‘No Matter What’ Comes with Resilience
2023 was a difficult year for Israel and for those who believe in humanity. On October 7th, Hamas terrorists invaded the southern region of our country, destroying dozens of communities, massacring innocents and abducting men, women and children into Gaza.
In the face of this devastation, we, the civil society and private sector, continue to show resilience and are more committed than ever to innovation. Maintaining our equilibrium - continuing to work and be productive while living through the heart-wrenching consequences of the war - is difficult. However, I am proud that, even under these difficult circumstances, "Israel Tech Delivers, No Matter What.”
We hope the war will end and a peaceful, secure, and caring year will await us. As the new year brings challenges and opportunities for cooperation between Latin America-Spain and Israel, we want to start by sharing last year's highlights, some numbers related to our achievements, relevant projects we conducted, and events in which we participated. In 2023, we focused on food tech and cyber; for 2024, we foresee continuing in these areas, broadening our services to Business Development in Latin America-Spain for Israeli startups, and consulting on innovation projects in Mexico and Costa Rica.
Wishing for a great year ahead and better days.
Rina Fainstein
CEO Noga
Scouting
Santander X Global Challenge "Cyberprotect the Future"
In collaboration with Oxentia, Noga invited Israeli cybersecurity startups and scale-ups with commercial activities in Santander footprint countries to participate in the Santander X Global Challenge.
25 companies in different sub-verticals applied for the contest, and 5 reached the pitch day. Surf Security and Nokod Security- both scouted by Noga- were among the six winners of the Global Challenge.
Banco Industrial
Banco Industrial is Guatemala's biggest bank and has a presence all over Central America.
Over the last few years, Banco Industrial has enhanced its digital transformation strategy by investing in electronic banking platforms, championing new technologies, and refining existing ones. In addition, it has emphasized process automation to bolster efficiency and elevate the customer experience.
To push forward these efforts, Noga, in collaboration with its local partner Volcano Capital, has been assisting Banco Industrial in looking for solutions in two verticals: cyber security and AI.
POC- Pilots: Bimbo Ventures
We have been working with Bimbo Ventures since 2020. As an example of our cooperation, we highlight our relationship with the startup PHYTOLON.
By 2020, the startup had five people and a promising product: healthy natural colors with satisfied performance and economics through fermentation processes. Since then, several pilots with Grupo Bimbo’s Global R&D team have performed, the company has raised more than $20.5M in investments, the staff has expanded, and the collaboration with Grupo Bimbo will be consolidated in 2024, after almost three years of hard work.
New Project: Tecnológico de Monterrey
Tec de Monterrey has been our partner since 2017 when we were invited to Mexico to conduct a workshop on innovation for owners and CEOs of large companies.
In Q4 2023, we signed an LOI to identify disruptive technologies developed at Tec de Monterrey that can grow as startups and change the world. This is a promising Venture Builder project that just started.
Events 2023
During 2023, we participated in 19 global and local events, including:
● The Food 4 Future World Summit is one of the most important European conferences on innovation technology in the food and drinks industry. Noga organized a stand, in which 3 Israeli Startups joined: Matics, BlueTree, and Eggnup.
In addition, Rina Fainstein participated as a speaker in two panels.
● Noga participated in a new edition of the OurCrowd Global Investor Summit, one of the premier events in the tech industry and the largest investor event in the Middle East.
● Noga attended Ecomotion Week 2023, the flagship event of smart mobility in Israel. Ecomotion- the smart mobility community in Israel- includes more than 650 startups and is supported by the Israel Innovation Institute, Israel's Ministry of Transport and Road Safety, and the Ministry of Economy and Industry.
Achieving zero hunger through FoodTech: a tale of three intermediary cities
Based on our experience, we were requested by the Economic Transformation and Development Division OECD Development Centre to prepare a policy paper on food innovation in intermediary cities.
We are analyzing food tech ecosystems in three cities- Manizales, Colombia; Kiryat Shmona, Israel; and Murcia, Spain- and their contribution to achieving zero hunger.
In the paper, we describe the main stakeholders and the central public policies that have supported the emergence and ongoing development of food-tech ecosystems in the mentioned cities. We will offer policy recommendations based on the experiences of each case. Once published, the paper will be available in all our communication channels.
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