in
1948, Bostons Jews were connected to them
and planning for their future.49
Israelis are invested in the lives of

Bostonians. Whether studying or building
businesses in Massachusetts, visiting family,
or engaging with co-religionists, the people of
Massachusetts and the people of Israel have
ties that go beyond transactional relationships.
For a particularly meaningful example, see the
sidebar A Friend in Tough Times.

The MIT & Israel Special Relationship
Israeli students and researchers at MIT MIT coursework also integrates travel to
have been a plentiful source of founders for Israel to learn about the countrys technology
Massachusetts-Israel companies, including and economy. On-the-ground curricular study
Akamai, Formlabs, OmniGuide, Rhythmia has included visits to: the Red Sea to learn
Medical, RSA, Scitex, Superpedestrian, and about reverse osmosis; Kiryat Gat to learn
others. Other famous MIT alumni from Israel about city planning; and an entrepreneurial
include current Prime Minister Benjamin consulting class called Israel Lab. MIT Hillels
Netanyahu and the former Governor of the ConnecTech is a year-long fellowship for MIT
Bank of Israel Stanley Fischer. Today, over 500 students at the Technion, to learn and create
MIT alumni live in Israel. These prodigious person-to-person bridges between the two
examples point to the long-standing and deep communities.
ties between MIT and Israel.
Extra-curricular travel includes the annual
Here are some of the MIT programs that help iTrek, organized by MIT Sloan students for
foster this deep relationship: their peers to meet with senior government
makers, tap into the Israel tech ecosystem,
The MISTI MIT-Israel program sends more and gain a deeper understanding of Israeli
than 60 students each year to Israel for an society with 140 students participating in
all-expenses paid internship. About 500 2016 as well as a Security Seminar in Israel
students to date have participated, from for ROTC students.
undergraduate through doctorate levels,
worked on projects such as synthetic drug On-campus, MIT organizes a three-day class
development at Teva, 3D image processing at on Startup Nation for Sloan students, and
Google Israel, robotic vision at Technion, and multiple programs are offered year-round by
computational biology at Weizmann. the Sloan Israel Business Club, the MIT Israel
Students Association, and the MIT Friends of
TheMIT-Israel Seed Fundsupports Israel.50
collaborations between MIT faculty and
researchers and their counterparts in Israel.
Now in its first year, six projects were chosen
from 35 applicants, with funding awarded
to undertake projects in hydropower, STEM
education, pseudo-random functions, and other
diverse fields. A separate Seed Fund supports
additional collaborations between researchers
at MIT and the Ben-Gurion University.
In the reverse direction, a post-doctoral

stipend program funds six Technion PhDs
to take up fellowships at MIT each year. In
Jerusalem, MEETMiddle East Education
through Technologyuses technology and
business to create bonds among Israeli and
Palestinian students, based on an intensive
three-year program in Jerusalem taught by
instructors from MIT.

A Friend In Tough Times
April 15, 2013 was a dark day in Bostons resilience and the importance of moving on
history. Two bombs at the Boston Marathon with the business of Boston. It is clear that
finish line killed three and injured 264. Like within moments of the Marathon Bombings
other moments in history, however, terrible and hours after, many Boston officials
events can bring out the best in human tapped into their professional experiences in
spirit. Israel.
First-responders rushed selflessly to help The partnership with Israel was essential
victims, despite the possibility of secondary to recovery efforts as well, when six
blasts, and Bostons finest medical experts from the Israel Trauma Coalition
professionals saved every injured victims for Response and Preparedness came to
life, many of whom were critically hurt. Boston in May, providing 20 crisis response
workshops for the professional community
When asked what experience helped them in Watertown where one of the perpetrators
during the tragedy and chaos, many of these was apprehended in a street shootout,
professionals identified their prior training and at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical
from Israeli experts. Dr. Alasdair Conn, chief Center, with support from CJP of Greater
of emergency services at Mass. General Boston. Jason Del Porto, Vice Principal of
Hospital, explained why he and his team Watertown Middle School, leveraged the
were so well prepared: About two years teams expertise to create a coping and
ago we asked the Israelis to come across, recovering process that [was] open to the
and they helped us set up our disaster entire community. He added that the Israelis
team so that we could respond in this kind brought it to a new level.
of manner. Beth Israel Medical Deaconess
Center, which treated 24 of the injured, Finally, in the immediate aftermath of
was also heavily influenced by Israel. The the bombing, the FBI and Joint Terrorism
hospitals CEO, Kevin Tabb, served and Task Force deployed analytical tools from
trained as a medic in the Israeli Defense an Israeli company to help them identify
Forces and dealt with numerous terrorist the still-at-large criminals. That company,
attacks and bombings during his residency BriefCam, developed a unique technology
at Israels Hadassah Hospital. for video synopsis, which was able to
analyze the thousands of videos recorded
In the immediate aftermath of the bombing, that day and distinguish the suspects faces
MBTA Transit Police Superintendent Joseph conclusively, providing crucial information in
OConnor and Deputy Lewis Best credited the manhunt.
their training in Israel with heightened
performance on that April day. Kurt Other Israeli organizations that had provided
Schwartz, director of the Massachusetts or sponsored emergency response training
Emergency Management Agency, had and/or immediate counsel to city and
similar praise, explaining that he learned state officials included the Israel Center
in Israel about managing mass casualty for Emergency Preparedness, the Israel
events and providing immediate response National Police, Magen David Adom, Natal,
to address post-traumatic stress. Schwartz AIPACs Israel office, and Anti-Defamation
quoted Boston Police Commissioner Ed Leagues Israel office.
Davis as saying I learned in Israel that now
is the time to show strength and talk about All of the organizations noted above were

awarded a special citation of appreciation by
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick at a
special recognition ceremony in their honor,
at the Yitzhak Rabin Center in Tel Aviv in
May 2014.
The long-standing friendshipand mutual

supportamong Massachusetts and
Israeli emergency response professionals
exemplifies the depth of connections
between the two geographies. In Kurt
Schwartzs words, On Marathon Monday,
Israel was a true friend.51
MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNOR DEVAL PATRICK AWARDING

A CITATION OF APPRECIATION TO EXECUTIVES FROM
BRIEFCAM, WITH MAYOR SETTI WARREN OF NEWTON, AT THE
YITZHAK RABIN CENTER, TEL AVIV, MAY 2014

The Intense Competition Across
the USA To Win Israeli Business
The U.S. competition at the state level to FIGURE 14

attract immigrant entrepreneursand Israelis
in particularis aggressive and quickening. Country of Origin for Foreign Founders of U.S.
Why? Foreign expatriates who build or expand Tech Companies
businesses in the U.S. are a significant driver of
the American economy. According to a study
by the Kauffman Foundation, 24% of American
businesses founded since 2006 in technology
or engineering sectors were created by foreign-
born executives.
The Kauffman report also performed a state-

by-state comparison based on a study of over
100,000 businesses. This survey found that
Massachusetts has the top position with Israeli
entrepreneurs, who formed a greater percentage
of expatriate-founded business in the Boston area
versus California, New York, or any other state.
The frequency of Israeli-founders in

Massachusetts tech companies is especially
impressive when noting that Israel, with a
population of only 8 million, is the second-
most prevalent population of all immigrant
entrepreneurs in the state, topped only by India,
a country with a population of 1.2 billion. (See
figure 14, Country of Origin for Tech Company
Immigrant Founders).52
To boost their attractiveness, many states

are assertively and increasingly marketing
themselves to Israeli-founded businesses:
Governors have taken 30 trade missions to

Israel since 2010. Virginias Terry McAuliffe, partnerships. The former Massachusetts
Wisconsins Scott Walker, and others Governor Deval Patrick led two missions,
make these trips to establish government- which included the largest business delegation
to-government agreements, promote of any state and a long list of substantive
business relationships, and create academic outcomes.53 See figure 15, Governors Took 30
Trade Missions to Israel.54

FIGURE 15
Labs has invested seed funds in about 50
Israeli-founded companies that have set
Governors Took 30 Trade Missions to Israel in up offices in Silicon Valley or NYC. Marker
2010-2015 LLC has placed bets on about 70 startup-
rounds to accelerate Israeli companies
entry to the U.S. market. Some of the other
U.S.-based VC funds actively recruiting
Israeli startups to their geographies include
Pereg Ventures (NY), LionBird (Chicago),
and YL Ventures (San Francisco). Even a
local trade associationthe Maryland-Israel
Development Councilco-manages a fund
with Israeli incubator Trendlines, focused on
medical device companies destined for the
mid-Atlantic.
Conferences promoting U.S.-Israeli business

are popping up all across the America. The
Follow-up agreements put skin in the game. Israel Dealmakers Summit is a whos who of
Some state economic development agencies tech investors and major CEOslike Vinod
match Israeli government funds to support Khosla, Jeffrey Immelt, and Shari Redstone
R&D projects between local and Israeli firms. shuttling between NY and Silicon Value
For example, Floridas grant program focuses conference locations. And for eight years, the
on aerospace opportunities, while Colorados godfather of Israel tech, Yossi Vardi, has co-
defines six specific industries. Other states chaired a two-day shmoozefest at the Israel
focus on state university collaborations. In NY Conference in Los Angeles, to divine the
for example, SUNY and an Israeli consortium future of technology and U.S.-Israel business.
are jointly putting up almost $3m to develop The list of Israeli tech networking events in
the latest silicon wafer technology, while the U.S. is long, the focus areas are diverse,
Texas A&M is opening up a $5m marine and the number of American cities hosting
research center in Haifa.55 them is growing rapidly.
States and metro areas have trade offices

in Israel to funnel business their way.
Almost two dozen areaslike New York,
Pennsylvania, and Fairfax County, Virginia
have representatives in Israel to talk up the
benefits of their states and cities.56
New VC funds in NY and Silicon Valley

specifically aim to invest in Israeli start-ups.
Across the USA, new VC funds are popping
up to provide a vehicle for investors to bet
on Israeli start-ups and help their portfolio
companies grow in the U.S. market.
Blumberg Capital of San Francisco and NY
is completing the fundraising of its fourth
fund at $200m with a special interest and
track record in Israeli opportunities. UpWest

Recommendations: Opportunities
to Seed the Future
To accelerate the mutual business benefits history of global impact. Similarly, the
between Boston and Israel, and to stay ahead successful collaboration with Ben Gurion
of competitive geographies, new initiatives can University for student study abroad can be
concentrate on expanding current opportunities widened to include other post-secondary
and identifying new areas of mutual growth. institutions, for example, with the Weizmann
Institute in basic sciences, Hebrew University
in biology, or IDC in international business.
Universities: Increase The Flow of Students Or, the Brandeis Heller school can tap into
& Faculty in Both Directions Israels advanced state of healthcare IT to
develop case studies or practicums for the
Babson, tops in entrepreneurship, can schools Masters in Health and
leverage closer ties with the Start-Up Medical Informatics.
Nation. U.S. News & World Reports has
ranked the Babson MBA program #1 for UMass has an opportunity to enrich the
entrepreneurs for 23 consecutive years, student body and invigorate the faculty.
but it lacks programmatic offerings in the The UMass system, with 5 campuses and
worlds leading entrepreneurship country. over 70,000 students, enrolls over 2,500
The college offers 122 foreign study options international students, but few from Israel,
in places such as Argentina, Botswana, and as shown in the preceding figure 13. Israeli
the Czech Republic but none of any type students come to American universities with
in Israel.57 To give students a flavor of why more experience than the average co-ed,
Israel is widely-recognized as one of the having completed national military service
worlds most successful entrepreneurial and often some work experience before
clusters, Babson can add the Start-Up Nation embarking on college. Quality and cost matter
to its roster of educational and internship to them, and the UMass system can infuse a
opportunitieslike neighbors BU, Harvard, well-prepared, globally focused contingent
MIT, and others docommensurate with the from Israel into the student body by recruiting
schools well-deserved standing as the global Israeli grad students to the universitys most
entrepreneurship education leader. important disciplines for growth, such as earth
sciences and engineering.
Brandeis can extend its leadership in
Israel studies and innovation. The schools Similarly, faculty partnerships with Israeli peers
Schusterman Center broke new ground by tapping U.S.-Israel Binational Science
establishing Israel studies as a worthy Foundation (BSF) grants for example can
academic endeavor. The program to train expand research horizons around business,
scholars worldwide can be extended to environment, and the hard sciences.
disciplines beyond the liberal arts to include
the sciences and business, in order to explore WPI can take its Global Projects Program to
and connect with this countrys accelerating Israel for water tech and biomed. Worcester

Polytechs strengths in applied science learn first-hand about the Start-Up
correspond closely to fields of expertise at Nation, and share their expertise about
Israeli academia. The Institute sends about cracking the U.S. market with future Israeli
50% of its science and engineering students entrepreneurs.59
to 40 project centers around in 25 countries, IDCs Lauder School, which organizes
but not yet to Israel. To enable its students the Herzliya Conferenceperhaps the
to plug into the world leader in water tech worlds leading security symposiumis
and medical device start-ups, WPI can ramp a natural fit with the security and Middle
up affiliations with peers at Technion, Ben East concentrations at Harvards Kennedy
Gurion, or other institutions recognized as School, the MITs Security Studies
leaders in these fields. Program, or Tufts Fletcher School.
The Arava Institute, Ben Gurion
Northeastern can add Israel to its MBA University, and Technions Grand
Corporate Residency and Field Study Institute would gain a global focus in
programs. Northeasterns program aims alliance with Worcester Polytechs or
to teach students about globalization by UMasss leadership in energy, water, and
offering students a chance to work or study environmental sciences.
abroad with focus areas in entrepreneurship,
healthcare management, and other fields. As MASA can use Boston as a test-bed to ramp
the largest startup capital outside the U.S., up its approach to recruiting foreign students.
Israel seems like a natural fit. The public service organization of the Prime
Ministers Office and the Jewish Agency, Masa
Similarly, with 8,500 international students Israel, is tasked with providing educational
at NEU, the university can aim to place in opportunities to foreigners in Israel. But its
the top 5 of Massachusetts schools that pitch to participants is about 2,000 years
Israeli grad students also find attractive. of history and unforgettable sights, plus
Northeasterns special brand of business and a financial grant for everyone, regardless of
co-op education are a perfect fit for future need. This approach is well suited to prospects
Israeli entrepreneurs looking to understand who already have a connection to Israel. To
the path to U.S. and global business success. reach those who are clamoring for the best
education in their chosen fieldsespecially
Israel can turn the tables on faculty brain those without prior connection to Israelthe
drain. Israeli society is rightly concerned with message can be reoriented to students who
the loss of brainpower when its academics want to be at the center of cybersecurity
take positions abroad.58 But imploring innovation, startup education, the hotbed of
academics to stay put ignores the necessary IoT, or other current disciplines.
free flow of ideas and talent, which is a key
underpinning of the research discipline. The Recanati School at IDC Herzliya proves
Instead of counting only Israelis who hold it can be done, with about 25% of its student
research positions and professorships in body attending from 80 countries. Foreign
Israel, universities can create brain gain students not only bring higher enrollment
programs to attract foreign academics to and diversity, but often also come at a full-
work in Israel, especially in fields with Israeli pay rate. Yet, they wont come knocking
strength or investment. In particular: on Israels door all by themselvesthey
Tel Aviv University or Technion in need to be recruited. With over 100,000
partnership with Babson College or bachelors recipients graduating colleges
Northeasternare obvious pairings for in Massachusetts and New England each
business faculty exchange or sabbatical year, this population is geographically
years where American professors can concentrated to make for a rich recruiting

environment, especially for Israeli graduate Similarly, the Israel Dealmakers Summit is
degree programs.60 a popular gathering of the U.S. and Israeli
ecosystem around startups and innovation.
TAMID can recruit college alumni to serve But it is seeking new audiences, and this
on advisory boards. The Israel business years conference moved from NYC to San
clubs on campus have tapped a fertile Francisco. To gin up new audiences from
ground of student interest. To assist with across the U.S., Boston can be a lucrative
making business connections and to ensure location for 2017, considering the 200+ Israeli
organizational sustainability beyond this founded businesses here, the 9,000 people
years leadership, TAMID clubs at Harvard, directly employed in those companies, the
Brandeis, BU, and Northeastern may want to deep bench of partners to Israel companies
recruit alumni of their universities who share (like GE, IBM, Philips, and others), its closer
their interests to serve on advisory boards proximity to Israel, and easier reach for east
that provide professional counsel to students coast companies.
on campus, to ensure sustainability year after
year, and to support the TAMID mission with Tap Israel to help Massachusetts drive
their time and perhaps even funds. to 100% adoption of EHR and health
information exchange. Israels success
in adopting eHealth is world-class: 100%
Government: Pump-Priming Makes a electronic health records, 96% electronic
Difference prescriptions, and 60% participation in a
healthcare information exchange, plus 300
Task the MCCA to bring the RSA Conference Israeli eHealth startups and established
and Israel Dealmakers Summit to Boston. companies. Its exportable technology is
Winning the RSA Conference would be a big robust, but the Israeli industry would relish
win for the Massachusetts Convention Center increased U.S. market experience.
Authority (MCCA). The worlds largest cyber
security confab is the preeminent gathering Massachusettsas the worlds largest life
of industry professionals with over 40,000 sciences cluster, with the top hospitals,
attendees, taking place in San Francisco. and leading eHealth companies like
Whats the benefit to Dell-EMC of bringing athenahealth, eClinicalWorks, Meditech, and
the RSA conference to Boston, perhaps IBM Watson Healthis a natural candidate
biannually? 1) To deepen attendance from to lead American health care IT. The benefits
the U.S. east coast and European-centered of improved patient care and reduced
businesses, where more of the Forbes costs statewide are a compelling goal by
Global 2,000 are located than the west themselves, but the opportunity to also be
coast; 2) To advance the diversification of the showcase for adoption will put the state
the U.S. cybersecurity industry beyond its in the leading position to establish U.S.
Silicon Valley-first mentality; and 3) Because dominance in the sector as well. Israel has
RSAs headquarters is in greater Boston, the experience to help the state get there.
to strengthen the local ecosystem as an
essential cyber hub. The Conference even MLSC and industry can collaborate to brand
hosts an Israeli Entrepreneurs Breakfast, so the state as the global translational hub.
moving to a biannual Boston presence would Shepherding a promising molecule from
further strengthen Boston-Israel ties for the research to commercial drug has lots of
benefit of the industry overall and these two speed bumps along the way. Scientists often
economies where RSA has larger operations dont have the experience to jump these
than in Silicon Valley. translational hurdles, so their innovations
frequently never have the chance see the

light of day. Israeli biological discoveries are on the ground in Israel to make the case
plentiful from Hebrew University, Tel Aviv why Massachusetts should be the countrys
University, Technion, Weizmann, and others preeminent partner. As scores of Israeli
but remain trapped in labs and constrained start-ups attract new investment each year
TTOs, without partners to help steer them. to open foreign offices, Massachusetts
can work this abundant list of pre-qualified
Massachusetts can be that partner. The state prospects to make the Commonwealth
has the full range of capabilities, although pitch. In the absence of a single source for
they have not been coalesced and marketed sustained government funding, the state can
as such. Specialized translational capabilities explore creative financing through a public-
are abundant and offered by research private partnershipusing a combination of
institutions (like Boston University, Dana legislative or executive branch funds, plus
Farber, Harvard, Tufts, and UMass), hospitals business and philanthropic sourcesas
(like Boston Children and Mass. General), and exemplified by the funding approach for
industry (like Charles River Labs, PAREXEL, the Israel trade reps used by competitors in
ThermoFisher, life sciences incubators, and Maryland and Virginia.
hundreds of CROs).
MassVentures can connect with Israeli
These Massachusetts experts touch all startups that are scouting Massachusetts.
phases of translational work, from study This quasi-public corporation, formed by
design through stakeholder engagement the state legislature, selectively funds new
tapping experts in biostatistics, population startups with a local presence, and has
research, regulatory matters, and other already made minority investments in two
fields. Combined with the presence of all companies founded or co-founded by Israelis
the major pharma companies in the state in Massachusetts (Applause and Inside
and the abundant talent in this center of Tracker). Dozens more Israeli-companies
the life sciences industries, all the go-to- consider where to place their U.S. HQ each
market pieces are in place for promising drug year. MassVentures can raise the states
candidates to make the translational hurdle. profile among Israeli-founded businesses to
fund the pick of the litter, and cement their
The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center relationship to Massachusetts.
(MLSC), MassBio, and other organizations
are well positioned to collaborate on MOTT can promote Massachusetts tourism
promoting the state as a one-stop-shop for in Israel. Israelis are global vacationers,
all translational phases. Israel brings a rich but the Commonwealth is not high on their
pipeline of drug candidates, and could be the destination list. This high-income, frequent
ideal test market for such a program, helping flyer population could be attracted to the
their research find commercial success. many cultural destinations and recreational
opportunities in Massachusetts and New
Beacon Hill and industry together can England if they knew about them. The
find a formula to sustain the trade office Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism
in Israel. Massachusetts has periodically (MOTT) can engage in a targeted campaign
had an Israeli trade office to promote the that directly reports to the agency, to promote
state as superior to other destinations for the Bay States sites, culture, and natural
global expansion. But these nascent efforts attractions to prime tourism dollars, helping to
have always been shuttered in challenging push EL ALs nonstop route to great frequency
economic times. To stay ahead of California, or upgrade to the 787, and further connect
NY, and international competitors like China Israelis to the local business community.
and India, Massachusetts needs boots

The legislature can scale-up the proven product pitches and hackathons.
Global Entrepreneur-in-Residence program. By bringing together senior executives
Massachusetts pioneered a new approach from around the worldsuch as Fortune
to securing visas for foreign entrepreneurs, 1,000 CEOs, prize-winning researchers,
which are limited by an annual H1-B visa cap and top-tier financiersto define key
of 85,000 and was oversubscribed by about shared priorities, together they can propel
3x in 2015. By contributing their knowledge the industry forward through industry
and experience part-time in a Massachusetts conversation around collaboration.
university setting, a foreign entrepreneur
may then work on their company in Many of the best and brightest in
Boston and receive a visa as a Global cybersecurity already take-up residence
Entrepreneur-in-Residence (GEIR). In its first in Boston and/or Israel at Akamai,
year of operation, the program received a CyberArk, Check Point, MIT, RSA, Team 8,
pilot amount of $160,000 in funding from and Veracode, plus key users like Fidelity,
the state and matching corporate funds, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, GE,
to support ten GEIRs. Payback has already Raytheon, and TJX . It would be natural for
been achieved many times over, with 150 this World Cyber Foruman invitation-
people employed and $50m capital raised only VIP eventto hold its annual meeting
by the GEIRs companies. alternating between Boston and Israel, these
two capitals of the global industry.
With about 25% of tech startups in
Massachusetts founded by immigrants, The states financial services giants can take
yet visas to attract them scarce, the GEIR a page from Citi and Barclays. To stay on top
program is a proven path for creating of the rapid pace change in fintech, Citicorp
knowledge-worker jobs and attracting capital opened a Technology Innovation Lab in Israel
investment to the state and worthy of to encourage fresh ideas and startups, with
additional state funding.61 special emphasis on customer-facing apps,
data analysis, risk management software,
and automated trading. Similarly, Barclays
Business & Industry Associations: Build on joined forces with TechStars to open a startup
Existing Successes accelerator in Israel.
With Israel citizens representing the second Massachusetts financial powerhouses

most common origin of foreign founders in Fidelity, Liberty Mutual, MFS, Putnam, State
Massachusetts tech businesses (see figure 14), Street, and othersrepresenting a $36 billion
they represent a natural constituency to engage industry in the state, can tap into the latest
more deeply to build on the successes of the fintech advances by making regular visits
past, in some of the following possible ways: to Israeli startups to source innovation, or
perhaps even following Citis and Barclays
Create a World Cybersecurity Forum event strategy by hanging out a shingle to open up
for VIPs. The World Economic Forum and an Israeli innovation lab.62
its annual meeting at Davos define a global
business agenda through the weight of Massachusetts industry associations can
its programs and caliber of participants. In tap new membership. The alphabet soup
cybersecurity, there are important events like of the states best trade associationsAIM,
the RSA Conference, Cybertech, and DEF MassBio, MassMEDIC, MassTLC, MHTC,
CON, but the industry lacks a forum for the MITX, and NECECcan target Israeli-founded
most senior executives to tackle this vexing businesses in Massachusetts as potential
challenge by aligning interests, away from new members, helping them to succeed in

