RIHub Selected as US Landing Location for Israeli Tech Startups Looking to Gain Entry in US Market
Providence, RI, October 20, 2020 — RIHub, the central network connector and incubator for entrepreneurs and startups in Rhode Island, announced today it is the recommended choice for Israeli startups looking to expand their businesses in the US market. RIHub’s Bridge to Israel program offers incubation services, strategic introductions and mentoring to high tech startups in a broad range of industries, providing Rhode Island as a place to enter and test their businesses in North America.
Global accelerators IBM Alpha Zone, Hadassah Hospital Tech Accelerator and Ben Gurion University’s Oazis have come together to announce that RIHub is the next stop for high potential growth startups in Israel.
“As the venture builder and accelerator of the Ben Gurion university, we connect our exceptional researchers with seasoned entrepreneurs to build deep-tech startups to grow within our program”, said Michel Assayag, CEO, Oazis. “RIHub’s program is a unique partnership offering our startups a US office and a variety of programs to scale their businesses beyond our accelerator.”
Rhode Island is in a unique location on the East Coast and offers the best of both worlds: proximity to powerhouse cities Boston and New York, but also a comfortable lifestyle, affordable housing and a large talent pool. Despite its small footprint, Rhode Island is a place where great ideas come to life, it is home to a thriving startup community and business network.
“We are very excited that these great startup accelerators from Israel – a country known around the world as ‘Startup Nation’ – have chosen Rhode Island as their recommended choice for companies looking to land or expand in the United States,” said Rhode Island Commerce Secretary Stefan Pryor. “RIHub, founded with the support Governor Raimondo’s Innovation Campus program, is already proving to be highly successful. Innovation is in our state’s DNA, and we’re pleased to see our ‘lively experiment’ continue with this exciting new announcement.”
Within the Bridge to Israel program is Profility, founded in Israel in 2014, which has also announced it will use RIHub’s Innovation Hub for its US presence. Profility provides technology that enables personalized care planning, optimizing decisions and transitions within a healthcare ecosystem and leveraging existing knowledge about how patients will respond to a treatment or pathway. Profility’s operations will be run out of RIHub and its technical team will remain in Israel.
“Rhode Island is the perfect market for a growing company like Profility. It is a tight-knit community and highly networked, allowing us to connect with the key players in our target market of hospitals, senior living and post-acute care facilities,” said Mark Sears, CEO Profility. “We are excited to have the resources of RIHub at our fingertips to grow our business operations and create jobs in Rhode Island.”
The Bridge to Israel Program was founded after recent economic development meetings in Israel with Governor Raimondo and Rhode Island Commerce Secretary Stefan Pryor focused on building high potential growth companies in Rhode Island.
“IBM Alpha Zone Accelerators are professional and deep immersion programs for excelling startups. The main purpose is to assist startups to develop enterprise grade solutions and support them with a go-to-market strategy,” said Ronen Siman-Tov, CTO IBM Alpha Zone Accelerators. “We have partnered with RIHub in order to realize our land and expand vision for Israeli startups which are targeting the US market.”
“RIHub is excited to be working with IBM Alpha Zone to bring this program to life,” said Annette Tonti, Managing Director, RIHub. “Startups from Israel are bringing high-tech opportunities to Rhode Island now; these companies are eager to be supported by our innovation ecosystem to help them grown in Rhode Island and the US market.”
RIHub is offering Israeli companies six months of office space at RIHub and Cambridge Innovative Center, access to all programs to assist entrepreneurs in growing their companies and Venture Mentoring Services to connect mentors with entrepreneurs.
To learn more about RIHub, please visit RIHub.org.
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Annette Tonti
atonti@rihub.org