BGU | Fundraising Handbook

teams; communicating ideas, raising seed funding, and connecting all the dots required to make a new enterprise succeed. Notably, the 2023 cohort comprised 50% women. The Ira Ingerman Entrepreneur of the Year Award: Incentivizing Individual Initiative Funded by an endowment from the Ira and Eileen Ingerman Family Foundation, the Ira Ingerman Entrepreneur of the Year award grants a $5,000 financial prize to a BGU student whose new endeavor or entrepreneurial project made a tangible contribution to a societal cause. While winners gain visibility for their ventures and possible investor opportunities, all competition participants benefit from expert feedback on their projects and the chance to learn from others in their field. The award competition creates a buzz on campus that encourages entrepreneurial activity and strengthens entrepreneurship as a University value. Oazis: Translating Research into Commercial Technology A venture builder and accelerator founded together with IBM Alpha Zone, Oazis identifies BGU researchers’ technologies with the potential to solve significant scientific, engineering, and business challenges, and matches their research group with entrepreneurs to establish a company. Then, Oazis teams work closely with BGN Technologies to establish new startups and commercialize their technologies. Alongside skill building workshops and mentorship for researchers and their students, the year-long program also trains motivated undergraduates from every faculty to lead the new ventures’ business-development activities. To date, Oazis has established 24 companies based on BGU researchers’ technologies, raised $20 million in funding, and attracted the attention of Israel’s Ministry of Science and Technology, which recently awarded Oazis a competitive 16,000,000 NIS grant to help more BGU researchers advance their projects to the level of applied science. Oazis has indelibly changed the atmosphere at BGU, challenging researchers to connect their work to societal challenges and market needs. Negev Prime: Empowering Students and Negev Residents to Start a Business Online Designed for individuals with no technological training, Yazamut 360°’s eight-month e-commerce accelerator helps participants launch their own business on Amazon. Funded in part by Israel’s largest bank and one of its leading asset-management companies, Negev Prime combines practical experience in identifying lucrative

products, vendor negotiation, global logistics, cash-flow management, and marketing with industry mentorships. To spur business creation and bring more revenue into the Negev’s communities, Negev Prime received funding in 2021 from the Mack Ness Foundation to accept an equal number of Negev residents as BGU students. Students Think Innovation: Putting Entrepreneurship to Work for Effective Governance Run jointly with Google Israel and the Israel National Digital Agency, Students Think Innovation challenges teams of undergraduates to help their government work more effectively. After asking various governmental ministries to disclose their most persistent digital problems, the program solicits calls for students’ proposed solutions. The winning teams then spend one year working with the ministries to develop and implement their products and services for the benefit of Israeli society. Google Israel provides technical support, while Yazamut 360° provides mentorship. Next October: Harnessing Innovation to Honor the Memory of the Fallen An initiative founded in response to the Hamas attack on October 7, Next October aims to create more than 1,400 startup companies whose products contribute to a better world, one for each of the 1,400 victims of the Hamas massacre. As a partner in this inspiring and essential initiative, Yazamut 360° will help BGU students and researchers, and Negev residents connect their entrepreneurial ambitions to the larger project of honoring a fallen soldier or civilian and advancing Israel’s healing. Participating startups will be connected with investors worldwide and receive ongoing mentorship and networking opportunities. In return, these startups pledge to honor their chosen victims in various ways and integrate their legacy into their operational and ethical frameworks. Starting Up Together: Making Entrepreneurship a Means to a More Inclusive Society Funded by the Rothschild Foundation and run by the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation, Starting Up Together strives to ensure equal representation of Israel’s diverse population in the high-tech industry. As the program’s academic partner, Yazamut 360° provides aspiring entrepreneurs from Israel’s peripheries – 50% of whom are Jewish, and 50% are Arab Israeli – with knowledge and tools for building sustainable ventures, with an emphasis on turning peripheral towns and cities into new centers of business, innovation, and technology.

ACADEMIC AND RESEARCH EXCELLENCE

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INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP