An incubator for Israeli high-tech companies is being set up in New York. The founder is TACT, set up by Israeli Shmuel Ben-Tov (who is also a partner in Kalanit). Other investors in TACT include Israeli figures and entities, such as venture capital fund Polaris, Yossi Vardi, and the Arison group. TACT provides Internet services, focusing on customers appearing on Fortune Magazine's 1,000 list.
The incubator is intended to develop technological start-up companies dealing in B2B (business-to-business) e-commerce and bandwidth applications. Ben-Tov, Daniel Schwartz (former senior official in charge of trade and investment in the Ministry of Industry and Trade and in the Ministry of Finance), and Chris Bryant, (founder and general manager of T3, MEDIA), will manage the incubator.
The incubator will work in cooperation with Israel-based start-up companies, providing them with financing, assistance, Internet services, customer access, and strategic alliances.
The first Israeli company to benefit from the incubator will be LightPC, an ASP (Application Service Provider) providing consumer applications to Internet users. LightPC offers end users easy, online access to updated software applications via broadband providers.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on 2 April, 2000