Innovation, ideas and strong Telangana presence mark startup fest in Israel

The Digital Life Design (DLD) Tel Aviv, a three-day startup and innovation festival, held at Tel Aviv, Israel from September 4 to 6, saw the participation of delegations from several countries, including India's 'Startup State of India', Telangana. DLD Innovation Festival showcases the capabilities of the startups to the world, connects them with investors, and offers exposure to other ecosystems in the world.

Israel is one of the fastest growing innovation ecosystems in the world, and ideas range from cyber security to agritech to ed-tech to Artificial Intelligence and robotics.

Indian delegates at the Digital Life Design startup and innovation festival in Tel AvivThe delegation from Telangana was led by state Chief Innovation Officer Phanindra Sama, who was accompanied by Tarun Davuluri from TSIC and Bhubesh Kumar, director of Research and Innovation Circle of Hyderabad (RICH), and various entrepreneurs from the state, including Yeshwanth Nag of The Thick Shake Factory, Sumit Ghosh of PowerAdspy, and Rakesh Bhatia of TheCapitalNet, among others.

While Telangana was the only state that was represented by government and startup officials, there were also delegations from different State governments such as Assam, Bihar, Odisha and Chhattisgarh.

“The event gave us an opportunity to explore the Israeli startup ecosystem and there are a lot of things we take back home from here in terms of connections, possible relationships, and learnings,” said Phanindra, who had earlier founded redBus.in.

"It's fantastic to be at Startup Nation Israel as part of the startup state Telangana delegation. I take back the culture of innovation from here and imbibe in our QSR sector where there's a huge scope of technology enablement," Yeshwanth Nag, founder of The Thick Shake Factory, said.

The event, which had over 4,000 attendees, had speakers from across the world and over 100 delegations where investors networked with innovators and entrepreneurs. Startups were also offered a platform to showcase their technology.

“I came here to see the innovations in mar-tech and ad-tech and form some collaborations, as Israeli companies are known for leading this space. Our next phase of growth will come from affiliates and collaborations and we hope some of the connections we made here will materialise to fruitful engagements,” said PowerAdspy founder Sumit Ghosh.

One of the key highlights of the event was the startup walk, where a two-kilometre-long stretch in Tel Aviv was converted into an innovation boulevard with startups and companies such as Intel showcasing their innovations in augmented and virtual reality, robotics, autonomous drones, invisible light shows, caterpillar farms, on-the-fly text-to-braille conversion, interactive lighting, and much more.

There were other events in the backdrop of DLD, including the Cities Summit and India-Israel Innovation Mixer, where ways to strengthen ties between innovations and markets in the two countries were discussed.

Indian delegations also met Pavan Kapoor, Indian Ambassador to Israel, and Tshering W Sherpa, the deputy chief of the mission, who extended their support to startups from India that wish to work with Israeli companies.