Jerusalem Post Deputy Editor-in-Chief Tamar Uriel-Beeri sat down with Israeli tech leaders Rotem Shacham, Nofar Amikam and Liat Shaked, to discuss the impact of technology in business and the future of Israel’s technology sector at the Jerusalem Post Women Leaders Summit on March 27th.
Although Israel has become renowned for its bustling technology sector, the past year has been particularly tumultuous for international tech companies, compounded with the impact of Israel’s ongoing war. Rotem Shacham, Tel Aviv Director at PSG, a growth equity firm that helps software and technology companies navigate and capitalize on transformation growth, provided a unique insight on these challenges and how it has affected internal development. “You have to deal with a lot of the workforce in reserves, having them back, having to keep the service going for customers,” Schacham explains, adding that there has been a significant change from aggressive growth that was prominent during the 2021 tech bubble, “There is a shift towards profitability, building long lasting businesses, and having to balance all these things is a new challenge in the recent year.”
Looking at these external challenges and identifying viability for investing in early stage Israeli start-ups, Nofar Amikam, General Partner at Glilot Capital Partners added that the most important factor is:
“We are looking for what we call a founder-market fit. We want to invest in teams that are relevant, familiar with the [challenge] they want to solve, and the chemistry between the founders. The companies that we have shut down are usually companies where there was conflict between the founders which caused shutdown of the company, and not any other matter,” Amikam explained, highlighting the importance of synergy and personnel for aspiring innovation start-ups for female tech entrepreneurs in attendance.
For Supersonas Israel CEO Liat Shaked, the disproportionate representation of women in leadership positions has been a global trend that her company has been working to correct for nearly a decade. While women make up 51% of the global population, only 10% of all CEOs are female, a glaring issue if major businesses want to address broad challenges facing the world today. “The CEO of Israel Aerospace Industries, Boaz Levy, said that he cannot be leading the largest security company in Israel if he only has one woman on his board,” Shaken shared proudly, noting that gender equality in the workplace can only start when their leadership place the issue on their agenda.
Focusing towards the second half of 2024, Uriel-Beeri encouraged the three panellists, who represent very different sub-sectors of Israel’s tech economy, to weigh in on their projections for what the future hold.
Highlighting a recent increase in seed stage companies funding in the beginning of 2024, Amikam speculated a growth of new startups on the horizon. Amikam attributes this growth to the number of Israeli “unicorn companies,” privately owned start-ups valued at over $1 billion, whose seasoned employees will often venture on their own to innovate and create more successful start-ups, with years of knowledge and experience that increases the chance of long-term success. “I also believe we will see more acquisitions, which is great for the Israeli ecosystem,” Amikan added, noting that despite an increase in antisemitism and fear of risk in investing in Israel, there were 3-4 cyber security exits in the past month.
Summarizing her speculation in two words, Schacham responded by stating “generative-AI,” elaborating that many more start-ups will be incorporating artificial intelligence into their business model throughout all the tech stacks, from infrastructure to application. Schaham added “we will also see existing companies leverage those technologies to improve the way they are doing business today in all aspects. Starting from writing better code to marketing materials and improving the sales process. We will see [AI] change the way each and every one of us do our job on a daily basis.”
Concluding on a very optimistic note, Shaked envisioned a future where more women will assume more leadership position, bringing with them not only their expertise, but also compassion and assertiveness. Shaked reinforced the fact that as women make up just over half of the global population, this should be reflected in our economy and business markets, a testament to her belief in a more equal and represented future for all women.
Learn more about The Jerusalem Post’s Women Leaders Summit.
