Turin, Italy, Jerusalem, Israel – July 10th – The Piemonte Agency and Margalit Startup City announced today a new collaboration between the Piemonte region and Jerusalem. The new partnership will aim to build new bridges between tech, business, and economic organizations in the Piemonte region and city of Jerusalem.
Over the last few decades, Piemonte, located in the North-Western Italian region, has been diversifying its economic structure, directing itself more and more toward sectors tied to the economy of knowledge and innovation. Some of the most important Italian companies and multinationals have their headquarters located in Piemonte, including former Fiat now Stellantis, Ferrero, Olivetti, Huawei, Vishay, Collins Aerospace, L’Oreal, Microsoft, Oracle, and more. Strategically located in the heart of Europe and Mediterranean area, the Piemonte region is dynamic in services, with a skilled, flexible, and versatile workforce.
Margalit Startup City is the flagship of a network of innovation centers of excellence in Israel, with a center dedicated to cyber and climate tech in New York. The centers integrate the best local and international strategic partners in both the public and private sectors, connecting cities, people and ideas. These innovation centers are invigorating socioeconomic engines of growth – creating high-quality jobs and entirely new communities.
“Our mission has always been to build bridges, between communities, between cities, between regions – and today is a milestone on this journey,” said Erel Margalit, Founder and Executive Chairman of JVP and Margalit Startup City. “Piemonte, in the North-Western Italian region, is a region of rich heritage and agriculture, as well as technologies, a leading car industry, with robotics, aerospace, and clean technologies. This is a region that is a natural partner for us in Israel, where we take technologies serving humanity and the planet into the next era. This is a great milestone for the cooperation between Israel and Italy. Across our Margalit Startup Cities, with foodtech in the Galil, with cyber in Beer Sheva- and also with cyber and climate tech in New York. We are not opening just one partnership today, we are expanding across an entire network of innovation.”
Piemonte Agency is the specialized agency of Regione Piemonte (Regional Government). The group works with all the Chambers of Commerce and the Universities of the Piemonte region to support the internationalization process of local enterprises and attract foreign investors to the area.
“The path of collaboration that our region began some time ago with the State of Israel reaches a decisive turning point. With the opening of a strategic office in Jerusalem, which will be managed by Piemonte Agency, the companies in our area will have a stable presence to support and help them, promoting the birth of commercial agreements with the entrepreneurial realities of a country at the forefront in many productive sectors,” said Fabrizio Ricca, Internationalization Regional Ministry of the Regione Piemonte. “We believe that our countries, which have always been friends, should intensify their collaborations in terms of research, training and trade. There are many sectors of excellence that will benefit from a deepening of the business relations between the companies that make up our respective production fabrics: I am thinking of aerospace, automotive and digital security, to name a few. Like never before, the role of an institution like ours must be to help companies to develop, approaching international markets as an opportunity.”
Mayor of Jerusalem, Moshe Lion, spoke of the dramatic economic growth in the city, and said, “The top of my agenda as Mayor is the need to be sure that all the communities of Jerusalem benefit from this growth, and work and live together in prosperity in the city. We are investing in all parts of the city. We are building one million and six hundred square meters of new high-tech work and office space across the city. We are building a new innovation space in the east of the city a Silicone Wadi, and right here at Margalit Startup City young Jewish and Arab entrepreneurs come together to discuss the future.”
The agreement between Piemonte Agency and Margalit Startup City Jerusalem will encourage business-to-business cooperation between Piemonte companies and their Israeli counterparts through Margalit Startup City and Jerusalem Venture Partners, as Israel is considered a strategic partner and Piemonte can become an important hub for the expansion of Israeli companies to Europe.
“Today’s agreement marks an important phase for our territory and our companies. Israel is a priority and a strategic country with which, since 2018, we have begun a series of exchanges and discussions that have led to the signing of this MoU that guarantees an important business cooperation in Israel,” said Dario Peirone, President of Piemonte Agency. “Our goal is to establish a constant presence in Israel to promote the collaboration on an economic level and to help discover a welcoming territory also in terms of investments, offering a high quality of life thanks to a fervent social and cultural environment. In addition, thanks to the agreement with MSC, we are starting a collaboration with a global venture capital such as JVP which will further encourage investments by high-tech Israeli companies in Piemonte. The next step is an entrepreneurial mission already in mid-September for the aerospace sector organized as part of the Integrated Supply Chain Project that we manage on behalf of Piemonte Regional Government on the occasion of the participation in Aerospace & Defense Meetings Tel Aviv which will also include visits and business meetings with Israeli key players such as IAI, Rafael, Elbit, IMI.”
