FoodTech prospering in Israel

Summary

If one country is above its weight in FoodTech, it clearly is Israel. Read more about the Israeli Food Tech ecosystem.

FoodTech prospering in Israel

If one country is above its weight in FoodTech, it clearly is Israel. It is hard to discuss some topics, such as alternative proteins, ingredients, crops or precision agriculture, without mentioning Israeli startups. Is it just hype or is there something real behind it?

Israel has one of the most vibrant and innovative FoodTech ecosystem, with over 300 active FoodTech startups, and hundreds of millions of dollars in VC investments. This might be surprising as Israel is a very small country, and food is a local industry.

First, let’s have a look at investments in Israel. As you can see below, investments have risen sharply in the past five years.

As for other ecosystems, 2021 was a “boo” year with a huge increase (more than doubling) in investments to reach $905M.

Beyond this impressive amount, we can learn two things when looking at this ecosystem:

it is highly specialized: 68% of 2021’s investments went toward alternative protein startups.
This makes the country the second destination globally for investments in the sector.
This is quite impressive when compared to the country’s size.
a quick look at the top deals made in 2022 shows how Israeli startups can attract huge investments and foreign investors