A SPECIAL REPORT BY
HIGH TECH Ties
The Technology Connections Between Miami and Israel
Ties that Bind
Israel Tech Week Highlights the Miami-Israel Connection
BY DOREEN HEMLOCK
Momentum is really picking up. It used to be a challenge to attract Israeli companies to Florida. Now, it’s not ...
RAKEFET BACHUR-PHILLIPS, ABOVE, FLORIDA-ISRAEL BUSINESS ACCELERATOR
OPPOSITE: THE MIAMI 2025 TECH & INVEST CONFERENCE HOSTED BY CALCALIST
Alive band entertaining at breakfast. Gorgeous fresh flowers. Cocktails at a swanky club. Speakers from leading startups and finance groups. When Israel’s largest financial publication Calcalist held its first-ever conference in Miami in November, the organizers went all out, eager to celebrate Israel’s technology ties to Miami.
Cut to one month later: Israel’s English-language newspaper Jerusalem Post held its first Miami event. Then in January, the powerful Israel Advanced Technologies Industries association IATI offered the first mini-version in Miami of its acclaimed MIXiii conference, underscoring how South Florida is becoming a key hub for Israel’s prodigious technology.
Now, with critical mass building, a highly motivated Miami group organized the inaugural Israel Tech Week 2025 in Miami. The seven-day event drew 2,500 people and included a robust
Israeli presence at South Florida’s premier tech conference eMerge Americas. Israel Tech Week features dozens of Israeli founders and funders in healthcare, finance, energy, and hospitality, to name a few key sectors.
“Momentum is really picking up,” says Rakefet Bachur-Phillips, who co-leads the Florida-Israel Business Accelerator (FIBA) started in 2016. The group has helped nearly 40 Israeli companies launch in the state so far, mainly in Greater Miami. “It used to be a challenge to attract Israeli companies to Florida,” she says. “Now, it’s not. Companies are approaching us, whether they’re coming directly from Israel or from other markets in the U.S.”
WHY ISRAEL IS FORGING STRONGER TECH TIES NOW Known as the “Startup Nation” for its innovation and ample government support for tech enterprises, Israel has been forging business
with Miami for decades, thanks partly to South Florida’s role as a gateway to the U.S. and Latin America, warm weather similar to Israel’s, and its strong Jewish community.
Those links multiplied starting in the mid-2010s, as Miami raced to become a global tech hub. Since COVID-19, more Israeli startups are opening not only U.S. sales offices in Miami but their Americas headquarters as well, with CEOS relocating from Israel. More finance groups in Miami are providing cash.
After Israel was attacked on Oct. 7, 2023, and travel to Tel Aviv became more challenging, Israeli firms reached out more overseas, partly through conferences. Miami is seen as a secure place to gather and live, less contentious over Middle East politics and more welcoming to Israelis than many U.S. cities. “We pitch safety among the reasons for Israeli companies to set up in Florida – specifically Miami,” says FIBA’s Bachur-Phillips.
DECADES OF FLORIDA BUSINESS DELEGATIONS
HEADING
TO ISRAEL
The sense of safety nowadays stems from Florida's longstanding support for Israel and its businesses, as demonstrated by numerous visits by Florida government officials over the decades, says Maor Elbaz-Starinsky, Israel’s consul in Miami. In 2019, for instance, Gov. Ron DeSantis led 100-plus people to Israel in one of the largest delegations helmed by a Florida governor.
That trip produced some 20 cooperation agreements between universities, companies, and public entities. In 2022, Daniella Levine-Cava, Miami-Dade County’s first Jewish mayor, and Francis Suarez, Miami’s city mayor, each led separate groups to Israel, with a focus on tech. Support continues now, with the DeSantis administration last year inviting some 30 Israeli ventures to tout their tech to state agencies in Tallahassee at “Pitch Day at the Capital.”
“Florida was among the first to emerge from COVID-19 because of the governor’s policies, and not only did the state become a mecca to live in but [became attractive] businesswise too,” says Elbaz-Starinsky. “Combine that with direct flights to Israel; the area’s business-friendly
policies, with Mayor Suarez tweeting ‘How can I help?’; the tax incentives; the growing Jewish and Israeli community; and it all contributes to strengthening our close ties. Even Israel Tech Week is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what Israeli tech has to offer.”
WHY ISRAEL IS A WORLD LEADER IN INNOVATION
A small country about the size of New Jersey, with roughly 9.5 million people – less than half the population of Florida – Israel ranks as the nation with the most startups per capita in the world. It has the highest number of companies on the tech-heavy NASDAQ exchange after the U.S., China, and India, all far larger nations. Israel’s cybersecurity titan Check Point Software Technologies alone has a NASDAQ market value exceeding $24 billion. Israeli tech is widely used in South Florida, from drip irrigation in agriculture to the road traffic app Waze and the freelancer platform Fiverr.
Experts credit Israel’s prowess partly to the pioneering spirit of immigrants, including scientists who came from the former Soviet Union. Also key: mandatory military service for both men and women, which builds skills and responsibility, forges community bonds, and requires out-of-the-box thinking to solve problems. What’s more, the government prioritizes education and provides ample support to universities, research labs, and accelerators to foster innovation.
ABOVE: ISRAELI DELEGATION IN TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA
RIGHT: MIAMI MAYOR SUAREZ (CENTER LEFT) AT THE IATI - MIXIII CONFERENCE
The tax incentives; the growing Jewish and Israeli community; and it all contributes to strengthening our close ties ...
MAOR ELBAZ-STARINSKY, ABOVE, ISRAEL’S CONSUL GENERAL IN MIAMI, DISCUSSING TIES BETWEEN MIAMI AND ISRAEL
RIGHT: PHYSICIAN MAURICE R. FERRE, OF ISRAEL’S INSIGHTEC, CO-HEADQUARTERED IN MIAMI, WHICH EMPLOYS 400 PEOPLE
Even during the war, Israel’s economy grew in 2024, and its tech sector raised some $12 billion, up 27% from 2023 levels, according to nonprofit Startup Nation Central. Investors, many from the U.S., pumped billions into later-stage Israeli ventures expanding globally. New York-based Blackstone, for instance, invested $800 million into Priority Software, in its biggest deal in Israel yet.
“I’ve never been as bullish on Israel as I am today,” former U.S. ambassador to Israel and now Blackstone vice-chair Thomas R. Nides told the IATI conference in Miami in January. He lauds Israel’s resilience. “We at Blackstone,” says Nides, “are putting our money where our mouth is.”
Google’s parent company Alphabet upped the ante March 18, agreeing to the largest acquisition in Israeli tech history: a $32 billion deal to buy Israel-founded cybersecurity unicorn Wiz. That tops US chipmaker Intel Corp’s purchase of Israel’s Mobileye, the computer-vision tech used in vehicles, for $15.3 billion in 2017. For Alphabet, it’s the largest purchase of any company, anywhere.
MEDTECH: STRONG LINKS AND HUGE OPPORTUNITIES
Miami is forging tech ties with Israel across sectors, but one stands out for already hefty bonds and vast potential: healthcare and medical technology. That’s why Israel’s IATI devoted its inaugural Miami event to medtech, showcasing 18 Israeli startups.
At the gathering, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez explained the allure of the U.S. healthcare market with hard numbers. The U.S., he says, spends about 16% of its economic output on healthcare, or more than $4 trillion yearly. That represents about half of all spending on healthcare worldwide. Per person, it’s also about twice the global average. South Florida carries special weight, thanks to its many retirees, Latin Americans coming for care, and fast-growing hospital systems, including the University of Miami Health System and Baptist Health.
“The opportunities are huge to disrupt [U.S. healthcare],” Suarez told the conference, reminding attendees that Miami City Hall flew the Israeli flag at half-mast after the Oct. 7 attacks.
Credit Maurice R. Ferre, the physician and serial medtech entrepreneur, for deepening those bonds. The son of six-term Miami mayor, Ferre co-founded South Florida’s robotic surgery pioneer Mako Surgical, which sold for $1.65 billion in 2013. Impressed by Israeli innovation, he now leads Israel’s Insightec, co-headquartered in Miami. Insightec uses focused ultrasound to treat tremors and other disorders, with no incisions. It employs 400 people, and some years the company has topped $100 million in annual revenue.