the Commonwealth. To go a step further,
these economic development non-profits Many government and business leaders have
can partner with NEIBC and others to host given significant, serious time to marketing
visiting Israeli trade delegations, as well as the local economy. Indeed, their efforts
co-organize trade missions to Israel to tell the have been well appreciated both inside and
Commonwealth story and attract new partners. outside the state. But the perception gap
remains wide, partly because of the Silicon
Massachusetts industry associations can Valley hype machine, the centrality of NYC to
open doors to students while theyre here. business, and because other geographies are
With their proven record of starting or not standing still.
expanding businesses into Massachusetts,
foreign students are eager to soak up all To break from the pack, industry and
the connections they can while staying government can embark on specific
in the Bay State. To grab this opportunity, objectives to deliver sustained messaging
the industry associations listed above can out-of-statevia business missions, trade
organize networking events or a business fair show participation (in established and
to educate Israelis (and other visiting foreign newer industries), seed programs, marketing
students) about the riches of the Bay State activities, trade reps abroad, and most
and help them to engage with successful importantly, organized follow-up.
entrepreneurs, community-minded VCs, senior
business leaders, and government officials. Developing a brand for the Boston-centered
innovation-economylike Silicon Valley or
Co-working spaces & tech community hubs Israels Start-Up Nationwould also help
can sponsor global entrepreneur nights. communicate the states depth and diversity
By inviting Israeli and other foreign students in idea-generation, commercialization, talent,
at Harvard, MIT, and elsewhere studying in and capital. From being the cradle of the
Massachusetts to network with accomplished American Revolution to the home of DNA
Bostonians, co-working spaces and tech decoding, perhaps Massachusetts is Brain
community hubslike CIC, cove, Greentown Town or the Revolutionary Republic (or
Labs, Idea Space, Koa Labs, LabCentral, insert your best idea here).
NGIN, WeWork, and Workbarcan bring the
Bay State ecosystem alive for these future IAC can create a welcoming committee
founders. In turn, these organizations may for Israelis getting started in Boston. The
become preferred destinations for Israeli Israeli American Council has done wonders
alumni of Massachusetts when theyre ready helping Israelis feel like Boston is a treasured
to expand their businesses into the U.S. home-away-from-home. But for new arrivals,
finding community is daunting at first. To help
Brand the Boston ecosystem and raise the newest Massachusetts residents make
the perception of Massachusetts up to the friends, find out where their kids can study
reality. Despite Massachusetts earning top-tier Hebrew or where to buy the best challah, or
global rankings as an innovation economy, provide advice about cultural differences,
Boston is often perceived as a second-class the IAC can offer welcome sessions and
city, well behind Silicon Valley and NYC. As a online information that give a leg-up to their
TechStars investor explains, Boston appears fellow countrymenwhether they are college
undifferentiated only because it is not the students, academics, businesspeople, or a
consumer Internet leader, [and] therefore not family member along for the ride.
top of mind in the popular press. The diversity
of clusters in Boston make the storytelling El Al can step up its game to capture more
diffuse and more difficult.63 share. Establishing the BOS-TLV nonstop

service in 2015 was a winning movefor EL
AL, for Boston, and for Israel, with high load
factors appearing almost overnight. Despite
full planes on many days, the Israeli carrier
is still missing significant shareand more
profitfrom the Boston and U.S. connecting
market through its code-share agreement
with JetBlue. How can the flag carrier sell
more seats?
Aggressively court business deals. To
win frequent flyers and late-bookers, EL
AL can incent its sales reps and agents to
sign-up qualifying businesses, universities,
and non-profits to volume agreements.
Customer feedback about the current
corporate program is that it is needlessly
restrictive. To win those high-volume
bookings, EL AL can count all LY flights as
qualifying towards agreement minimums
and thresholds, regardless of the
continent of origination, the same as U.S.
nonstop competitors Delta and United.
Leverage the easier experience of Logan
to get started with the Dreamliner.
EL AL has announced equipment and
leasing agreements to put the ultra-
comfortable, energy efficient Boeing 787
(Dreamliner) into service throughout
North America, with deliveries expected
to start in late 2017. Which market first?
Bostons Logan Airport was the first to
service Dreamliner flights worldwide
and especially compared with JFK, EWR,
or LAXhas a strong track record that
demonstrates its ability to help EL AL get
started faster and more efficiently than
other aviation authorities.
Add more days. A significant percentage
of the flyers lost to other airlines is due
to the 3-day/week schedule of the BOS-
TLV nonstop. An early Friday morning
departure from TLV would allow business
people another workday in Israel to
culminate a weeklong trip. Similarly, a
Saturday night departure from Logan
would enable an additional workday at
the start of the week in Israel.

Conclusion: Emerging
Technologies Will Multiply the
Mutual Gain
In summary and looking forward, New industries are the pathway to

accelerating the pace of growth. Beyond
The Massachusetts-Israel economic the impressive measures of the current
relationship is healthy and growing rapidly. relationship, the future opportunity is even
With billions in revenue, thousands of jobs, greater. As knowledge-based economies,
and billions in capital transactionsgrowing both Israel and Boston ride the wave of
faster than the overall economythe technology progress. In addition to paying
Massachusetts-Israel partnership is robust, attention to ongoing opportunities in todays
and its benefits accrue to both sides. core disciplines of life sciences and IT, newer
sectors with grounding in both geographies
But competition is crowding out the are also worthy of emphasis today, such as
Boston story, and warrants response. As IoT, 3D printing, eHealth, energy and water,
more attention is being paid across the fintech, neuroscience, orphan diseases,
USA to building relationships with Israeli drones, and robotics.
business and academia, other geographies
are gaining ground over Massachusetts. Together, the two geographies will continue to
To claim the status of preeminent partner, grow faster together by leveraging the ideas,
Massachusetts and its senior executives in talent, capital, and market access of the other.
business, government, and academia can
seek opportunities to tell the states story
on-the-ground in Israel, via trade missions,
industry conferences, academic symposia,
one-on-meetings, marketing campaigns, and
other vehicles.
Business, government, and academia each

have significant growth opportunities. The
recommendations in the preceding section
describe a few ideas for creating new
economic benefits for specific organizations.
Each organization of course is best served
by charting its own path, based upon its
own needs, interests, and capacities. Those
interested in developing access to Israeli
innovation and entrepreneurship will find
willing partners in NEIBC, CJP, the Israeli
Consulate, the Israeli Ministry of Economy,
and others, who can assist with defining an
approach and making valuable connections.

Appendix A: Bostons Tech & Life
Sciences Ecosystems
The Boston area is long recognized as one of ecosystem. Here are the Boston PUPs groupings:
the worlds leading innovation ecosystems in
multiple sectors. But who are the top companies, Pillars
measured by capital or employees? This Pillars are defined as locally-headquartered
analysis aims to answer this question for the companies that have:
benefit of Israeli and other global entrepreneurs - Raised public or private capital of at least
considering where to setup shop in the U.S., to $50m in the past 3 years,
help them understand the depth and breadth of - Or raised public or private capital of at least
the Boston ecosystem. $100m since inception,
- Or have a valuation of $500m-$1b.
Successful business clusters are defined by
the concentration of companies in a particular They are usually focused in a single new
industry, in all stages of formation. Together, these product area, and demonstrate meaningful
companies anchor the ecosystem and attract traction and momentum. They tend to be the
even more talent, capital, growth, and innovation. first or among the first to define a sub-sector,
The Boston area is fortunate to be the home and therefore have potential to seed a wider
of multiple industry clusters in biotech, medical ecosystem around their niche.
devices, cybersecurity, data storage, robotics, and
other sectors. For this analysis, all companies are Unicorns
grouped into either tech or life sciences. Unicorns are locally-headquartered
companies with a private or public valuation
of $1b-$5b.
Introducing the Boston PUPs
Usually still focused in a single area, but with
To convey the size and promise of the companies category-defining success and momentum,
presented here, theyre categorized into one of unicorns often define a category that they
three tiers: Pillars, Unicorns, and Platforms, which pioneer, and draw further investment into the
are commonly-used terms for describing the ecosystem around them.
maturity of a company. Collectively, theyll go by
the acronym Boston PUPs. There are hundreds Platforms
of technology and life sciences companies that Platform companies are:
do not make the cut of the Boston PUPs, even - locally-headquartered companies with a
though they may demonstrate great success, valuation of >$5b,
momentum, and promise. Because this analysis - or multinationals headquartered elsewhere,
focuses on a minimum amount of capital raised, with >5,000 employees globally,
valuation, and/or employee size, smaller ventures and >250 employees locally (other than
dont qualify. The purpose for drawing this line sales employees).
is to identify only those firms who already have
or will likely have the greatest role in the local With even broader influence, the locally-

headquartered Platform companies have hit with the tech industry first, then life sciences.
stride, with wide market recognition of their
success and the ability to lead their sectors
for years to come. The multinational Platform
companies that have established a major
presence in the Boston area recognize the
enormous resources that the geography
has to offer. And by investing in Boston, they
attract even more resources to the ecosystem.
Boston PUPs & Israeli-Founded Businesses
24 of the Boston PUPs are business with an

Israeli-founder. They not only bring jobs, revenue,
and capital to Massachusetts, these companies
have the potential to be anchor tenants in the
Boston ecosystem because they have met
the criteria to be a Pillar, Unicorn, or Platform
company. The Israeli-founded Boston PUPs are
noted in blue in the listing that follows.
Notes to Creating the Boston PUPs
Sources used to identify potential Boston PUPs

include Boston Business Journal, Crunchbase.
com, the Hitchhikers Guide to Boston Tech,
data available on the MassBio website, and Jeff
Bussgangs annual review of the Boston startup
scene.64 For public companies, valuations were
used from March and April 2016. For private
companies, valuation is based on media-reported
estimates, or the authors estimates based on
comparable multiples for private companies.
For employee counts, a LinkedIn advanced

search was used to identify the number of
current employees at a company and all
its subsidiaries, for just the greater Boston
area, then multiplying x 1.1 to account for
employees who do not have a profile. For
Platform companies that are headquartered
elsewhere, but have a major presence in greater
Boston, employees with a sales function (as
categorized by LinkedIn) are subtracted before
making the qualification decision.
The Boston PUPs listing begins on the next page,

Bostons Tech Ecosystem:
Pillars
Pillars are locally-headquartered companies that have: Blue: Companies highlighted in blue
have one or more Israeli-founders.
raised capital of at least $50m in the past 5 years; Italics: Companies with a major product
or raised capital of at least $100m since inception; based on Israeli IP, or have invested in or
or have a valuation of $500m-$1b. acquired Israeli-founded companies, or
have a significant Israeli R&D presence.
COMPANY INDUSTRY COMPANY INDUSTRY
1366 Technologies............... solar power InterSystems........................... enterprise software

Acacia...................................... networking tech Jana.......................................... mobile commerce
Ambri....................................... battery tech Jibo........................................... robotics
Ameresco............................... energy tech services Joule Unlimited...................... energy tech
Applause.............................app testing Kaminario........................... data storage
Atlantic TeleNetwork........... telecom Kensho..................................... fintech
Basho Technologies............ app development Koch Membrane.................... water tech
Black Duck Software........... cybersecurity Layer3 TV................................ cable TV tech
BlueSnap.............................eCommerce Litmus....................................... marketing tech
Boston Power........................ battery tech Localytics................................. marketing analytics
Brand Networks.................... ad tech Mascoma................................. energy tech
Brightcove.............................. video content mgmt Mercury Systems................... sensor management
Brooks Automation.............. semiconductor eqpmnt Mimecast................................. cybersecurity
Cape Wind............................. energy tech Monotype Imaging................ typography software
Carbon Black......................... cybersecurity Nasuni...................................... data storage
Care.com................................ eCommerce Perfecto Mobile................. app testing
CarGurus................................ eCommerce Placester.................................. marketing tech
ChoiceStream........................ adtech Rapid7...................................... cybersecurity
Circle Internet........................ fintech ReThink.................................... robotics
Circor....................................... energy tech Sapient..................................... IT services
ClickSoftware....................field service mgmt Seaborn Networks................ telecom
CounterTack........................... cybersecurity SimpliSafe............................... home security
Credorax.............................eCommerce Stratoscale.......................... data center software
Cybereason........................cybersecurity Teradyne.................................. semiconductor eqpmnt
DataXu.................................... marketing analytics VionX........................................ battery tech
Digital Guardian.................... cybersecurity Virtusa...................................... IT services
EnerNoc.................................. energy tech Visible Measures................... marketing analytics
Extreme Reach...................... ad tech VMTurbo............................. app performance
Fuze......................................... telecom Xura...................................... telecom software
Goji........................................... fintech Zerto..................................... disaster recovery
Harvest Power....................... energy tech

