"Since 7.10, we have seen the Israeli high-tech industry still delivering the goods" Eliran Elimelech, VP of Ecosystem Development at Startup Nation Central (SNC) declared, speaking at the at the Novartis Healthcare Innovation Conference, and emphasizing the position of the local biomed companies. "Since the beginning of the war, $2.5 billion has been raised in 176 funding rounds, and mergers and acquisitions worth $3.5 billion have been carried out, of which 39 were in the healthcare sector, as compared with 32 in cyber, and 36 in enterprise and IT."
True, SNC summary data for the first quarter show that the figure for the absolute amounts invested in Israeli privately-held life science companies was the weakest since data gathering commenced in 2018, but the numbers indicate that there is activity in this sector as well.
Elimelech noted that there were currently 1,600 life science companies in Israel, comprising 20% of the high-tech sector. In 2023, he says, $7 billion was raised from funds and companies for investment in healthcare tech companies, or $8 billion if public companies are included. "The most significant funding rounds were for companies that involved an element of artificial intelligence or machine learning, and drug development companies were in second place."
At the conference, Elimelech also revealed which life science companies were searched most often on the SNC website. He named five companies that investors are following: Sweetch, developer of an artificial intelligence-based platform that encourages behavioral change in chronic patients; CytoReason, which develops computer models to predict the success of therapies and drugs; NucleAI, which has developed a method to predict which cancer drug therapy will be most effective for a particular patient; Lumen, developer of a device to measure metabolism; and TytoCare which develops remote diagnosis tools.
Novartis and Globes collaborated on coverage of the conference in accordance with editorial criteria and considerations of interest to Globes readers. The conference was held with the cooperation of healthtech and life sciences investment fund aMoon and Startup Nation Central.