Ferre is so determined to position Miami as a global tech hub that he served as a founding board member of accelerator Endeavor Miami a decade ago. To build Miami-Israel ties, he chaired IATI’s event at The LAB Miami, encouraging participants to make IATI conferences in Miami one day “as big as in Jerusalem.”
MORE CAPITAL IN FLORIDA NOW FOR ISRAELI BUSINESS
Tech expansion requires capital, and today’s Miami-Israel momentum also stems from greater availability of funding in South Florida, says lawyer Meital Stavinsky, who co-directs the Israel practice for law firm Holland & Knight in Miami. She’s been helping Israeli businesses establish themselves in the U.S. for more than 20 years.
“Since COVID, many big venture-capital (VC) groups, private-equity firms and family offices have moved here, and that may be a reflection of the political and legal landscape in Florida,” says Israeli-born Stavinsky. “Israeli growth-stage companies are always looking for capital.”
Among the finance newcomers: Ceros Capital Markets, led by Zimbabwe-born CEO Mark “Goldie” Goldwasser, who moved from New York to Miami Beach in 2020. Ceros now has some $8.5 billion in assets under management. It invests globally, with roughly $300 million in medtech ventures, especially from Israel. That includes stakes in Momentis Surgical, among other Israeli firms active in South Florida, “and we’re looking to do more,” he says.
Goldwasser sees Israeli innovation surging, because the Mideast country is so small and full of immigrants. “A nation of immigrants is a nation of entrepreneurs,” says Goldwasser. “And Israeli entrepreneurs have to think globally, because they have such a tiny market. They have to be disruptive.”
Not all those funding Israeli tech from South Florida are Jewish or big businesses, of course. Angel-investor Bo Megginson moved from Alabama to Florida in 2019 to build a network for individuals to fund early-stage ventures. He sought a niche and saw opportunity in Israel “pumping out unicorns once a month” and South Florida growing both as tech hub and home to Jewish and Israeli communities.
Israeli growth-stage companies are always looking for capital ...
MEITAL STAVINSKY, ABOVE, LAWYER FOR ISRAEL PRACTICE AT HOLLAND & KNIGHT IN MIAMI
LEFT: EDOUARD CUKIERMAN, A VENTURE-CAPITALIST
BUILDING THE CATALYST INVESTORS CLUB
“There’s no better brand on the planet than Israeli tech, independent of industry. So why not affiliate with the best?,” Megginson thought. He reached out to Israel’s venture-capital powerhouse Sarona Partners and began bringing Israeli founders to Florida events. Since 2023, the firm he co-founded, Nova Gersher Ventures, has helped at least 20 Israeli companies to do business in Florida and helped raise more than $2 million in funding for some of those ventures, Megginson says.
Financiers from Israel also are reaching out more to Florida since Oct. 7, 2023. They include Edouard Cukierman, the noted venture capitalist who moved from France to Israel in the 1990s. He spoke at the Jerusalem Post conference and will present at Israel Tech Week in Miami.
Cukierman is building Catalyst Investors Club (CIC), a platform aimed at accredited investors. CIC lets the individuals join funding rounds led by VC groups, investing as little as $25,000 each. More than 300 later-stage tech ventures are listed on the platform, mainly from Israel and Europe. Cukierman wants to expand CIC to more startups and investors across the Americas, and hopefully open an office in Miami. Says Cukierman: “Miami is a strategic gateway to the Latin American market.”
THE PEOPLE BEHIND ISRAELI TECH WEEK
As the Israeli presence has grown in Florida and Miami has emerged as a tech hub, so too have the organizations working to bring people in the ecosystem together – founders, funders, government officials, software engineers, designers, and more.
That’s where Israeli-born marketer Lior Halabi comes in. In mid-2023, he co-founded the Miami_Israel Collective with tech entrepreneur Ayal Stern, curating events to unite tech players. He’s gotten Israel Tech Week off the ground in Miami with tech entrepreneur Ayal Stern (also a co-founder of Miami_Israel Collective), partnering with dozens of other groups from South Florida and Israel, including the Miami-Dade Innovation Authority, FIBA, the American Jewish Committee, and Israel’s Export Institute.
“Miami is a good place for Israeli companies to find first clients and enter the U.S. market. It’s not like New York or California with an established ecosystem,” says Halabi, who came to South Florida a decade ago. “Here, new companies have a better chance to position themselves.”
