150 companies participating in the Mass Challenge Israel program have raised an aggregate $150 million to date, the program team revealed today. Three rounds of the program have been held so far. Two of the companies concluded strategic agreements, and their revenue totaled $22 million.
The Mass Challenge program operates from the Mahane Yehuda open air market in Jerusalem. $50 million, one third of the amount raised in the program, was raised for 40 companies in Jerusalem. $6 million of the companies' $22 million in aggregate revenue was posted by companies operating in Jerusalem. These companies have 372 of the 1,172 employees working at the companies that participated in the program.
The Mass Challenge program features a high proportion of women. 41% of the companies in the Mass Challenge Israel programs had at least one woman among their founders. These companies have already raised over $47 million. This figure is in line with the statistics for the global Mass Challenge programs over the past nine years.
Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion said, "Mass Challenge is an organization of supreme strategic importance for Jerusalem. It is able to bring Jerusalem to the startup industry and the startup industry to Jerusalem. Not only does Mass Challenge bring comprehensive support and a wealth of growth and development opportunities for startups in Jerusalem; it also brings cooperative ventures in education and a spirit of innovation, and creates new jobs for residents of the city."
Ministry of Jerusalem and Heritage acting director general Sarit Goldstein said, "The achievements of Mass Challenge in Jerusalem are very impressive. In just three years of activity, Mass Challenge has shown impressive growth in raising money for companies and in the number of direct and indirect jobs in Jerusalem. This activity is one of the tools that the government has used for a number of years for the purpose of developing entrepreneurship and advanced industry in Jerusalem. It is another indication of the strength of the entrepreneurial and technological ecosystem in Jerusalem and our potential. We see a great challenge in increasing this activity in the future, bolstering international activity, and positioning Jerusalem as a focus of learning and development for startups from all over the world and attracting diverse population groups to technological entrepreneurship and advanced industry."
Mass Challenge Israel managing director Yonit Serkin said that the figures showed the power of the program and the high quality of the startups participating in it. "I predict that, within a decade, the companies graduating from the accelerator programs will constitute a very important part of the high-tech industry in the capital. The general contribution of these companies to the Israeli economy will also be significant," Serkin added.
The global Mass Challenge program incorporates accelerators from all over the world. It originated in Boston Massachusetts. It has contributed to the founding of 1,500 ventures to date that have raised an aggregate total of $3 billion.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on January 31, 2019
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2018