Mukesh Ambani's RIL to invest $25 Mn in Israel-based startup incubator

Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) announced that it’s planning to set up a technology incubator in Israel. The proposed incubator will setup in partnership with Israel-based crowdfunding platform - OurCrowd, Motorola Solutions, and Yissum, the technology transfer arm of the Hebrew University.

RIL will invest the proposed $25 million in technology startups in tranches over the course of the partnership.

JII has been created in the form of Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) in which RIL will hold 20 per cent stake while OurCrowd and Motorola own 60 per cent and 20 per cent equity respectively. Yissum will act as a non-investing partner that will provide research and development including other support.

The incubator will concentrate on sectors such as big data, analytics, artificial intelligence, fintech, storage, internet of things and computer vision. JII will be driven by OurCrowd and house the incubator at its headquarters at the JVP Media Quarter campus, Jerusalem.

“The proposed investment in JII would help pool significant amount of capital which is essential to fund the cutting-edge innovation required by early-stage startups in partnership with Israel Innovation Authority (IIA). This will also give (startups) early access to innovation, technologies and products from one of the world’s largest startup and technology innovation ecosystems,” RIL said in a stock-exchange filing.

Importantly, OurCrowd and Indian deals platform LetsVenture struck a partnership to invest in startups in the two countries last month. Reliance Industries has also launched GenNext Hub to catalyse the startup community in India.

The four-month-long programme aims to provide startups with access to funding opportunities, business mentors, and technical experts, among other resources.

In September last year, the group also announced Rs 5,000-crore VC fund, Reliance Jio Digital India Startup Fund to accelerate entrepreneurship in the country over the next five year. The fund will be used to develop and finance new businesses across sectors such as agriculture, education, health, rural livelihood, and e-commerce.