Unicorns
Unicorns are locally-headquartered companies with a Blue: Companies highlighted in blue

private or public valuation of $1b-$5b. have one or more Israeli-founders.
Italics: Companies with a major product
based on Israeli IP, or have invested in or
acquired Israeli-founded companies, or
COMPANY INDUSTRY COMPANY INDUSTRY
Acquia..................................... app development IPG Photonics........................ fiber lasers

Actifio....................................... data management iRobot...................................... robotics
Affirmed.................................. network hardware LogMeIn.................................. remote access mgt
Altiostar................................... network hardware MathWorks............................. math software
AspenTech.............................. supply chain software M/A-COM................................ telecom equipment
Cognex.................................... machine vision MKS Instruments.................. measurement & control
Constant Contact................. email marketing NetScout................................. app management
Cross Country Group.......... enterprise software OnShape................................. 3D design software
CyberArk.............................cybersecurity Pegasystems......................... CRM software
Demandware......................... eCommerce Progress Software................ app development s/w
DraftKings............................... eCommerce PTC...................................... IoT software
EBSCO Information.............. information services RSA...................................... cybersecurity
Endurance.............................. website management Simplivity...........................data center systems
Entegris................................... semiconductor supplies Veracode................................. cybersecurity
Fleetmatics............................. fleet tracking Vistaprint................................. eCommerce
Granite Telecom................... telecom Watts Water............................. water tech
HubSpot.................................. marketing software Wayfair..................................... eCommerce
Infinidat..............................data storage Zipcar........................................ car sharing

Platforms
Locally-headquartered companies with a valuation Blue: Companies highlighted in blue
of >$5b, have one or more Israeli-founders.
or Italics: Companies with a major product
Multinationals headquartered elsewhere, with based on Israeli IP, or have invested in or
>5,000 employees globally, and >250 employees acquired Israeli-founded companies, or
locally (other than sales).
LOCAL HQ COMPANY MAJOR PRESENCE
Company industry Adobe Juniper Networks

AECOM L-3 Communications
Akamai............................... content delivery ntwk Alcatel-Lucent Lockheed Martin
American Tower.................... telecom Amazon Microsoft
Analog Devices.....................semiconductors Apple Oracle
Bose.........................................audio technology Applied Materials QinetiQ
CDM Smith.............................water tech engineering Autodesk Qualcomm
EMC..................................... data storage & mgmt Avaya Red Hat
GE........................................ diversified CA Technologies Saint-Gobain
IDG...........................................tech media & research Cisco Salesforce
Iron Mountain........................information mgmt Dassault SAP
Kronos.....................................workforce mgt systems General Dynamics Schneider Electric
Nuance............................... speech recognition Google Sun Microsystems
Raytheon............................ defense Hitachi Symantec
Skyworks................................ semiconductors HP Tyco International
TripAdvisor.............................travel eCommerce IBM Veolia
Intel Verizon
Jabil Circuit VMware

Bostons Life Sciences Ecosystem:
Pillars
Pillars are locally-headquartered companies that have: Blue: Companies highlighted in blue
have one or more Israeli-founders.
raised capital of at least $50m in the past 5 years; Italics: Companies with a major product
or raised capital of at least $100m since inception; based on Israeli IP, or have invested in or
or have a valuation of $500m-$1b. acquired Israeli-founded companies, or
BIOPHARMA
Akebia Constellation Pharma Infinity Pharmaceuticals Repligen

Allena CRISPR Therapeutics Intellia Sage Therapeutics
AMAG Decibel Therapeutics Jounce Sarepta Therapeutics
Anika Therapeutics Deciphera Karyopharm Scholar Rock
Arsenal Medical Dicerna Lantheus Medical Selecta Biosciences
Bind Biosciences Dimension Therapeutics Mersana Seres
bluebird bio Eleven Biotherapeutics Momenta Pharma Syndax
Blueprint Medicines Enanta Navitor Pharmaceuticals Syros
C4 Therapeutics Entasis Therapeutics Neon Therapeutics Taris
Catabasis Epizyme Ocular Tetraphase
Cerulean Pharma Flexion OvaScience Tokai
Chiasma FlexPharma Pronutria Unum
Codiak BioSciences Gelesis Proteon Voyager Therapeutics
Collegium Genocea Ra Pharma WaVe Life Sciences
CoLucid Histogenics Radius Zafgen
CoNCERT ImmunoGen RaNA Therapeutics
MEDICAL DEVICES
Analogic Cynosure MC10 OmniGuide

Auris Surgical Robots EarlySense Medrobotics Ornim
BionX Fractyl Labs Mevion ReWalk
Cheetah Medical GSI Group Ninepoint Medical Tecomet
ConforMIS HeartWare NxStage
Corindus Insulet Ocular Therapeutics
EHEALTH
American Well Imprivata Pillpack
Care.com Kyruus Virgin Pulse
DIAGNOSTICS, LAB, & OTHER
Foundation Medicine Haemonetics Quanterix T2 Biosystems

Ginkgo Bioworks PillPack Rapid Micro Biosystems

Unicorns
Unicorns are locally-headquartered companies with a Blue: Companies highlighted in blue

private or public valuation of $1b-$5b. have one or more Israeli-founders.
Italics: Companies with a major product
based on Israeli IP, or have invested in or
acquired Israeli-founded companies, or
COMPANY INDUSTRY
Abiomed................................................................................................... medical devices

Acceleron Pharma.................................................................................. biopharma
Agios.......................................................................................................... biopharma
Alere.......................................................................................................... diagnostics
ARIAD Pharmaceuticals........................................................................ biopharma
BG Medicine............................................................................................ diagnostics
Bruker Corporation.................................................................... medical devices
Charles River Labs................................................................................. lab services
eClinicalWorks......................................................................................... eHealth
Editas Medicine...................................................................................... biopharma
Intarcia Therapuetics............................................................................. biopharma
Ironwood.................................................................................................. biopharma
Meditech................................................................................................... eHealth
Merrimack Pharma................................................................................. biopharma
Moderna Therapeutics......................................................................... biopharma
Nimbus Therapeutics............................................................................ biopharma
Tesaro........................................................................................................ biopharma
Zoll Medical.............................................................................................. medical devices

Platforms
Locally-headquartered companies with a valuation Blue: Companies highlighted in blue

of >$5b, have one or more Israeli-founders.
or Italics: Companies with a major product
Multinationals headquartered elsewhere, with based on Israeli IP, or have invested in or
>5,000 employees globally, and >250 employees acquired Israeli-founded companies, or
locally (other than sales).
LOCAL HQ COMPANY MAJOR PRESENCE
Company industry Company industry
Alnylam...................................biopharma AbbVie..................................... biopharma

athenahealth..........................eHealth Amgen..................................... biopharma
Biogen Idec............................biopharma AstraZeneca.......................... biopharma
Boston Scientific.............. medical devices Bristol-Myers Squibb........... biopharma
Dyax.........................................biopharma GE Healthcare....................... eHealth
EMD Millipore........................biopharma IBM Healthcare..................... eHealth
EMD Serono....................... biopharma Johnson & Johnson............. biopharma
Genzyme................................biopharma McKesson............................... medical supplies
Hologic....................................biopharma Merck....................................... biopharma
Medtronic MITG............... medical devices Novartis................................... biopharma
Millennium (Takeda)....... biopharma Olympus.................................. medical devices
PAREXEL.................................biopharma Optum..................................... eHealth
Perkin Elmer...........................lab equipment Pfizer........................................ biopharma
Philips Healthcare............ medical devices Quest Diagnostics................ diagnostics
Shire.........................................biopharma Roche...................................... biopharma
Sunovion.................................biopharma Siemens HealthCare........... medical devices
ThermoFisher........................analytical instruments Smith & Nephew................... medical devices
Vertex......................................biopharma
Waters.....................................lab equipment

Appendix B: Israel-Related
Organizations in Massachusetts
The following organizations in Massachusetts MIT / MISTI MIT-Israel

offers Israel-related programs or include MIT-Israel program, part of the Institutes MISTI
Israel as an part of their mission, in the program, matches students with internships and
following categories:65 research at leading companies, research labs,
and universities in Israel.
Academic & Campus http://misti.mit.edu/student-programs/location/
Business & Professional israel
Community & Family
Culture TAMID Group
Government The TAMID Group develops the professional
Philanthropic skills of undergraduate students through hands-
on interaction with the Israeli economy.
Beyond the 36 organizations listed here, Boston University:
there are dozens of student clubs as well as https://www.facebook.com/butamid/
organizations that focus on advocacy, both of Brandeis University:
which are beyond the scope of this whitepaper. https://www.facebook.com/TamidAtBrandeis/
Harvard University:
https://www.facebook.com/TAMID-Group-at-
Academic & Campus Harvard-166331383522225/
Northeastern University:
Brandeis University / Schusterman Center for https://www.facebook.com/TAMIDatNU
Israel Studies
The Center is dedicated to promoting exemplary
teaching and scholarship in Israeli history, politics, Business & Professional
culture, and society at Brandeis University and
beyond.http://www.brandeis.edu/israelcenter/ BioAbroad
BioAbroad is a non-profit organization for helping
Harvard Kennedy School / Wexner Israel Israeli scientists, physicians, and entrepreneurs
Fellowship abroad return to Israel and keep in touch with
The Wexner program provides Israels next Israel while they are abroad. www.bioabroad.org.il
generation of public leaders with superlative
training in public management and leadership New England-Israel Business Council (NEIBC)
development, enhancing the quality of NEIBC helps New England and Israeli businesses
democracy and the institutional vitality of Israels succeed together.
public sector. www.neibc.org
http://www.wexnerfoundation.org/programs/
wexner-israel-programs-/wexner-israel- Boston-Israel Network
fellowship-wif. A LinkedIn group for the purpose of deepening
the relationships in business, academia,

government, and non-profits between these two ICS is a nonprofit afterschool program for
great innovative economies. Hebrew-speaking students ages 3 to 13. Classes
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/4695570 take place biweekly in the afternoon. While away
from Israel, kids keep up with Hebrew reading
and writing, Bible, holidays, and community.
Community & Family www.boston-ics.org
Bostons Amazing Israel Race Israeli House Boston

The Amazing Israel Race isa fun-filled dayracing Israeli House provides the Israeli community with
aroundBoston inteams of fourled by clues, cultural events, childrens activities and holiday
tasks, and obstacles in search of sites related to celebrations, all in Hebrew.
Israeli culture and history. http://embassies.gov.il/boston/Departments/
http://www.israelcampusroundtable.org/air.html Pages/Israeli-House.aspx
Boston-Haifa Connection Israeli School in Lexington

This CJP program creates personal connections The Israeli School in Lexington is a nonprofit
among residents of Boston and its sister city of educational organization that teaches and
Haifa. Programs and partnerships foster Jewish reinforces the Hebrew language through reading
identity, empower at-risk families in Haifa, and writing studies, Jewish history, and Israeli
connect youth in Boston and Haifa, and more. culture, through Bible stories, civic education,
http://www.cjp.org/our-work/israel-overseas/the- and learning about Jewish and Israeli holidays.
boston-haifa-connection http://israelischooloflexington.org
Boston Israel Group (BIG) Jewish Community Relations Council

The mission of BIG is to connect Jewish, Israeli, JCRC engages people from diverse backgrounds
and American young adults and to facilitate an to foster civil dialogue and build support for
awareness of Israel in the greater Boston area. Israel through community education, cultivating
http://www.bostonisraelgroup.org. relationships, leading Study Tours to Israel with
community leaders, and supporting national
Hebrew Play efforts through the Jewish Council for Public
This organization offers Hebrew immersion Affairs.
playgroups. www.hebrewplay.net https://www.jcrcboston.org/our-programs/israel-
engagement/
Israel Scouts Boston
Tzofim (Israeli Scouts) offers programs for Israeli Womens Gathering
youth in greater Boston. Womens Gathering is a group of Israeli women
www.israelscouts.org who live in the Boston area, offering social,
educational, and cultural events to support and
Israeli-American Council enrich each other with a variety of lectures,
The mission of the Israeli-American Council workshops, and discussions.
(IAC) is to build an engaged and united Israeli- http://www.womensgathering.net
American community that strengthens the Israeli Culture
and Jewish identity of our next generations,
the American Jewish community, and the bond Boston Jewish Film Festival
between the peoples of the United States and BJFF celebrates the richness of the Jewish and
the State of Israel. Israeli experience through film and media.
www.israeliamerican.org/boston http://www.bjff.org/
Israeli Complimentary School Boston Reads Hebrew