He aims to hold Israel Tech Week in Miami yearly and spin off smaller versions in U.S. tech hubs like Austin to help bring more participants to the larger Miami events later.
OVERCOMING OBSTACLES TO GROWTH
Of course, building tech links across oceans brings challenges. One common problem: how to structure international operations. Some Israeli companies silo their research and development activities in Israel and their sales in the U.S., but would benefit from better inte-
grating both to scale-up, suggests Dvir Cohen, CEO of Momentis Surgical, who has been in South Florida since 2021. That means U.S. teams need to know the technology well and give feedback from customers about how they use it and their concerns.
“You need R&D boots on the ground in the U.S., as well as the right sales and marketing team in Israel, to build a strong foundation and really have a global business,” says Cohen, who has been in South Florida since 2021.
Then there’s the issue of new entrants finding partners in Florida. More major companies in Florida are now lending their expertise, including Mana Tech, part of the group led by Israeli-born, Miami-based real-estate developer Moishe Mana. The Mana group owns 72 buildings in downtown Miami and is creating an innovation district there to include offices, coworking spaces, research labs, and more.
For years, Mana Tech has assisted founders in Latin America expand their businesses through Miami, organizing courses, workshops and meetings. Now, it has launched Miami-Tel Aviv 2025 to extend those efforts to Israeli ventures, building bridges to Miami and across the Americas. “We have the partnerships to make this happen,” says Mana Group executive vice president Yossi Harel.
To further strengthen the growing ties between Israel and South Florida, expect more conferences – in the vein of Israel Tech Week in Miami, which featured more than 15 events and 50-plus speakers. A
ABOVE: PART OF THE TEAM AT MANA TECH LEFT: LIOR HALABI AND AYAL STERN
Israel-linked Tech Ventures in Greater Miami
BY DOREEN HEMLOCK
Biobeat: Wearable, non-invasive devices and platform to monitor blood pressure, pulse rate and other health conditions. Works with hospitals and healthcare providers. Has US FDA and European CE approvals. Founded in 2014, based in Petah Tikvah, Israel. CEO Arik Ben Ishay moved to Miami in 2024. About 35 employees globally. Has raised some $20 millio, with funders including Best Buy Health.
Lendai: US mortgages for foreign investors. Based in Tel Aviv. Set up in South Florida in 2021. Has offices in Miami and Aventura in the US, and in Canada, Argentina, Israel, and India. More than 30 employees worldwide. Has handled more than $150 million in transactions to date.
Reeco: AI-driven platform digitizing procurement, inventory and accounts payable for hotels. Founded in Israel in 2021. Set up US headquarters in Miami in 2022. Raised $15 million in January, led by Aleph VC, bringing total funding to $25 million.
Spinframe:AI-powered camera systems to scan vehicles. Based in Yokne’am Illit, Israel. Opened in Miami in Oct. 2024, seeking clients among ports, car-rentals, automakers, others. Employs 30 people worldwide. More than $10 million in funding to date, some from Zim Integrated Shipping.
ThriveDX: Cybersecurity training for individuals, universities, and companies. Based in Israel, set up US headquarters in Coral Gables in 2016. Employs more than 2,000 people globally. More than $200 million in funding to date.
Wix: Website builder. Based in Tel Aviv, with a Miami Beach office since 2015. Employs hundreds in Miami Beach, including multilingual, customer service staff. Global revenues topped $1.7 billion in 2024 and are forecast to near $2 billion this year. Trades on the Nasdaq exchange.
OTHER ISRAEL-LINKED COMPANIES IN GREATER MIAMI
Branja restaurant: The first US venture of Israeli chef Tom Aviv, winner of Masterchef Israel 2016 and other awards. Opened in Miami’s Upper Buena Vista neighborhood in 2023. The chef also has eateries in Israel and Morocco.
El Al Airlines: Israel’s national airline. Founded in 1948. El Al operates direct Miami-Tel Aviv flights since 2017 and Fort Lauderdale-Tel Aviv flights since 2023. It moved its U.S. headquarters from New York to South Florida in 2022, partly to lower costs.
