CTalk
Why Israeli tech companies are moving to Miami
Rakefet Bachur, Co-Executive Director of the Florida Israel Business Accelerator, spoke to CTech at Calcalist and Bank Leumi’s Tech & Invest conference in Miami about the advantages and opportunities Florida holds for Israeli tech companies
Rakefet Bachur
(Phoo: Go-Live)
In 2017, when Rakefet Bachur would travel to Israel looking for Israeli companies interested in coming to Florida, “they’d look at me like I was crazy,” she says. Seven years later much has changed, the Co-Executive Director of the Florida Israel Business Accelerator (FIBA) told CTech at Calcalist and Bank Leumi’s Tech & Invest conference in Miami. FIBA is an economic development initiative that supports Israeli tech companies when entering the Florida market.
Miami in particular has emerged as a growing tech hub in the last several years, including for Israeli companies. “Since COVID we’ve really seen a shift. It opened the eyes of many companies and specifically entrepreneurs. They realized that Florida is a very supportive environment for businesses,” says Bachur.
She highlights the opportunity that Miami serves as a “gateway” to Latin America due to its large Latin community. “The market is not necessarily on the radar for Israeli tech companies and the language is a big barrier, but finding a strategic partner here who can help with penetrating the Latin American is a really smart thing to do.”
You can watch the full interview in the video above.