A catalog of Israeli books in the Boston areas helps the university to recruit and retain
Minuteman Library Network. outstanding faculty, build teaching and research
www.bostonreadshebrew.com facilities, provide scholarships and fellowships,
and advance basic and applied research in
Israel Folkdance Festival myriad vital fields.
The Festival is enjoyed tremendously by the http://www.afhu.org/about-afhu/our-mission/#.
performers as well as the entire Jewish and folk Vw6ycbTBdSU
dance communities.
www.bostonfestival.org American Friends of Tel Aviv University
AFTAU serves as a dynamic bridge between
Israeli Stage American and Israeli leaders dedicated to
This professional company shares the diversity excellence in scholarship and to strengthening
and vitality of Israeli culture through theatre. the State of Israel.
http://www.israelistage.com http://www.aftau.org/alumni-boston
Jewish Arts Collaborative American Healthcare Professionals and Friends

The Jewish Arts Collaborative explores and for Medicine in Israel
presents the rich, diverse, and creative world of APF is an organization of physicians and health
Jewish and Israeli arts and culturepast, present, care professionals committed to advancing the
and futureto the widest possible audience, in state of medical education, research, and care in
venues across Greater Boston. Israel by assisting in the training of young Israeli
http://www.jartsboston.org physicians and healthcare professionals, and
in fostering ties between the North American
health care community and Israels health care
Government community. http://apfmed.org
Consulate General of Israel to New England American Society of the University of Haifa
The Consulate General of Israel is the official The American Society of the University of Haifa
representative of the State of Israel to New (ASUH) increases visibility and financial support
England. Through the fields of academia, culture, for the University of Haifa to ensure its continued
politics, economy, press and public diplomacy, excellence in academic research, education,
it promotes knowledge and understanding of and communal activities. ASUH cultivates
Israel. www.embassies.gov.il/boston/Pages/ relationships and serves as a vital connection
default.aspx betweenthe University and its friends, alumni,
https://twitter.com/IsraelInBoston and partner institutions in the United States.
https://www.facebook.com/IsraelinBoston http://www.asuh.org/asuh/leadership/
American Technion Society of New England

ATS provides critical support to the Technion-
Israel Institute of Technology, ranked among
the worlds leading science and technology
Philanthropic universities. ATS provides funds for scholarships,
fellowships, faculty recruitment and chairs,
American Friends of Hebrew University research, buildings, laboratories, classrooms and
AFHU raises awareness of and support for The dormitories, and more. Its mission is to enable
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israels research the Technion to be among the worlds leading
powerhouse and most comprehensive institution institutions improving the well being of Israel and
of higher learning. Through the philanthropic all humanity through leadership in science and
leadership of American Friends, the organization technology. http://www.ats.org/about-the-ats-

the-technion/http://www.ats.org/regions-and- new-england-zone/greater-new-england/
chapters/new-england/
CJP / Israel & Overseas

http://www.cjp.org/about-us/our-mission
CJP and its Israel & Overseas Initiative
creates strong connections with Israel and
offers educational programs about the close
economic, cultural, and strategic ties we share;
establishes aid and relief programs in struggling
communities; responds to crises; and empowers
people to advocate for Israel.
http://www.cjp.org/our-work/israel-overseas
Friends of the Arava Institute

The Friends mission is to support the critical
work of the Arava Institute for Environmental
Studies through public awareness, student
recruitment, and fundraising campaigns. http://
arava.org/about-our-community/contact/
Friends of the Israel Defense Forces

The Friends mission is to offer educational,
cultural, recreational, and social services
programs and facilities that provide hope,
purpose, and life-changing support for the
soldiers who protect Israel and Jews worldwide.
fidf.org/page.aspx?pid=315
Israel Ride
The Israel Ride is the premier cycling
experience in Israel. Enjoy five glorious days
of biking, with route options for recreational
riders and experienced cyclists.The Israel
Ride is a fundraising event benefiting two
innovative organizations: The Arava Institute for
Environmental Studies and Hazon.
https://israelride.org
JNF
Over the past 113 years, JNF has evolved into
a global environmental leader by planting
more than 250 million trees, building over 240
reservoirs and dams, developing over 250,000
acres of land, creating more than 2,000 parks,
providing the infrastructure for over 1,000
communities, and connecting thousands of
children and young adults to Israel and their
heritage http://www.jnf.org/about-jnf/in-your-area/

Appendix C: Methodology
The Stax, Inc. research on which this whitepaper is Massachusetts divisional headquarters of
based measures the economic impact of company a company.68
founders. The methodology of this type of analysis 5. A company in Massachusetts that was
was first performed and later updated at MIT66, and acquired by an Israeli company.
also at Stanford University, Technion (Israel), and 6. A company in Massachusetts that has
Tsinghua (China). an identifiable product based on Israeli-
intellectual property.69
The research for this edition was performed in
2016, and for prior editions in 2013 and 2010.
Research Sources
Period of Study Stax, Inc. employed primary and secondary data

sources in the three editions of this research to:
Revenue and employee information for this study discover a list of potential companies for
was collected for the year 2015. Capital activity inclusion;
information was collected for 2013, 2014, and 2015. determine which companies met the
inclusion criteria;
In addition, data previously collected for the 2013 gather revenue, employee counts, and capital
edition was updated to account for more recently activity for each qualified company;
available information regarding that period, and to calculate key ratios, such as industry
apply stricter inclusion criteria. multipliers, and percentages of Massachusetts
GDP, employment, and capital transactions;
Inclusion Criteria Primary sources of company data, which were

considered to be authoritative sources, included:
A company or division was considered to be interviews with founders and management of
an Israeli-founded business and qualified for qualifying firms;
inclusion in the study if it met one or more of the SEC filings;
following criteria: Company annual reports, press releases,
and websites;
1. A company founded in Israel, which opened an
office in Massachusetts. Secondary sources of company data, which were
2. A company founded in Israel, which relocated were corroborated with other sources whenever
to Massachusetts. possible, included:
3. A company founded in Massachusetts by News stories from business and industry
an Israeli.67 publications, including Bloomberg, Boston
4. A company founded in Israel, or in Business Journal, Boston Globe, Forbes,
Massachusetts by an Israeli, which was later Globes (Israel), Israel21C, TechCrunch, Times of
acquired by a Massachusetts company or a Israel, Xconomy, and others.
LinkedIn;

Industry reports; an acquirer with no continuing product revenue
Online databases (PitchBook, CrunchBase, stream, were deleted from 2015, so that the
and others). compound annual growth rate (CAGR) as reported
reflects true net growth.
To calculate key ratios, Stax, Inc. employed
data from:
RIMS II (Regional Input-Output Modeling Accounting for Employees
System), as provided by the U.S. Bureau of
Economic Analysis, applying to each company Employment was counted as of year-end 2015.
the best fit of different Massachusetts- and When specific year-end 2015 data was unavailable,
industry-specific multipliers; for example, due to differences between fiscal and
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics; calendar years, an approximation was used.
U.S. Census Bureau; and
Venture Capital & Entrepreneurship in For the comparison between 2015 and 2012
Massachusetts published by the National employee counts, the cohort of companies
Venture Capital Association. identified in the earlier study by Stax, Inc. was used
as the basis of comparison. Employment figures
for 2012 were updated if better information was
Accounting for Revenue available. To determine jobs growth between 2012
and 2015, new companies that met the studys
Revenue information was collected for calendar inclusion criteria were added. Also, companies that
year 2015. When specific calendar year 2015 left Massachusetts, or failed, or were absorbed by
data was unavailable, for example, due to an acquirer with no continuing product workgroup,
differences between fiscal and calendar years, an were deleted from 2015, so that the compound
approximation was used. annual growth rate (CAGR) as reported reflects
true net growth.
Revenue was included in the study based on the
following criteria:
Accounting for Capital
1. For firms with only a Massachusetts location, all
revenue was counted. Capital activity was counted for the period January
2. For firms globally headquartered in 1st, 2013 through December 31st, 2015.
Massachusetts, all revenue was counted.
3. For firms with U.S. headquarters in Venture capital (including convertible notes) and
Massachusetts but global headquarters outside growth equity investments were counted, but not
the U.S., only U.S. revenue was counted. grants, debt, or public offerings.
4. For firms with a Massachusetts office, but not For companies with offices both inside and outside
the U.S. or global headquarters, no revenue Massachusetts, capital activity was adjusted based
was counted. on the following criteria:
For the comparison between 2015 and 2012 1. For firms with only a Massachusetts location,
revenue, the cohort of companies identified in all capital was counted.
the earlier study by Stax, Inc. was used as the 2. For firms globally headquartered in
basis of comparison. Revenue figures for 2012 Massachusetts, and with additional offices,
were updated if better information was available. 80% of capital was counted.
To determine revenue growth between 2012 3. For firms with a U.S. headquarters in
and 2015, new companies that met the studys Massachusetts, but global headquarters
inclusion criteria were added. Also, companies that elsewhere, 50% of capital was counted.
left Massachusetts, or failed, or were absorbed by 4. For firms with a Massachusetts office, but not

the U.S. or global headquarters, no capital
was counted.
Regarding M&A, the value of a transaction was

counted:
Only if the acquired company had its U.S. or
global headquarters or relevant divisional HQ
in Massachusetts.
At the reported market total value of the
transaction, regardless of the structure of the
deal, e.g. percentage of equity or cash.

Acknowledgements
The research project and production of this Kate Lagreca, and GIC International in Israel, led
whitepaper was funded by CJP of Greater Boston, by Ido Atiya.
Terrie & Brad Bloom, and additional donors. The
author is most appreciative for their support. In addition, the author is most grateful to the
following individuals for their insights, review, and
All errors, omissions, and opinions expressed in other support related to the 2016 edition:
this whitepaper are solely the responsibility of Sagit Sade Attia, Ilan Barniv, David Barone, Joe
the author. Blumenfeld, Michael Bohnen, Gil Breiman, Jeff
Bussgang, Jake Cohen, Scott Cohen, Senator Mo
Stax, Inc., a global strategic consulting and Cowan, Alan Crane, Lior Div, David Dolev, Israel
research firm, conducted the primary research Drori, Amir Eldad, Stas Gayshan, Michal Gilon-
described in this whitepaper in 2016, 2013, and Yanai, Zoey Glaubach, Yogev Gabay, Rob Go,
2010. Specifically, data presented in the section Adi Golani, Rabbi Leslie Gordon, Oded Kadosh,
titled Israelis Entrepreneurs Choose Boston Zamira Korff, Aaron Lapat, Alyssa Levy, David
To Build Global Businesses is based on Staxs Micley, Udi Mokady, Perry Newman, Naama
research. For their diligent work and insights, Ore, Christine Ortiz, Andi Pollinger, Gil Preuss,
the author whole-heartedly thanks the Stax team Cassandra Remare, Tom Riley, Jonathan Sandler,
for the 2016 editionRafi Musher, Paul Edwards, Steve Schuster, Joel Schwartz, Jonathan Seelig,
Eran Meron, Jaymie Testa, and Yevgeniy Ilan Segev, Dan Seligson, Nili Shalev, Jonathan
Volodinas well as the team members who Shapira, Abby Shapiro, U.S. Ambassador Dan
performed the research of the prior editions, on Shapiro, Barry Shrage, Jonathan Solomon, Julie
which the current edition stands. Somers, Larry Tobin, Dan Trajman, Mitch Tyson,
Mike Vallarelli, Lisa Wallack, Tal Wenderow,
The author is indebted to TAMID @ Boston Consul General Yehuda Yaakov, and Ory Zik.
University, a pro-bono consulting group
promoting ties to Israeli business, for performing My apologies for any omissions in the list above.
additional research, analysis, and writing. Specific Be assured, your efforts were greatly appreciated.
contributions by the TAMID team are noted in the
footnotes. Many thanks to Sarah Eskreis, Jess To reach the author of this whitepaper, please
Goldberg, Miriam Lelah, and Danielle Simpson. connect via LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/
dgoodtree
Graphic design of this whitepaper was created
by Hatch130 of Bridgeport, CT, led by the team of
Scott Lilly, Chris Balzano, Meaghan Jordan, and
Alice Scalfi.
Marketing and media relations for the launch of

the study findings was provided by Northwind
Strategies in the U.S., led by Alex Goldstein and

Endnotes
1. Roberts, Edward B., et al, Entrepreneurial Impact at MIT: nerdwallet.com/blog/cities/most-educated-top-cities-2015/.

