Indo-Israel tie-up potent for startups: Accenture-Nasscom

BENGALURU: Global consulting and technology company Accenture and Indian IT trade body Nasscom say that greater collaboration between Indian and Israeli startups can lead to an investment of $25 billion in the two countries' startup ecosystem and create 25 products with a revenue of $1 billion each by 2025.

The two organisations have recommended what they call the IINSPIRE (Israel-India Startup Platform for Innovative Research and Entrepreneurship) framework and identified five areas of opportunity -agriculture, defence, energy, deep tech and heathcare & life sciences -after discussions with more than 50 experts from the countries.

“Both countries' innate strengths complement each other. India can help Israeli startups scale, and can serve as a test bed for Israel's tech innovation,“ said the report that was released during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Israel -the first by an Indian premier to that country.

Nasscom has estimated that India has 4,600-5,000 startups and Israel 4,500-4,600, which makes the countries the third and fourth highest in terms of numbers of startups. The US and the UK have more than what India has.More than one-third of all American startups have an Indian or Israeli founder.

The report proposes combining the temperament, technology and talent of India and Israel.

Avnish Sabharwal, MD of Accenture Ventures India, told TOI, “Indians and Israelis have different working styles with the latter having no patience in terms of decision making. That is slower in India. Indians are also wary of Israelis and think their behaviour borders on arrogance and rudeness, which again is not the case.“

K S Vishwanathan, vice president of industry initiatives at Nasscom, said engagement within the product community in India and Israel is one way to get them closer.Raghav Narsalay , MD of Accenture Research, said, “Large companies can drive this through their own initiatives.“