Crisis as a catalyst, will Oct. 7 reshape the Israeli tech ecosystem? - opinion

• Published date: 21 April 2024
• Author: BAR PEREG
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

The awful experience that October 7 forced upon us can break us or lead to the development of the most powerful impact-tech ecosystem the world has ever seen, changing the trajectory of this space forever. This will not be an easy opportunity to seize, but we believe that we must go all in – it will serve our recovery process, it's an opportunity to play a role in addressing global challenges, and it offers an incredible economic engine if we do it right. Disasters are not going away, but our innovative response can turn adversity into opportunity

Much has been written about Israel as the Start-up Nation, the blossoming, Middle Eastern tech miracle where there are more start-ups per capita than anywhere else on the planet.

Israel's tech ecosystem unsurprisingly focuses on sectors such as cyber, fintech, and enterprise solutions; and with good reason. The ecosystem grew under the influence of foreign tech leaders and venture capitalists with backgrounds in corporates, the military, and finance, and was fueled by innovation from the IDF. This influence has paved the way for Israeli founders to focus on problems affecting companies and institutions in the US and Western societies – a sensible approach given the financial opportunities in these areas and the first-hand experience of the ecosystem veterans who were able to mentor, fund, and support entrepreneurs working on problems they knew.

OCTOBER 7 and subsequent events have thrust all Israelis into uncharted territory. Despite struggling with disbelief and contending with a government that is untrusted and not functioning ideally, Israelis and their allies around the world have responded with what we believe will be remembered in history as one of the best community responses to a disaster. CEOs became philanthropists, conference spaces became donation centers, volunteers were organized to replace workers drafted into reserve service, and a jaw-dropping amount of donations was collected.

Unsurprisingly – we also witnessed an extraordinary surge in ad hoc 'emergency' hacks. New tech solutions were developed to identify and track people in distress, provide rapid response documentation solutions in field conditions, leverage CRMs for data management of displaced individuals, utilize AI to identify missing and kidnapped people, and more.

As Israel transitions from emergency response to recovery, we are starting to see a similar innovative spirit in addressing long-term recovery issues.

Innovating recovery

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