Continuing Global Growth and Impact, Kaufmann Foundation, Beyond Brookline (#2) and Newton (#7), other Massachusetts
2015. See http://entrepreneurship.mit.edu/impact. cities placing in the top 100 include Lexington (#8), Cambridge
2. Source: http://www.mass.gov/export/stats.htm. (#11), Arlington (#30), Northampton (#71), and Watertown (#84).
3. Jess Goldberg of TAMID @ Boston University contributed 16. Bray, Hiawatha, Harvard and MIT Stake Their Claims for World
research and analysis to this section about capital. Economic Domination, December 9, 2015, Boston Globe. http://
4. Although the capital attracted by these companies can be www.betaboston.com/news/2015/12/09/harvard-mit-and-the-
deployed in any of their locations Massachusetts, Israel, or battle-for-economic-bragging-rights/.
elsewhere to estimate their impact on the Commonwealth, 17. Sources used for this section:
transaction value is allocated based on the methodology QS World University Rankings, www.topuniversities.com
described in Appendix C. Best College Rankings, U.S. News & World Reports, http://
5. 152 investments transactions of qualifying companies were colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings
researched to determine the name of the investor, across 46 Big Future, The College Board, https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/.
investments rounds (seed through series E) in 33 companies in Boston by the Numbers: Colleges and Universities,
the period 2013 to 2015. If the investor was a firm with only one Boston Redevelopment Authority, March 2011, http://www.
location, that location was used in the analysis. bostonredevelopmentauthority.org/getattachment/1770c181-7878-
If the investor was a firm with multiple locations, then the named 47ab-892f-84baca828bf3
partner and his/her location had to be identified in order to be 18. All data from this bullet comes from The Index of the
counted, using Crunchbase, the investment firms website, and/ Massachusetts Innovation Economy, 2015/2016 Edition,
or LinkedIn. Massachusetts Tech Collaborative, p32-40, and 45. http://www.
If the investor was a named individual, their location was identified masstech.org/research-and-analysis/innovation-index
using LinkedIn. 19. For VC dollars and share, data is from Investments by State,
6. Research assistance about acquisitions between Massachusetts available from a downloadable spreadsheet of the MoneyTree
and Israeli-founded business was provided by Jess Goldberg of Report, Q1 2016, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and the National
TAMID @ Boston University. Venture Capital Association, https://www.pwcmoneytree.com/
7. http://reviews.greatplacetowork.com/cyberark CurrentQuarter/ByState.
8. http://www.emc.com/about/news/press/2015/20150901-01.htm For IPOs, data is from the 2016 IPO Report, 2015 IPO Report, and
http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240150763/XtremIO-A- 2014 IPO Report, WilmerHale,
costly-mistake-or-genius-deal-for-EMC https://www.wilmerhale.com/uploadedFiles/Shared_Content/
http://seekingalpha.com/article/3962634-emc-ibm-hpe-pure- Editorial/Publications/Documents/2016-WilmerHale-IPO-Report.
storage-lead-pack-flash-storage-sales-soar pdf;
9. Alspach, Kyle, Simplivity is Bostons Fastest-Growing Tech https://www.wilmerhale.com/uploadedFiles/Shared_Content/
Firm, betaBoston, July 9, 2014. http://www.betaboston.com/ Editorial/Publications/Documents/2015-WilmerHale-IPO-Report.
news/2014/07/09/simplivity-is-bostons-fastest-growing-tech-firm/ pdf; and
10. Of 152 founders for whom post-secondary information is available, https://www.wilmerhale.com/uploadedFiles/Shared_Content/
45 attended a Massachusetts college as an undergrad, graduate Editorial/Publications/Documents/2014-WilmerHale-IPO-Report.
student, or post-doc. This analysis of founders post-secondary pdf.
education was performed by Andrew Savage of Brandeis 20. Sources used for this section on the states bio-pharma industry:
University in 2012. 2015 Industry Snapshot, Massachusetts Biotechnology Council,
11. Thanks to Dan Trajman for the information about Scitex. https://www.massbio.org/why-massachusetts/industrysnapshot.
12. Some of the acquirers are Massachusetts-headquartered Massachusetts Biotechnology Council , https://www.massbio.org/
businesses like Boston Scientific, and sometimes the acquirer is why-massachusetts/industrysnapshot.
a divisional headquarters based in Massachusetts, such as IBM Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, http://www.masslifesciences.
Security. com/why-ma/.
Contributing to the research on acquisitions were Jeff Goldberg 21. Sources used for this section include:
of TAMID @ Boston University and Andrew Savage of Brandeis For a list of incubators & accelerators, see http://
University. bostonstartupsguide.com/guide/every-boston-startup-accelerator-
13. Klowden, Kevin, et al, The 2014 State Tech and Science Index, incubator/.
Milken Institute, http://statetechandscience.org/. For a list of co-working spaces, see http://bostonstartupsguide.
14. All data from this bullet comes from The Index of the com/guide/boston-coworking-spaces-roundup/.
Massachusetts Innovation Economy, 2015/2016 Edition, To stay on top of Boston-area start-up news and resources, some
Massachusetts Tech Collaborative, p51-53. http://www.masstech. of the many sources available include:
org/research-and-analysis/innovation-index Hitchhikers Guide to Boston, http://www.bostontechguide.
15. For the 100 most educated places in America, see https://www. com/#home-section

BostonInno -- bostinno.streetwise.co Ribeiro, David, et al, The 2015 City Energy Efficiency Scorecard,
Xconomy -- www.xconomy.com/boston/ American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. http://aceee.
22. Sources used for this section on the states bio-pharma industry: org/local-policy/city-scorecard.
2015 Industry Snapshot, Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, Castellanos, Sara, GEs Energy Startup Now Has a New
https://www.massbio.org/why-massachusetts/industrysnapshot. Boston Headquarters Address, February 1, 2016, Boston
Massachusetts Biotechnology Council , https://www.massbio.org/ Business Journal. http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/blog/
why-massachusetts/industrysnapshot. startups/2016/02/ges-energy-startup-now-has-a-new-boston.html.
Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, http://www.masslifesciences. 29. Sources used for this section about the states water tech
com/why-ma/. industry:
23. Sources used for this section on the states medical device Massachusetts Water Technology Industry Roadmap by the
industry: Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC). http://www.
MassMedic www.massmedic.org masscec.com/studies-and-research/massachusetts-water-
Vibrant and Growing An Update Profile of the Medical Device technology-industry-roadmap.
Industry in Massachusetts, prepared for the MassMEDIC 19th Goodtree, David, The Other Side of Water, (video presentation),
Annual Meeting, KPMG, May 6, 2015, https://www.massmedic. TEDxBoston, June 2012. http://www.youtube.com/
com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/kpmg20151.pdf. watch?v=NBWd36D1hqU
24. Sources used for this section about the states eHealth industry: Massachusetts Water Industry Market Map, a 2 x 3 poster
The 2015 Healthcare Informatics 100, http://www.healthcare- representation of the states water industry, at http://www.
informatics.com/hci100/2015-hci-100-list. slideshare.net/dgoodtree/ma-water-industry-market-map.
For more about MeHi, the Massachusetts eHealth Institute, see 30. The widely used sensor-activated faucet was invented by an
http://massdigitalhealth.org/ehealth-cluster/initiative. Israeli researcher at MIT, Natan Parsons, whose technology
Insights Annual Report (for 2014 and 2015), StartUp Health, achieved broad market acceptance in partnership with Sloan
https://www.startuphealth.com/page/reports. Valve. http://65.166.89.34/About_Us/Natan_Parsons.aspx.
2014 MeHI Provider and Consumer Health IT Research Study, The project finance for the $1b California desal plant by IDE
Market Decisions LLC, http://massdigitalhealth.org/education/ (formerly known as Israel Desalination Enterprises) was raised by
resources-tools/ehealth-reports/2014-mehi-provider-and- Bostons Poseidon Water. http://poseidonwater.com/our_projects/
consumer-health-it-research-study. all_projects/carlsbad_project.
25. http://www.emc.com/about/news/press/2015/20150901-01.htm Desalitech Wins 2015 Global Trade Award from Associated
26. For information about on IBMs hiring push in Massachusetts,, Industries of Massachusetts. https://globenewswire.com/
the opening of the IBM Mass Lab, and IBMs acquisitions in news-release/2015/03/26/719292/10126544/en/Desalitech-
Massachusetts, see: Wins-2015-Global-Trade-Award-From-Associated-Industries-of-
IBM Opens Its Largest Software Development Lab in North Massachusetts.html.
America, Enhances Investment in Massachusetts High Tech In addition:
Talent, June 16, 2010, IBM Press Release. https://www-03.ibm. The intellectual property behind Oasys Water (of Boston) was
com/press/us/en/pressrelease/31916.wss created by a Hebrew University-educated professor, Yales
Lamb, Nathan, IBM Holds Grand Opening at Littleton Campus, Menachem Elimelech. https://yalealumnimagazine.com/
June 23, 2010, WickedLocal.com. http://www.wickedlocal.com/ articles/3664?page=3
article/20100623/NEWS/306239394. Israeli startup AutoAgronom scored its exit to a Chinese firm and
Alspach, Kyle, IBM Makes Hiring Push in Mass. Amid Nationwide accelerated its expansion while participating in MassChallenge
Layoffs, March 10, 2014, betaBoston. http://www.betaboston.com/ Boston. Alspach, Kyle,MassChallenge Startup Acquired for
news/2014/03/10/ibm-layoffs-hiring-boston-massachusetts-cloud/ $20m, September 16, 2014, BetaBoston. http://www.betaboston.
Huang, Gregory T., IBM Eats Up Emptoris, 20th Acquisition in MA com/news/2014/09/16/morning-roundup-masschallenge-startup-
Since 2013, December 15, 2011, Xconomy. http://www.xconomy. acquired-for-20-million-mc10-gets-new-ceo/.
com/boston/2011/12/15/ibm-buys-emptoris-20th-acquisition-in-ma- The SELro product of Koch Membrane Systems (Massachusetts)
since-2003/ is based on technology licensed from Membrane Products of
Huang, Gregory T., IBM Security to Acquire Resilient Systems, Kiryat Weizmann, enabling a faster path to global markets for the
February 23, 2016, Xconomy. http://www.xconomy.com/ companys unique reverse osmosis technology.
boston/2016/02/23/source-ibm-security-to-acquire-resilient- Nunes, Suzana Pereira, editor, et al, Membrane Technology in the
systems-for-100m/. Chemical Industry, Second Revised and Extended Edition, Wiley-
27. Sources used for this section about the states marketing & VCH, 2006, p38. http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/
adtech industry: productCd-3527313168.html.
Fitzgerald, Michael, Bostons Next Tech Gold Mine, Boston 31. In 2001 EMC named Yanai a Founder, 22 years after the
Magazine, May 2014. http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/ company was first formed. http://www.emc.com/about/news/
article/2014/04/29/bostons-technology-companies-gold-mine/. press/us/2001/20011129-1164.htm
Pear, Alexandra, The First-Ever Boston Marketing Technology 32. The Emergency Bandage is manufactured by First Care (http://
LUMAscape, September 1, 2015. https://jebbingtonpost.com/the- firstcareproducts.com/) and its technology and market acceptance
first-ever-boston-marketing-technology-lumascape/. are described at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_
28. Sources used for this section about the states energy tech Bandage.
industry: About USB flash drives and their Israeli inventors:
2015 Massachusetts Clean Energy Industry Report. http://nocamels.com/2013/03/dov-moran-talks-to-nocamels-about-
Prepared for the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center sandisk-comigo-modu/
by BW Research Partnership. http://images.masscec. and http://www.usbmemorydirect.com/news/overview_of_usb_
com/2015MassCleanEnergyIndustryReport.pdf. flash_drives.htm
Cleantech Group, 2015 Global Cleantech 100: A Blackburn, Nicky, The Top 64 Innovations Developed in Israel,
Barometer of the Changing Face of Global Cleantech Israel 21c, April 22, 2012, http://israel21c.org/technology/
Innovation. http://www.cleantech.com/wp-content/ innovation/made-in-israel-the-top-64-innovations-developed-in-
uploads/2016/02/2015Global100Report_print_021716.pdf. israel/

