This Sunday in Jerusalem, the Minister of Industry, Energy and Mining (MIEM), Omar Paganini, signed together with OurCrowd, a venture capital investor in Israel and operator of the main Israeli incubators, a agreement to create a technology incubator in Uruguay, within the framework of the Uruguay Innovation HUB Program (UIH).
With the signing of this agreement, which was done together with the CEO of OurCrowd, Jon Medved, and the partner and director of Incubators, Ori Sobovitz, the aim is to strengthen Uruguay as a technology and entrepreneurship polewith the goal of empowering the country as a core developer of new businesses for the region and the rest of the world, indicated from the MIEM.
OurCrowd will share their experience running government-backed incubators and will seek to identify startups that have the potential to benefit from support, guidance, and potential funding needs. So far, OurCrowd co-owns five Israeli government-backed tech incubators, plus one New Zealand government-backed incubator, both of which have the capacity to incubate more than 60 early-stage companies.
technological ties
Paganini said that the ministry is “delighted to promote technological ties” between Uruguay and Israel, and also with the region.
“Uruguay is ready to take the leap that will make it a regional benchmark, but with a global projection, in attracting innovative ventures at different stages. We have a thriving and mature technological ecosystem that serves as the foundation for the development and testing of new products and strengthens our innovative position. In the same sense, the economic, social, institutional and legal solidity of the country provides certainty and confidence to attract long-term investment,” he said.
Sobovitz considered that Uruguay is “a regional magnet for innovation, which we see as a springboard to expand into Latin America.” As he explained, the idea is to encourage private sector players, including venture capital investors, multinationals and local players to invest in companies.
Uruguay Innovation Hub is a public-private initiative program that works around the National Agency for Research and Innovation (ANII), which will support the acceleration of national and international startups, seek investment funds and promote the installation of open laboratories in which firms can access “disruptive technologies,” it was explained.