“This is a great opportunity. Having boots on the ground changes the atmosphere and changes the number of collaborations that are possible,” Nili Shalev, CEO of Israel Export Institute said, “The Israeli Export Institute is here to assist everyone with connecting and making more business opportunities between Israel and Italy.”
As part of the collaboration, Erel Margalit and Dario Peirone have signed an official MOU as an agreement between the two parties.
Piemonte is undergoing important changes and investing in urban transformations and large projects. Its strategic vision aims to attract investments and represent the region as business-oriented, making immediately clear to investors what Piemonte wants and has to offer. Coupled with JVP’s investment experience, Piemonte will have access to the Margalit Startup City thematic ecosystem that brings together public, private and social impact stakeholders.
“Today, it is a historic day. Piedmont Region opens up an office for the foreign trade and investments promotion in Israel, and chooses to do it in Jerusalem. May Piedmont, where the unification of the Italian State began, become the messenger of Italy’s official recognition of Jerusalem, the eternal capital of the Jewish people and of the State of Israel,” said Ambassador Dror Eydar. “I am confident that the Piedmont trade office will further strengthen the Israel-Piedmont friendship, consolidated by continuous and fruitful collaborations in the political, economic, scientific and cultural fields.”
About Piemonte Agency
The Piemonte Agency for Investments, Export, and Tourism is the public body in charge of the internationalization of the Italian region Piemonte. The Agency is the reference point for local companies at all phases of the development of international markets, for foreign companies looking for suppliers and business opportunities, and for foreign enterprises wishing to locate in Piemonte. Among all the activities conducted, on behalf of Piemonte Regional Government, Piemonte Agency runs the Integrated Supply Chain Projects focused on sectors such as automotive and transportation, aerospace, mechatronics, clean technologies and green building, health and wellness, agro-food/agro-industry, textile, luxury and design ensuring, free of charge, the shortest way to meet and start business with top class companies and facilitating and matching outsourcing needs and requirements with the most suitable partners in Piemonte. At the same time, Piemonte Agency guarantees complete assistance to foreign companies willing to invest in Piemonte. All services are free and totally confidential. The Agency can advise on every aspect of starting and running a business in Piemonte, providing assistance at every stage of the project also acting as a liaison office between foreign investors and public authorities, academic/research networks, industry. www.centroestero.org / www.piemontetheplacetoinvest.it
About Margalit Startup City
Founded by Erel Margalit, Margalit Startup City innovation centers are found across Israel and around the world. The unique model identifies regional core competencies and assets and leverages them to drive transformational economic and societal change. Each innovation center is an ecosystem dedicated to a major discipline. Collaboration is a requisite and takes place among the public and private sectors, including investment funds and startups, in collaboration with leading universities, research institutes, multinational companies, governmental programs and tech, business and social entrepreneurs. The first Margalit Startup City was established in Jerusalem, followed by the Cyber Center in Be’er Sheva, the International Cyber Center in New York, the FoodTech Center in the Galilee, the Fintech Center in Tel Aviv, and the Digital Health Center in Haifa. Today, these innovation centers are invigorating socioeconomic engines of growth – creating high quality jobs and entirely new communities. The centers integrate the best local and international strategic partners in both the public and private sectors, connecting cities, people and ideas. Margalit Startup City innovation centers also enhance human capital, empowering the next generation of entrepreneurs through a socio-economic non-profit called Margalit Startup City Community “Bakehila.”
About JVP
JVP, is an internationally renowned venture capital fund based in Israel. Established in 1993 by Dr. Erel Margalit, JVP has raised to date $1.6 billion across 10 funds, and has been listed numerous times by Preqin, and other rankings, as one of the top-ten consistently performing VC firms worldwide. JVP has built over 160 companies, leveraging a broad network of partners and market expertise to help companies become global market leaders. Among the pioneering firms of the Israeli venture capital industry, JVP has been instrumental in building some of the largest companies out of Israel, facilitating 12 Initial Public Offerings on NASDAQ including CyberArk Software (NASDAQ: CYBR, $3.6 billion mkt. cap.), QLIK Technologies (NASDAQ: QLIK, then $2.5 billion mkt. cap.) and Cogent Communications (NASDAQ: CCOI, $2.3 billion mkt. cap.). https://www.jvpvc.com/
