We were in the neighbourhood. Yes, Israel’s is part of Europe’s Neighbourhood Policy, part of Horizon Europe and… part of the European Startup Prize for Mobility (EUSP). Israeli startups are therefore eligible to apply and win!
That’s why we thought we might as well go and invite them in person to apply during this year’s Tel Aviv EcoMotion Week . It was an opportunity to highlight why EUSP is the best ticket for Israeli startups into the European market.
“The entrepreneurs we met with are looking for ways to export their solutions into a larger market than Israel’s,” says EUSP Managing Director Dan Sobovitz. “Many of them are intuitively oriented towards the US market and they were very interested in hearing more about the advantages of choosing Europe.”
EUSP was active throughout the event, starting with a presentation on the Mobility360 stage that introduced Europe’s largest acceleration programme for clean mobility startups. We also presented at the Side Event of our partner EIT Urban Mobility, where over 100 participants got a first-hand look at EUSP’s suite of advisory, investment, mentorship, networking and visibility boosting services.
“The power of the unicorn”
To close out an action-packed week, we hosted our very own EcoMotion EUSP Side Event, paraphrasing the title of Israel’s Eurovision entry, titled Unicorn.
This was an opportunity to remind Israelis to not only send their unicorn songs to Eurovision, but to let Europe turn their startups into market unicorns. Europe is the world’s biggest market and Israel’s main trading partner – making it a very attractive pasture for Israeli unicorns to grow.
During the side event, our local partners echoed our message on what makes the EU such an attractive market, noting that Europe is both culturally and geographically closer to Israel than the US and, in some ways, even less regulated. Jan Hauser from EIT Urban Mobility spoke the way in which they are looking for startups to invest in via the EUSP candidates. Gosia Kowalczy from the EU Delegation to Israel encouraged Israeli entrepreneurs to apply and elaborated on the European opportunities. Dina Pasca-Raz from KPMG Israel advised startups to diversify and experiment in the EU market. Ron Stern from OurCrowd highlighted that as an investor, he recognises the EUSP quality label on potential startups. Finally, past prize winner, Andrea Mocellin from Revolve Air shared the winning experience with the audience, and Vincent Cabanel from our co-founder Via ID who spoke about the evaluation procedure of the applicants and the acceleration programme for the winners.
Apply today!
Most importantly, don’t forget to apply for the European Startup Prize for Mobility today!
All submissions must be received by 20 June. Miss that deadline and you’ll have to wait an entire year for another shot at bringing your Israeli unicorn to Europe.