Launching TECH1 Conference in Eilat: a new chapter for Israel’s tech community

By Anne Baer, CEO of iKare Innovation and co-founder Director of Women in Tech® Israel

Launching these days the TECH1 CONFERENCE a new large-scale community event is a bold decision. Launching it in Eilat is even a more daring gamble.

Over three days, two thousands of the most important Israeli investors, entrepreneurs, startups and corporates, gathered to speak of AI, Cyber, Defense and Fintech. I had two good reasons to get out of my comfort zone of sustainability, climate, energy, mobility and automotive, and take part to this historical event :

The first is Gali Leibusor Kinstlich.

And the second is Amitai Ziv who as the content editor did magic with a unique blend of stars.

In 2024, Women in Tech® Israel started to grant its logo to partner events that commit to diversity. And for this first TECH1 edition, the men-women balance both on stage and in the room was remarkable. The organisers had reached out to us and to other key women organisations months in advance: HaMeetupistiot of Hilla Bakshi, Yazamiyot - Women Entrepreneurs of Hilla Ovil Brenner and Meytal Bercovich's נשים בהייטק ישראל WomenInTechIL.

Amikam Norkin (Ace Capital Partners) and Sophie Shulman (Calcalist)

The organizers had succeeded in gathering sought after speakers such as:

• Nadav Zafrir, who resigned from all his other roles in December to become part of Checkpoint, announced hiring five hundred AI people and invest in reinventing cyber and infrastructures that have not changed much since 2020; that SOCs may increasingly become cyber historians rather than cyber practitioners; that Identity management is key; that AI can bring symmetry at defense not just offense; and that LLMs will be increasingly efficient at it.

• Amikam Norkin, who established Ace Capital Partners after retiring as a commander of the Israeli airforce in 2022 advised not to neglect air & space investments and not to be fooled by appearances. (See above video-extract of his interview by Sophie Shulman, Calcalist)

• Gigi Levy-Weiss one of the most active early stage investors through NFX who shares his time between Israel and the Valley.

• Renana Ashkenazi from Grove Ventures for whom Hardtech is hard to do, to find, to replicate and to finance; DeepTech is no more a taboo; with AI, investing in software turns out more risky than hardware.

• Dror Bin who disclosed that despite the war, 2025 will be a Baby boom year both by number of new startups and in terms of exits volume; the Israeli Innovation Authority is doubling down on Deeptech with 169 startups already funded through a new public funding vehicle.

• For Imran Gulanhuaeinwala, Israel is entering a Fintech golden era; keep an eye on stablecoins for reducing market volatility.

• Shai Hasson made us dream with FormX who already generated $20M AI designed home sales in California without even raising a penny.

• Maya Pizov from AMITI Ventures reminded that DeepTech is key to solving world problems.

• For Amit Karp, the biggest valuations do not come from cyber but from Wix, etoro, Monday and Fiverr…

• Anna Pelkin who stroke us when reporting that 35% of tourists picked a destination after watching content on TikTok.

• Ayal Somech from Boeing Israel shared with us that a company invested by Boeing gets unfair advantage to work with the group; and that their Israeli plant continued to work as usual even after being hit by a missile.

Hilla Ovil Brenner, Adi Levanon (Selah Ventures), Noam Mills (Panax), and Dana Eli-Lorch (Vesey Ventures)

With AI disruption, Fintech has the potential to become the next graal for the Israeli startup ecosystem after cyber. And while Cyber is a masculine niche, Finance attracts a wide array of Israeli female such as Rakefet Russak-Aminoach, former head of Bank Leumi, who is now managing partner of the Team8. Thanks to Hilla Ovil Brenner, successful entrepreneur, founder of Yazamiyot - Women Entrepreneurs and board member of Women in Tech® Israel, we even had a 100% female fintech panel (Adi Levanon - speaking in the video - from Selah Ventures sharing the stage with Noam Mills founder at Panax and Dana Eli-Lorch from Vesey Ventures).

Be sure Women in Tech® Israel will be proud to partner with Tech1 and Calcalist in 2026!