HP Israel unveils plans for startup incubation

16 Apr 2008 | 07:45 BST

By Sylvie Barak

HEWLETT PACKARD said yesterday that it will be opening a new International Technology District (ITD) which will collaborate with and offer support to up and coming Israeli Hi Tech startups of technological interest to the company.

HP is certainly no stranger to the Israeli tech scene, only last year the company splashed out $4.5 billion to buy Israeli software support company Mercury, as well as three Israeli printer manufacturers: Scitex Digital Printing, Indigo, and Nur Macroprinters. To date, HP has invested $6 billion in high-tech companies in Israel, where it employs 4,000 people. Obviously HP has no regrets about its Israeli acquisitions to date, and the firm now seems set on putting itself in prime position to snap up any other opportunities it finds in the tiny country.

The new ITD, which HP hopes will develop strategic and potentially lucrative relations with about 300 Israeli start ups, will be run by the former HP Israel telecom and financial manager, Harel Ifhar, and will answer directly to HP’s Senior Vice President and general manager for Europe, Africa and the Middle East, Francesco Serafini.

Ifhar will be in charge of 20 employees whose task will be to map out and characterise start ups by looking at what they have to offer in terms of innovation, business model, growth potential, breakthrough potential, technological vision, and how they fit in with market trends.

In an exclusive interview with the INQUIRER, Ifhar noted that Israel was fertile ground for startups, with about 2,500 of them ranging from the very small, to the very large.

Ifhar said that HP would be focusing their efforts on the small and mid sized firms, although he added wistfully, “I wish we could work with all of them”.

Ifhar explained that HP’s resources could probably stretch themselves to work with between 300-400 Israeli tech companies, and that these companies would be selected on the basis of their levels of pioneering, and how well they fitted in with HP’s overall strategy. He mentioned the telecom industry as being “a hot market”, as well as companies dabbling in security, industrial manufacturing and life sciences.

HP would offer its protégés “more than the equivalent of money” according to Ifhar, who said that the company would put anything from labs, to consultants, to resources at their disposal. In return, the companies would be asked to integrate HP technology, effectively becoming an HP partner.

Ifhar explained that the decision to build the ITD in Israel was on account of HP’s “good experience with the Israeli Hi Tech sector”, and a decision by HP’s top brass to add another growth engine, in software development, to their already successful set (which includes the digital printing sector). Ifhar boasted that the firm was “doing very well”, citing revenues in the sum of $104 billion, last year alone. This makes HP one of the largest technology companies in the world today, and they are apparently still growing fast.

HP’s Israeli ITD will effectively open doors for startups who want to sell their products in global markets. “We would like to let the Israeli Hi Tech sector enjoy and take advantage of HP’s extensive global experience as the world’s largest IT vendor” Ifhar said, adding “The Israeli hi tech sector is very special and therefore requires a special setup”.

Israel’s new ITD boss, who has been with the company for seven years, declined to say how much of an investment HP was putting into the new unit, but said he was optimistic and “more than sure that this will be a great success”.

This is the first ITD set up by HP, anywhere in the world, but Ifhar reckons that if it succeeds as well as he predicts, ITD’s will become a model to be used in other places around the globe. µ

© 2007 Incisive Media Investments Ltd. 2007