Alon Stopel, Ph.D. is the Chairman of the Israel Innovation Authority and Chief Scientist for Innovation at the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology. He previously served as Vice President and Chief Scientist of Elbit Systems, an Israel-based international military technology company and defense contractor and held a variety of senior positions in the Directorate for Research and Development of Military Weapons and Technological Infrastructure in the country’s Ministry of Defense.
Stopel brings extensive experience in business development and has expertise in leading international collaborations in research and development, including establishing R&D centers around the world and the creation of collaborations between governments. He has an in-depth knowledge of Israeli and international R&D work in both the civil and military sectors.
He earned a Ph.D. in Electronic Engineering – Physical Electronics, and a Master’s degree in Business Administration, both from the Tel Aviv University, as well as a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.
Stopel, a speaker at the Sparks Innovation Summit in Tel Aviv March 27, recently spoke to The Innovator about innovation in time of war and Israel’s current focus on AI and the bioeconomy.
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Q: How has the war impacted the Israeli tech sector?
AS: Already before the outbreak of the war, Israeli tech companies suffered from a severe plunge in investments due to the global economic slowdown. After the war started the Israel Innovation Authority allocated $100 million to support Israeli startups with good technological assets and a runway shorter than six months. We invested 30 cents for each dollar raised, as a co-investor with the private sector. This helped keep 300 startups alive. The startups can buy us out after five years and we believe most of them will do that. The good news is that Israeli startup companies succeeded in raising $12.2 billion in 2024. This constituted a 31% increase in raised capital compared to 2023. Approximately 15 large business deals in 2024 generated around $4 billion in the Israeli tech sector. The result is impressive as Israeli startups succeeded in accumulating larger amounts during a difficult wartime than startups in most countries raised during peacetime.
Q: Israel is known for cyber technology and more recently for automotive and food tech. What are the next big things?
AS: AI is one of them. It is the type of disruptive technology that emerges once every few decades. Already over 2,200 Israeli companies are harnessing AI technologies to drive advancements across a wide range of industries, from healthcare and agriculture to energy, transportation, and construction. Israel launched our national AI program two years ago by integrating five partners: the Israel Innovation Authority, the Council for Higher Education, the Ministry of Defense’s Directorate of Defense Research and Development, the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology, and the Ministry of Finance. We then nominated Ziv Katzir to head the TELEM (The National Infrastructure Forum for Research and Development) program for Artificial Intelligence at the Israel Innovation Authority. In September of last year, we launched the second phase of Israel’s national program, which will run until 2027 with an allocated budget of NIS 500 million ($133 million). The funds are being invested in R&D infrastructure, including a National AI Research Institute that will serve as a platform for advanced, groundbreaking research in collaboration with Israeli and international academic researchers and industry professionals. Additionally, there will be significant efforts to develop human capital within academia , aiming for major breakthroughs in Israel’s high-tech sector and the integration of AI into public services. We are also working to integrate AI capability into our public sector. If Israeli AI startups can integrate into the public sector and as a result have a substantial proof of concept it will help them sell worldwide. And finally, we are working to ensure that startups have enough computing power.
Q: What are some of the other new areas that Israel is focusing on?
AS: Israel focuses on technologies that will help solve some of the world’s most pressing challenges. Other than AI, we have identified bio-convergence, which is the integration of biology, engineering, AI, and data science to create technologies and solutions that can be implemented in the medical sector like the invention of new drugs, organ-on-chip, mental health and much more, but also sectors like agriculture, climate, energy, and even construction. Additional technologies that will disrupt our future and are thus in the focus of Israeli developments include quantum, which is posed to revolutionize the world of computing, similar to the revolution created by the invention of the Internet, and climate tech.
Q: As Europe significantly increases defense spending, Israeli defense companies may be among the biggest beneficiaries. Could this be a boost to the startup community as well?
AS: We live in a region where security challenges have always existed. Local entrepreneurship combined with the necessity to create “out-of-the-box” solutions to security challenges has resulted in some of the greatest technologies. Many started in the defense sector but migrated to the civilian sector as well, such as cybersecurity. Furthermore, challenging situations bring people together that would otherwise not be connected. It takes them out of their comfort zone and challenges them to create solutions to arising problems, increasing the number of startups that aim to solve these new challenges.
Q: What, in your mind, is the Israel tech sector’s secret sauce?
AS: Necessity is the mother of all inventions. We have a culture that does not see failure as a negative thing, but rather as a step towards success. We don’t read manuals. We run fast to find a solution because the next challenge is around the corner. We think globally from the get go and collaborate with the international community, either through bi-national funds, agreements with international corporations, or with participation in the Horizon Europe R&I program which allows Israeli researchers and companies to benefit from combining forces with their European counterparts to solve global challenges. As we are short on natural resources, our main resource is our human capital. It is the human factor that matters. We succeed due to our entrepreneurial spirit and resilience because we face challenges with, flexibility, imagination, and creativity. Nothing is impossible, it’s just a matter of finding the right solution.
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