Shamah, David, Amazon Kindle: A Made in Israel Story, Israel21c, products_by_global_sales
December 16, 2010, http://israel21c.org/technology/amazons- Siegel-Itzkovich, Judy, Optimistic Results for Phase ALS
kindle-a-made-in-israel-story-2/ Treatment at Jerusalem Hospital, January 13, 2016, Jerusalem
Shamah, David, True 3D Play Is Only Months Away, Israel21c, Post. http://www.jpost.com/Business-and-Innovation/Health-and-
June 7, 2010, http://israel21c.org/technology/true-3d-play-is-only- Science/Optimistic-results-for-Phase-ALS-treatment-at-Jerusalem-
months-away-2/ hospital-441407.
33. Sources: eHealth:
Israeli High-Tech Capital Raising, IVC Research Center Peterburg, Yitzhak, Israels Health IT Industry: What Does the
and KPMG. http://www.ivc-online.com/Research-Center/IVC- American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Mean for Israeli
Publications/IVC-Surveys/High-Tech-Capital-Raising. Collaborative Opportunities?, Milken Institute, 2010.
Venture Pulse Q1 2016, KPMG and CB Insights. https://home. http://www.milkeninstitute.org/publications/view/421.
kpmg.com/xx/en/home/insights/2015/10/venture-pulse.html. 39. Dubin, Aaron, How Israel Is Becoming a Global Leader in the
Ma, Wayne, Hong Kong Tycoon Li Ka-shing Ventures Deeper Internet of Things, Innovation Endeavors, November 19, 2015.
into Tech, March 29, 2015, Wall Street Journal. http://www. http://www.innovationendeavors.com/thoughts/israeli-internet-of-
wsj.com/articles/li-ka-shings-fund-increases-bets-on-tech- things.
startups-1427485205. The Global Cleantech Innovation Index, Cleantech Group,
Ackerman, Gwen, Chinese Investors Back Israel Startups Amid 2014. http://www.cleantech.com/indexes/the-global-cleantech-
Silicon Valley Froth, November 30, 2015, Bloomberg Technology. innovation-index/.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-12-01/chinese- 40. Simana, Koby, Multinational Technology Corporations and Their
investors-pour-money-into-israeli-technology-startups. Impact on the Israeli High-tech Industry, October 29, 2015, IVC
Interesting trivia: Research Center. http://www.ivc-online.com/Research-Center/
Tel Aviv University alumni actually raise more money in average News-PR/News-Archive?nid=E359EEE4-4D7E-E511-BD22-
first-round funding from American venture capital than Harvard, 80C16E7D3630.
Stanford, and MIT alums. Source: Paz-Frankel, Einat, Why The Worlds Largest Tech Companies All
Woolf, Max, Which Universities Produce the Most Start-Up Want A Piece Of The Israeli Pie, NoCamels, September 30, 2015.
Founders?, July 20, 2013, http://minimaxir.com/2013/07/alma- http://nocamels.com/2015/09/multinational-high-tech-companies-
mater-data/ (See graphic: Which universitys graduates raise presence-israel/.
the most amount of moneyin their first round of funding on Israels VC Ecosystem Trends & Opportunities, June 2015, IVC
average?) Research Center.
34. The PwC Israel 2015 High-Tech Exit Report. https://www.pwc.com/ Shamah, David, 65 Years On, Israel is Top Choice for Tech by
il/en/home/assets/exit-report-english-2015.pdf. Multinationals, April 16, 2013, The Times of Israel. http://www.
The Worlds Biggest Public Companies, Forbes, 2015. http:// timesofisrael.com/65-years-on-israel-is-top-choice-for-tech-by-
www.forbes.com/global2000/#/country:Israel. multinationals/.
35. The PwC Israel 2015 High-Tech Exit Report. Ibid. Foreign R&D Center in Israel: Statistical File, August 2011,
36. Tsipori, Tali, Cyber Security Industry Nearly Doubles in Past State of Israel / Ministry of Industry, Trade & Labor / Investment
Decade, January 24, 2016, Globes. http://www.globes.co.il/en/ Promotion Center. http://www.slideshare.net/trade-gov-il/foreign-
article-israels-cyber-security-industry-nearly-doubles-in-past- rd-centers-in-israel-august-2011.
decade-1001097793. Olton, Matthew (EMC SVP), Israel Is On Track To Have the
Tsipori, Tali, Israeli Cybersecurity Grabs 8% Global Market Share, Highest Rate of M&A Since 1994, Quartz, November 4, 2013,
April 4, 2016, Globes. http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-israeli- http://qz.com/142043/israel-is-on-track-to-have-the-highest-rate-
cyber-industry-hits-the-big-time-1001114669. of-ma-since-1994/.
Leitersdorf, Yoav, et al, The Startup Landscape For Cybersecurity 41. Gross Domestic Spending on R&D, 2014, OECD. https://data.
Companies In Israel, January 24, 2016, TechCrunch. http:// oecd.org/rd/gross-domestic-spending-on-r-d.htm.
techcrunch.com/2016/01/24/the-startup-landscape-for- Adult Education Level, Tertiary, % of 25-64 Year-Olds, 2014,
cybersecurity-companies-in-israel/. OECD. https://data.oecd.org/eduatt/adult-education-level.htm.
Cyber-boom of Cyber-Bubble?, August 1, 2015, The Economist. Rome, Henry, Israels Twelve Nobel Laureates, Jerusalem Post,
http://www.economist.com/news/business/21660112-internet- October 10, 2013, http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Israels-
security-has-become-bigger-export-earner-arms-cyber-boom-or- twelve-Nobel-laureates-328320
cyber-bubble. Weinreb, Gali, Yeda Earns $50-100m Annually, July 28, 2013,
37. Israeli ICT Industry Review, IATI Israel Advanced Technology Globes. http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-1000865926.
Industries, January 26, 2015. http://www.iati.co.il/files/files/IATI%20 42. Danielle Simpson of TAMID @ Boston University contributed
Israeli%20ICT%20Industry%20Review%202015.pdf. research to figure 12.
38. Israeli Life Sciences all sectors: Sources for Figure 12 are:
Israels Life Sciences Industry: IATI 2015 Report, Israel Advanced Work commute:
Technology Industries. http://www.iati.co.il/files/files/Life%20 Sivak, Michael, Commuting to Work in the 30 Largest U.S.
Sciences%20Industry%202015.pdf Cities, University of Michigan Transportation Research
Mitzner, Dennis, Israeli Health Tech Is Heating Up with a Wave Institute, May 2015. http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/
of Interest from Abroad, October 25, 2015, TechCrunch. http:// handle/2027.42/112057/103196.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y.
techcrunch.com/2015/10/25/israeli-health-tech-is-heating-up-with- Cited at: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/246563.
a-wave-of-interest-from-abroad/ (Data used is for Boston, New York, and for Silicon Valley: the
Bio-pharma: average of San Jose and San Francisco.)
Why Teva Paid $40.5b for Allergans Generic Business, August Startups:
5, 2015, Knowledge @ Wharton. http://knowledge.wharton.upenn. Data shown is total number of VC-backed firms, founded 1990-
edu/article/why-teva-paid-40-5-billion-for-allergans-generic- 2013, for the Metropolitan Statistical Areas of Boston, New York,
business/ and San Francisco & San Jose (for Silicon Valley).
Top 50 Pharmaceutical Products by Global Sales, PMLiVE, 2014. Lester, Richard, et al, Growing Innovative Companies to Scale,
http://www.pmlive.com/top_pharma_list/Top_50_pharmaceutical_ How Does Massachusetts Measure Up?, Table 2, MIT Industrial

Performance Center, December 2015. https://ipc.mit.edu/sites/ greener-grass-cheaper-housing/.
default/files/documents/ScaleUpReportDec2015.pdf. 44. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-07/here-are-
IPOs: the-most-innovative-states-in-america
IPOs for 2013-2015 for all of Massachusetts, all of New York State 45. Sources:
(including NYC), and all of California (including San Francisco and For Nearly Half of Americans, Grass Is Greener Somewhere
Los Angeles), from the 2013, 2014, and 2015 editions of the IPO Else, Pew Research Center, 2009. www.pewsocialtrends.com.
Report, WilmerHale, www.wilmerhale.com. 2016 Quality of Living Ranking, Mercer, https://www.imercer.com/
VC $$$: content/mobility/quality-of-living-city-rankings.html.
Venture capital invested in New England (for Boston), NY Metro Best Cities for Quality of Life, NerdWallet, 2014. https://www.
(including Northern NJ and Fairfield County, CT), and Silicon nerdwallet.com/blog/mortgages/home-search/best-cities-quality-
Valley (including Northern California, Bay Area, and coastline). of-life/.
Data sourced from Investment by Region spreadsheet as part 2016 Top 100 Best Places to Live, Livability. http://www.livability.
of the MoneyTree Report Q1 2016, PriceWaterhouseCoopers / com/best-places/top-100-best-places-to-live/2016.
National Venture Capital Association; https://www.pwcmoneytree. 46. 20,000 Israelis living in greater Boston:
com/CurrentQuarter/ByRegion. Data sourced from the upcoming 2016 Boston Community
Cost of Living: Survey, Brandeis University and CJP of Greater Boston.
Cost of Living Index, Council for Community and Economic Grade school education in Hebrew
Research, 2010. https://www.c2er.org/products/. Cited at: http:// The Edward Devotion Elementary School -- which U.S. President
www.infoplease.com/business/economy/cost-living-index-us- John F. Kennedy attended is a public school in Brookline that
cities.html. serves kindergarten through 8th grades, and offers Hebrew
For Boston, two areas were averaged: Boston and Framingham- language instruction due to the significant concentration of
Natick, MA. Israelis in this town www.devotionschool.org.
For NYC, seven areas were averaged: Manhattan; Brooklyn; Private schools which offer modern Hebrew instruction as a
Queens; Stamford, CT; Nassau County, NY; Bergen-Passaic, NJ; standard part of their curricula for kindergarten through 8th grade
and Newark-Elizabeth, NJ. include:
For Silicon Valley, three areas were averaged: San Francisco, San The Solomon Schechter Day School of Greater Boston in
Jose, and Oakland. Newton www.ssdsboston.org
Number of Scale-Ups: The Rashi School in Dedham www.rashi.org
Data represents the number of companies that had an IPO JCDS in Watertown www.jcdsboston.org, and
between 1990-2013, with $100m-$500m revenue in 2014, for Kehillah Schechter Academy in Norwood www.ksa-ne.org.
the Metropolitan Statistical Areas of Boston, New York, and San Gann Academy in Waltham is a private high school for grades
Francisco & San Jose (for Silicon Valley). 9-12 which also offers modern Hebrew instruction as part of its
Lester, Richard, et al, Growing Innovative Companies to Scale, curriculum www.gannacademy.org.
How Does Massachusetts Measure Up?, Appendix 6, Current The Israeli Complementary School in Brookline offers after-school
Number of Active Public Companies on the Pathway to Scale by Hebrew instruction for kindergarten through 8th grade. www.
MSA, MIT Industrial Performance Center, December 2015. https:// boston-ics.org
ipc.mit.edu/sites/default/files/documents/ScaleUpReportDec2015. 47. A description of the government of Israels Technological
pdf. Incubators Program and a list of licensed incubators can be
Education K-12 Rank: found at: http://www.incubators.org.il.
Quality Counts 2016: State Reports Cards Map, Education Week, For more about all the programs of the Israeli Office of Chief
published online December 30, 2015, corrected online January Scientist, see: http://economy.gov.il/Publications/Publications/
26, 2016. http://www.edweek.org/ew/qc/2016/2016-state-report- DocLib/RnD_IncentivePrograms_English.pdf.
cards-map.html?intc=EW-QC16-TOC. For BIRDs annual report, see: http://www.birdf.
Education Population with Graduate Degrees: com/?CategoryID=370.
2014 American Community Survey, Table ID R1503 Percent of The state-by-state analysis of BIRD recipients was performed
People 25 Years and Over Who Have Completed An Advanced with research assistance by Miriam Lelah, of TAMID @ Boston
Degree, U.S. Census Bureau. https://www.census.gov/acs/www/ University.
data/data-tables-and-tools/ranking-tables/. 48. Saxe, Leonard, et al, The 2005 Boston Community Survey:
R&D # Highest-Level Universities Per Carnegie: Preliminary Findings, November 2006, Brandeis University / The
The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, Steinhardt Social Research Institute, https://bir.brandeis.edu/
2015. http://carnegieclassifications.iu.edu/. bitstream/handle/10192/23002/Boston%20Study%20March%20
Selected Doctoral Universities Highest Research Activity. Revision.pdf?sequence=1
The Boston MSA has seven: BC, BU, Brandeis, Harvard, MIT, 49. The flag was designed by Charles Askowith of Boston and first
Northeastern, and Tufts. displayed at the Bnai Zion Educational Society, 170 Hanover St,
The NYC MSA has four: Columbia, CUNY, NYU, and Stony Boston (in the North End) in 1891.
Brook. Askowith, Dora, The First Zionist Flag in Jewish Social Studies,
The San Francisco & Silicon Valley MSAs have two: Stanford Vol. 6, No. 1, Indiana University Press, January 1944, pp. 55-57.
and UC Berkeley, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4464558.
R&D -- SBIR & STTR grants / $m GDP, 2014 Credit to Michael Bohnen for calling this information to the
The Index of the Massachusetts Innovation Economy, 2015/2016 authors attention.
Edition, Massachusetts Tech Collaborative. See Indicator 11. 50. Appreciation to David Dolev, Managing Director, MIST MIT-Israel
http://www.masstech.org/research-and-analysis/innovation-index for his valuable contributions to this section.
43. 2016 State Business Tax Climate Index, Tax Foundation, http:// 51. Sources for this section include:
taxfoundation.org/article/2016-state-business-tax-climate-index. Comments delivered by Kurt Schwartz, director of the
Wells, Georgia, Silicon Valley Residents Leave for Greener Grass, Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, at a private
Cheaper Housing, May 3, 2016, The Wall Street Journal. http:// recognition ceremony titled Boston Thanks Israel, hosted by
blogs.wsj.com/digits/2016/03/03/silicon-valley-residents-leave-for- Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick on May 28, 2014 at the

