Mention Jerusalem to an outsider and they will often associate the city with the bible, modern day conflict and religious tourism. All very true, but there is another totally different side to this Holy City. As demonstrated at the first annual conference of the Jerusalem Business Networking Forum (JBNF), Israel’s capital possesses a nucleus of new technology that is already making an impact around the globe.

At a time when Israel’s overall growth is slowing down and the war with Hamas is having a dire effect on small businesses, Jerusalem is managing to take a lead in a more positive direction. Just taking the first seven months of 2014, there are at least 122 new start ups. Consider Orcam that received US$15m from Intel to perfect glasses for the blind and severely visually impaired. At the other end of the spectrum, Mobileye’s recent IPO on the New York Stock Exchange raised over US$1 billion, the largest ever for an Israeli company.

The JBNF conference summarised the ten or so incubators, hubs, and accelerators  that have sprung up, each with its own niche community: women, young entrepreneurs, Arab, ultra orthodox, and plain boring ‘mixed’. For example, Shaindy
Babad, director of Temech, announced the opening of an incubator for observant women. Ziv Barcesat, presented Yerushalab, a community centre for artisans in Musrara neighbourhood, with their own 3D printers. The list is too extensive to present here in detail.

Hanan Brand, from Jerusalem Venture Capital and which specialises in new media, observed that the level of known funding of Jerusalem-based startups has almost tripled in as many years; from US$45m in 2012 to US$110 million in 2013, and now has already reached US$122m for 36 start-ups in the first 8 months of 2014.

The Jerusalem Development Authority (official sponsors of the conference) via BioJerusalem is deliberately targeting the pharma sector. It is estimated that 50% of the start ups can be found in the field of biotech and nanotech. Marx Biotechnology and NDT Ultrasonics are two fine examples of this entrepreneurial trend featuring disruptive technologies.

Where to next?

Evidently, Jerusalem has moved on since the days of the prophets, the siege of 1948 and even the Intifada of 2000. Mobileye can be mentioned in the same breath as Glide, Revelator, Brainsway and many more whose Jerusalem-based technologies can be seen on the mobile phones of tens of millions, promoting the pop music as countless talented artists and enhancing the health of the previously untreatable. It is time for the world to welcome the Jerusalem economy.