Aptima Chairman Joins Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick on Innovation Mission to Israel

WOBURN, MA--(Marketwired - May 27, 2014) - Led by Massachusetts Governor Deval L. Patrick, a delegation of top industry executives and economic development officials, including Aptima Chairman Daniel Serfaty, are visiting Israel from May 27 to May 29, 2014. The "Innovation Partnership Mission" is focused on expanding avenues of collaboration between the entrepreneurial sectors of Massachusetts and that of Israel in order to advance technology investment and job growth.

Daniel Serfaty, invited by Governor Patrick as part of the 100+ person business mission from Massachusetts, has a unique perspective having lived and studied in Israel for eight years, and subsequently grown Aptima from a small startup in 1996 to a leading R&D firm that employs over 120 professionals.

The Innovation Mission, featuring a who's who of technology leaders from Massachusetts, will visit with Israeli companies, investors, business executives, and government officials to highlight the Commonwealth's offerings. In the global competition for jobs, Massachusetts has found success attracting Israeli early stage companies and start-ups due to its East Coast location, lower cost-of-living versus New York and Silicon Valley, an established Israeli community, and an ecosystem that supports technology commercialization.

"Having spent my educational years in Israel and then started a company in Massachusetts, I've experienced the remarkable likenesses and synergies between these markets," said Daniel Serfaty, Aptima Chairman, and President of recently formed Aptima Ventures. "These economies may be half a world apart, but they share so much in terms of their reliance on top-notch educational institutions and a culture and passion for entrepreneurship. For Israelis looking to grow their innovations beyond their country's borders, Massachusetts offers a sweet spot of deep talent, world-class academic and research institutions, access to venture capital, and a concentration of technology industries."

Aptima, which applies expertise in how humans, think, learn and perform, solves complex challenges for the Department of Defense. Through its prolific research and development, the company has been at the forefront of advancing human-centered technologies that better train, equip and enable Warfighters.

"The benefits between these markets are mutual," Serfaty added. "Aptima has developed relationships with Israeli industry in simulation, training, and intelligent robotics. And we've recently identified other partnership and investment opportunities related to medical devices, educational technologies, and Big Data analytics."

The record of accomplishment between Mass and Israel is well-established. An independent study by Stax Inc., prepared for the New England-Israel Business Council, revealed that Israeli-founded businesses generate enormous revenue, jobs, and capital activity in Massachusetts. The study, updating a previous study of three years ago, found:

• Over 200 Israeli-founded businesses called Massachusetts home in 2012.
  ...Employing over 6,600 people in the state.
  
  
• Israeli-founded companies contributed $6 billion in direct revenue to the Commonwealth's economy in 2012.
  ...Their revenue grew 3x faster than the Massachusetts' economy from 2010-2012, and over twice as fast as the state's successful high-tech sector.
  
  
• Israeli-founded businesses represented 2.9% of the Massachusetts GDP in 2012.
  ...The employment base of Israeli-founded businesses grew five times faster than the state's economy between 2009 and 2012.
  
  
• Israeli-founded businesses secured $700 million in venture capital from 2010-2012 across 73 deals, representing over 6% of all venture capital funds raised in the state.
  
  
• These businesses returned nearly $2 billion to investors in mergers and acquisitions from 2010-2012 across 14 deals.
  
  

"Massachusetts is already a national leader in the innovation economy, but we can't compete by looking inward," said Governor Patrick in a statement released by his office. Governor Patrick will deliver the keynote at the U.S - Israel Connected Summit, an event that will bring together American and Israeli business leaders, academics and government leaders for discussions on topics such as medical devices, neuroscience, Internet of Things, eHealth, water tech and cyber security.

More info:

Aptima, Inc.: http://www.aptima.com

Official Governor's release: http://www.mass.gov/governor/pressoffice/pressreleases/2014/0513-governor-patrick-announces-israel-uae-innovation-mission.html

The New England-Israel Business Council: http://www.neibc.org/?page_id=1143

The Massachusetts-Israel Economic Relationship, 2nd Edition: https://www.dropbox.com/s/b8h8n5oa2v5okyr/MA-Israel%202013%20whitepaper%20final.pdf