Israel Discount Bank: Commercial bank. Founded in 1935. Has a U.S. unit now called IDB Bank of New York, which started in 1949. Israel Discount has an office on Brickell and IDB Bank a branch in Aventura. The bank is known for a focus on digital banking and fin-techs.
Zim Integrated Shipping Services: International cargo shipping. Based in Haifa. Started in 1945 and trades on the New York Stock Exchange since 2021. Office at PortMiami. A
Source: Company reports; Global Miami research.
LEFT: SPINFRAME TECHNOLOGIES AT WORK IN A PORT
ABOVE: TEL AVIV BASED WIX, WHICH OPENED A MIAMI BEACH OFFICE IN 2015, HAS REVENUES APPROACHING $2 BILLION
Refining robotic surgery
BY DOREEN HEMLOCK
Robot-assisted surgery often involves a large, expensive system using mechanical arms that make angular movements. Israel’s Momentis Surgical is changing that model. It offers a compact, more affordable system for many common procedures. The arms of the machine have flexible, human-like joints that can work in a wider scope within the patient.
“With our Momentis system, when you enter the body, you can reach every organ inside,” says Michael Conditt, Momentis’s senior vice president. “Doing procedures less invasively, with fewer incisions, means less trauma and faster recovery. Our movements are inside the body, instead of working through portals with straightstick motions.”
In October, Momentis earned U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval to use its patented Anovo system for a second application: to repair hernias in the abdomen. It already had approval to perform gynecological procedures. Now, the company will seek the FDA’s nod for more uses: bariatric and colorectal surgery, among them, Conditt says.
CEO Dvir Cohen, who formerly worked for Israel’s government in robotics, co-founded the venture with Professor Nir Shvalb in 2013. The duo dreamed of making a robotic-surgery platform with human-like fingers. But they found that surgeons preferred the idea of a tiny human-like arm that could hold different tools, such as graspers, hooks, and needle drivers. Their latest platform features a mini-humanoid arm that contains shoulder, elbow, and wrist joints with 360-degree articulation, it can reach deeper into the body and reduce the number of incisions needed.
Millions of ambulatory procedures are done annually in the US, and we feel that’s our opportunity: to add robotics to those surgeries.
MICHAEL CONDITT, VICE PRESIDENT OF MOMENTIS
With research and production in Israel, the venture set up its U.S. hub in South Florida in 2021, lured by the area’s strength in robotic surgery and eager to tap the vast U.S. market. Miami physician Maurice R. Ferre, former CEO of Mako Surgical, serves as Momentis’s chairman.
The hub started out in Fort Lauderdale, but moved to Miami to be closer to a key customer, Kendall Regional Medical Center. Its South Florida location helps attract potential US users: “If you’re asking a surgeon in Minneapolis to come to Miami for a visit in February, they all get in line,” Conditt jokes.
Investors have been impressed by Momentis’s equipment, already used in 500-plus surgeries. They’ve poured $140 million into the company so far, including $96 million in 2021, and see the potential for the platform in simpler, outpatient surgeries. Momentis’s Anovo system weighs about 14 pounds, is the size of a large loaf of bread, and costs less than $1 million. Other platforms, used in more complex surgeries, often weigh a ton or more, stand eight feet tall, and cost $3 million.
“Millions of ambulatory procedures are done annually in the US,” Conditt says, “and we feel that’s our opportunity: to add robotics to those surgeries.” A
Experience
Revolutionizing solar energy
BY DOREEN HEMLOCK
Forget bulky solar panels that can only be installed on top of strong buildings. How about making energy instead from thin, flexible solar sheets that can be placed anywhere, even atop buses and trucks?
Israeli scale-up Apollo Power is doing just that, in a business that already earns millions of dollars in revenue yearly, says Noam Mulla, general manager for the Americas. Active in Israel and Europe, the company now is in the permitting stages for its first major U.S. projects and is pitching its solar sheets for public transport in Miami-Dade County, Mulla says.
The venture began in 2014 when two pals sought to develop a solar paint. They wanted to replace traditional solar panels, which require a considerable amount of heavy, durable glass outside to protect fragile, breakable silicon cells inside. The partners came up with a thin, bendable solar sheet that won’t crack and is so light that it can sit on vehicles and on curved rooftops. The solar sheet can make “portable energy, a perfect fit for transport, defense or disaster-relief operations,” Mulla explains.