Yitzhak Rabin Center in Tel Aviv. At that ceremony, executives of and http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/14/education/edlife/inside-
the organizations mentioned were all awarded proclamations the-technion-israels-premier-technological-institute-and-cornells-
of appreciation by the Governor. In addition to members of the global-partner.html?_r=0
Governors delegation who were attendance, special presenters and http://pard.technion.ac.il/technion-nation-statistics-the-
included Peter Slavin, President of Massachusetts General creative-power-of-technion-graduates/
Hospital, and Barry Shrage, President of CJP of Greater Boston. and Frenkel, Amnon, and Shlomo Maital, Technion Nation:
Israel trained team responded to Boston attack, The Times of Technions Contribution to Israel and the World, Samuel Neaman
Israel, http://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-trained-medical-team- Institute for Advanced Studies in Science and Technology, 2012.
responded-to-boston-attack/ Tel Aviv University alumni are CEOs of more start-ups worldwide
Lebovic, Matt, Israeli Team Helps Boston Fight Back Against than other Israeli institution.
Trauma, The Times of Israel, http://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli- See ibid, Woolf, Max, Which Universities Produce the Most Start-
team-helps-boston-plan-attack-on-trauma/ Up Founders?
http://www.youtube.com/ 60. For more information about Masa, see http://studyabroad.
52. Wadhwa, Vivek, et al, Americas New Immigrant Entrepreneurs: masaisrael.org/.
Then and Now, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, October For information about Israels college enrollment, see: http://
2012, http://www.kauffman.org/what-we-do/research/immigration- www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Over-300000-students-kick-off-new-
and-the-american-economy/americas-new-immigrant- academic-year-at-Israels-colleges-universities-379857.
entrepreneurs-then-and-now. For degrees granted by state, see: http://highereddatastories.
Stangler, Dane, et al, The Economic Case for Welcoming blogspot.com/2013/12/degrees-awarded-by-state-2012.html
Immigrant Entrepreneurs, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, 61. For details on the Global Entrepreneur-in-Residence program at
September 8, 2015. http://www.kauffman.org/what-we-do/ the University of Massachusetts / Boston, see http://vdc.umb.edu/
resources/entrepreneurship-policy-digest/the-economic-case-for- geir/.
welcoming-immigrant-entrepreneurs. For an editorial co-authored by GEIR co-founder Jeff
53. Associated Press, Massachusetts Governor Cultivates Ties with Bussgang of Flybridge Capital, see www.bostonglobe.com/
Israel, May 28, 2014, The Times of Israel. http://www.timesofisrael. opinion/2016/04/04/don-send-foreign-entrepreneurs-packing/
com/massachusetts-governor-cultivates-ties-with-israel/. RLyeooL6sDhIYjtciKj8UM/story.html.
54. Research on Governors trade missions to Israel was aided by For details on the states program, see http://masstech.org/
Miriam Lelah of TAMID @ Boston University. innovation-institute/projects-and-initiatives/global-entrepreneur-
55. Floridas program: http://www.spaceflorida.gov/news/2015/09/08/ residence-pilot-program.
space-florida-and-israels-chief-scientist-announce-third-joint-call- 62. About the Citi Israel Technology Innovation Lab: http://blog.
for-projects. citigroup.com/2015/11/citi-innovation-lab-spotlight.
Colorados program: http://www.advancecolorado.com/news- For Meetup events runs by Citi Lab in Israel, see http://www.
events/news/oedit-launches-advanced-industries-colorado-israel- meetup.com/Citi-Accelerator/.
rd-grant. For a review of the City Lab in Israel, see http://www.
NYs program: http://www.sunycnse.com/Newsroom/ financemagnates.com/fintech/news-2/fintech-spotlight-citi-at-the-
NewsReleases/Details/15-03-03/Israeli_Consortium_to_ crossroads-of-fintech-disruption/. About Barclays program: http://
Sign_2_9M_Agreement_with_SUNY_Poly_CNSE_to_Develop_ www.barclaysaccelerator.com/#/tel-aviv/.
Critical_Tools_for_Industry_Transition_to_450mm_Technology. About Israels fintech sector: http://techcrunch.com/2015/12/19/
aspx. israels-flourishing-fintech-has-many-fathers/.
Texas A&Ms program: http://today.tamu.edu/2015/12/14/texas- 63. Quotation of Reed Sturdevant, Investor, TechStars Boston, in
am-university-and-university-of-haifa-expand-global-ocean- Startup Ecosystem Report 2012: Part One, page 42, Startup
observatory-and-education-to-the-mediterranean-sea/ Genome, http://www.slideshare.net/ceobroadband/startup-
56. Pomerantz, Sherwin, U.S. States Represented in Israel: Smart ecosystem-report-2012
Move, Jerusalem Post, May 27, 2015. http://www.jpost.com/ 64. Boston Business Journal http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/
printarticle.aspx?id=404306. Hitchhikers Guide to Boston Tech http://bostontechguide.com/
57. Babson MBA ranking: http://www.babson.edu/news-events/ MassBio http://massbio.org/
babson-news/Pages/us-news-best-graduate-schools-ranking. Bussgang, Jeff, What Makes Bostons Start-up Scene Special?,
aspx. Fall 2015, http://www.slideshare.net/bussgang/boston-startup-
Tally of Babsons Education Abroad programs based on a scene-fall-2015
search of the colleges website in November 2013, at http:// 65. Research for this section was partly performed by Danielle
educationabroad.babson.edu/index.cfm?FuseAction=Programs. Simpson of TAMID @ Boston University.
AdvancedSearch 66. Roberts, Edward B., et al, Entrepreneurial Impact at MIT:
58. Per the Taub Center for Social Research, 29 Israeli scholars work Continuing Global Growth and Impact, ibid.
at American academic institutions for every 100 who remain in 67. This individual must be identified in company materials as having
Israel. Source: David Shamah, Those Nobels Could Have Been been one of the founders. The definition of a qualifying Israeli
Israels, Says Hebrew U President, in The Times of Israel, founder is: a current Israeli citizen and resident; or an Israeli who
October 10, 2013, www.timesofisrael.com.those-nobels-could-be- moved from Israel as an adult. Entrepreneurs born in Israel, but
israels-says-hebrew-u-president. who left Israel in childhood and did not return there (i.e. Israeli-
59. Technions Technological Entrepreneurship class, taught by born, but who lived elsewhere through adulthood) were not
Nobel Prize winner Dan Schechtman and business school included, as their Israeli experience was not material in their
professor / innovation expert Shlomo Maital, is the most heavily development towards entrepreneurship.
enrolled class at the institute. 68. The acquired companys technology must continue as part of the
Technion alumni generated $21 billion and 78,000 jobs in Israels acquiring companys product portfolio, and be clearly identifiable
high-tech annual revenue in 2011, or some 20%of the annual in the companys product literature.
output of Israels most important sector. 69. The Israeli intellectual property must continue as part of the
See http://www.timesofisrael.com/nobel-winner-has-tips-on-how- acquiring companys product portfolio, and be clearly identifiable
to-succeed-as-a-start-up/ in the companys product literature.

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The Massachusetts-Israel

Economic Impact Study

Prepared for the New England-Israel Business Council

Based on research by Stax, Inc.

Israeli Entrepreneurs Choose Boston To Build Global Businesses...................... 6

Boston & Israel Together............................................................................................... 28

The Intense Competition Across the USA to Win Israeli Business..................... 38

Conclusion: Emerging Technologies Will Multiply the Mutual Gain................. 47

2 The Boston-Israel Power Partnership

Appendix B: Israel-Related Organizations in Massachusetts............................... 56

CHARTS AND TABLES

Figure 1: Israeli-Founded Businesses Create Massachusetts Revenue......................................... 7

The Boston-Israel Power Partnership 3

4 The Boston-Israel Power Partnership

Recommendations offers specific ideas for

About the Title of This Whitepaper

This whitepaper is the 2016 edition of The

This most recent installment carries the sub-title:

While the series title refers to Massachusetts,

The authors choice of giving emphasis to

The Boston-Israel Power Partnership 5

6 The Boston-Israel Power Partnership

Revenue: Represented 3.8% of the states overall GDP,

The Boston-Israel Power Partnership 7

Jobs Growth: 5x Faster Than the State Overall

SOURCE: STAX, INC., MARCH 2016

Supported a total of 27,100 jobs in the state.

8 The Boston-Israel Power Partnership

Venture Investments: Significant and Accelerating

SELECTED INVESTORS IN MASSACHUSETTS-ISRAEL COMPANIES

Venture Investments: Attracting New Money

The Boston-Israel Power Partnership 9

10 The Boston-Israel Power Partnership

200+ Massachusetts Businesses with Israeli Founders

A SELECTED LIST IN IT, LIFE SCIENCES, AND OTHER SECTORS

The Boston-Israel Power Partnership 11

IT & Life Sciences Lead

12 The Boston-Israel Power Partnership

Bio-pharma. Two blockbuster drugs with In other sectors, Formlabsco-founded by

The Boston-Israel Power Partnership 13

14 The Boston-Israel Power Partnership

The Boston-Israel Power Partnership 15

Start a company in Boston (and do it again).

16 The Boston-Israel Power Partnership

Why is Boston ranked among the best places

Its because Bostons strengths closely align with

The top workforce in the United States.

The Boston-Israel Power Partnership 17

18 The Boston-Israel Power Partnership

The Boston-Israel Power Partnership 19

A commanding eHealth presence. Greater Cybersecurity that keeps scaling bigger.

20 The Boston-Israel Power Partnership

The Boston-Israel Power Partnership 21

22 The Boston-Israel Power Partnership

The Boston-Israel Power Partnership 23

24 The Boston-Israel Power Partnership

In 2015, $4.4b was invested in almost 700

The Boston-Israel Power Partnership 25

26 The Boston-Israel Power Partnership

As an EMC Senior VP puts it, In Israel,

The Boston-Israel Power Partnership 27

The impressive characteristics of Massachusetts Competitiveness and Innovation Project said

28 The Boston-Israel Power Partnership

Boston vs NYC vs Silicon ValleyBoston comes in 1st or 2nd in every measure