Tel Aviv contains more startups per capita than any city in the world other than Silicon Valley, according to the 2019 Global Startup Ecosystem Report published by Startup Genome and the Global Entrepreneurship Network. Prior to 2019, Tel Aviv contained the most startups per capita, even beating Silicon Valley. With companies including Google, Nielsen, and Nvidia operating incubators, accelerators, and competitions around Israel, some are even calling Tel Aviv the next Silicon Valley. 

But the authors of the Global Startup Ecosystem Report disagree—there’s not going to be a “next” Silicon Valley. Quite the opposite actually; there will be many, and Tel Aviv is just one. Still, the report states, Tel Aviv is unique. 

The report points to the Tnufa National Pre-Seed Fund, which is a risk-free grant that the government awards to entrepreneurs based in Israel to explore innovative technology. The fund is one possible reason why so many startups exist there. But it’s not the only one—the study fails to mention several other plausible explanations to the question: Why do Tel Aviv and Israel have so many startups? 

https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/at-work/innovation/why-does-israel-have-so-many-startups