Automakers have been early adopters. Volkswagen has signed a multi-year contract, while Audi and Hyundai have embedded Apollo’s technology in car parts to help charge batteries in both conventional and electric vehicles, Mulla says. Charging vehicle batteries with solar energy cuts fuel consumption and carbon emissions, and it also limits battery discharge and maintenance, Mulla says. Those benefits helped Apollo Power earn an E-mobility Award at Europe’s Intersolar conference last year. The awards team called the technology “an easy, practical, and clean charging solution for commercial transport.”
Apollo Power is so keen on deploying the technology that it has built a $50 million factory in Israel that can churn out 2,000 of its solar sheets daily; each measuring two square meters. Funding has come mainly from Israeli groups, with some $10 million raised last year alone through the Tel Aviv stock exchange.
The company established a U.S. presence in late 2023, bringing on Mulla, an Israeli attorney with experience in renewable energy in Israel and the Americas. He works from Cooper City and is building a distribution network to extend into Latin America and the Caribbean.
He's keen to supply homes and businesses in areas where electricity costs are high and distribution grids sometimes fail. He also sees potential after natural disasters to outfit temporary shelters, emergency-relief vehicles, and community centers, among countless uses across the diverse Americas. Mulla likes to tell the story of a colleague who had installed Apollo Power sheets on her home in North Carolina. When a hurricane knocked out the area’s electric grid, “she had solar energy,” Mulla says, “so the neighbors came to shower at her house.”
APOLLO POWER SOLAR PANELS ARE ALREADY POWERING COMMERCIAL TRUCKS AND SPORTS ARENAS.
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Waltzing to Buy US Real Estate Remotely
BY DOREEN HEMLOCK
Buying U.S. real estate can be a massive headache for international investors – full of paperwork and sometimes surprises that can delay closings and boost costs. A Miami-based startup aims to make the investment process as easy as a waltz across the dance floor.
Israeli entrepreneur Yuval Golan dreamed up Waltz during the Covid-19 pandemic to offer remote buyers the ease of “an Amazon-style checkout, plus installment plan.” He knows the travails investors face, having spent two decades working around the globe in cross-border finance.
The Waltz platform lets non-U.S. citizens purchase U.S. properties online, in a brisk step-by-step process. Buyers quickly create a U.S. Limited Liability Company (LLC), obtain a U.S. Employer Identification Number (EIN), open a U.S. bank account, wire foreign exchange, obtain a U.S. loan, get U.S. insurance, and perform other tasks – with some steps completed in seconds.
“We close the deal as quickly as in 14 days, and they don’t need to touch U.S. soil,” Golan told Global Miami.
The startup works with more than 4,000 U.S. lenders, plus hundreds of insurance companies and property-related firms. It charges clients a fee for each service provided, such as wiring money or obtaining a mortgage. So far, it’s processed more than $150 million in transactions, with demand rising and a strong referral and
We
close the deal as quickly as in 14 days,
and they don’t need to touch U.S. soil ...
YUVAL
repeat rate, Golan says.
“We’re not competing to be the cheapest. We’re competing to be the fastest and most efficient,” explains the CEO, who worked in Israel, Europe, Asia, and South America before moving to South Florida. He says many buyers seek out U.S. homes, offices, or warehouses as investments to generate income.
To grow, Waltz has raised more than $24 million to date, with funders including Israel’s TLV Partners and Aleph. It now employs some 30 people, with offices in Miami, Tel Aviv, and Madrid.
Miami was the logical choice to base operations for three key reasons, Golan says. First, Florida accounts for roughly 25% of all foreign investment in U.S. real estate. Within the state, much of that foreign investment comes to Greater Miami, including Broward and Palm Beach counties. In addition, Miami is emerging as a global tech hub, offering support for startups from capital to conferences.
Personally, Golan also enjoys the convenience of living in Miami’s Brickell district—“the Manhattanized part of Miami,” as he calls it—where he can easily walk from home to meetings, shops, and restaurants. Brickell is also convenient to Miami International Airport, so it’s easy to take off to check in with Waltz’s growing roster of clients, partners, and staff worldwide. A
GOLAN, ABOVE, OF MIAMI-BASED STARTUP, WALTZ
