By Alexandra Bordeiasu and Sara Miller, NoCamels -
Nestled in Israel’s Negev desert, an innovation hub dedicated to cultivating climate tech has put down roots in the arid yet fertile landscape.
The name InNegev is a portmanteau of “innovation” and “Negev,” CEO Arnon Columbus tells NoCamels, which he says symbolizes its mission to transform the challenges of a desert into opportunities for innovation and growth.
The hub functions as an incubator for startups in various stages of development, providing an array of services from funding opportunities to business development resources, state-of-the-art labs to invaluable mentorship programs.
This includes staging workshops and seminars, helping to make connections with industry experts and offering strategic guidance as startups navigate the complexities of commercializing their tech.
“We’re creating an environment where startups can flourish,” says Columbus. “Our innovation center is designed to provide everything from funding to technical support.”
The InNegev portfolio of startups covers the gamut of R&D in environmental technology, from green energy and agriculture to meat alternatives and even water.
Among them are Emnotion, using AI to process vast amounts of meteorological data from around the world to assess whether conditions in one microclimate could ultimately cause a weather disaster in another, and BeAir, creating water out of vapor in the air for areas with limited accessibility, with a system that requires very little maintenance.
“The ecosystem is very active and very hectic,” Columbus says.
InNegev has found itself coping with the fallout of an ongoing war, one that began when Hamas terrorists smashed their way from the adjacent Gaza Strip into its patch of southern Israel on October 7, murdering 1,200 people and abducting more than 200 others as hostages.
Columbus says that InNegev quickly mobilized to help startups from all across the country navigate practically through this period of uncertainty, with foreign investors beginning to balk and a swathe of companies facing long stretches without key personnel who had received an emergency call-up to the Israel Defense Forces reserves.
He highlights the InNegev “control room” to help young companies cope with the shockwaves of the conflict, set up by InNegev in conjunction with the Israel Innovation Authority (IIA), the government department dedicated to advancing the national high-tech industry.
“We understood that there were so many startups having so many difficulties and barriers and stoppage points because of the war,” Columbus says.
So the center opened its doors to all startups in Israel – many of which are based from the south – inviting them to seek any kind of help or advice.
“If they have missing capital, or their labs are in the south and they cannot open them anymore because it’s at the border, or their investor or subcontractor does not exist anymore because of the war. Any kind of difficulties, call in and we will help you.”
Keeping such an extensive enterprise going is a costly affair, and Columbus is full of praise for InNegev’s plethora of strategic partners and investors, whom he says are very engaged with the center.
“They’re really putting in the time and effort,” he says. “Our partners and investors are deeply committed to our mission, and that makes all the difference.”
These partners, many of them leaders in their respective fields, include Israeli greentech success story Netafim, which began as a kibbutz drip irrigation pioneer in the 1960s and is now a multinational corporation worth billions of dollars.
Columbus explains that Hatzerim, the Negev kibbutz where Netafim was founded, played a major role in the creation of InNegev as an offshoot of the IIA in 2020, and remains a major backer.
“Hatzerim was actually the partner that established this entire consortium of different organizations and industries and funds,” he says. “[It] took the responsibility to actually form this consortium.”
Columbus, himself a veteran of the Israeli tech sector with decades of experience in high-profile positions, is the former chairman of Hatzerim shareholders’ committee at Netafim.
Another partner is the Israel Charitable Association (ICA), an organization founded in 1891 by German Jewish philanthropist Baron Maurice de Hirsch as the Jewish Charitable Association, which today focuses on developing agriculture in the Negev in the south and the Galilee in the north.
“They’re donating their money to fund activities developing the Negev,” Columbus says of the ICA. “We’re getting their support in many, many different aspects.”
For funding for the startups, Columbus says the hub normally turns to four venture capital firms with which it works regularly. He singles out Alpha Capital, a London-based VC company with offices in Israel, and Lamed Holdings, a leading Israeli business development firm based in Tel Aviv, with offices in China, Hungary and Poland.
“It is a great partner,” Clomubus says of Lamed. “They have so many connections, and they understand the market so well; it is great to have them on board and to get their advice, and in some cases also their investment.”
Both Netafim Vice President R&D Esteban Socolsky and Lamed owner and CEO Kobi Liberman are members of the InNegev board, along with Kfir Suisa, the global chief operating officer at SodaStream International – another Israeli international success story that is a partner to the incubator.
With such rich resources, InNegev is now looking at expansion, aiming to see as many as 100 startups emerge from the initiative.
“Our vision for the next phase is how to make the Negev a real international center for innovative, top tier startups fighting climate challenges and so on,” he says.
“This is what Israel can really bring to the world, so why not do it in the Negev?”
