Israel is on a bit of a roll with 2 recent near billion dollar exits (Waze and Viber). So it’s interesting to see some details in the FT about how the Israeli government supports innovation funding through the Office of the Chief Scientist (OCS). The OCS has similarities to the Commission for Technology and Innovation (CTI) here in Switzerland because they both offer state money to fund research/engineering which is very innovative.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/babcfd3e-98b0-11e3-a32f-00144feab7de.html#ixzz2tqeZp7Rr

The Office of the Chief Scientist is continually addressing market failure – areas of broad economic benefit that private investors do not serve – rather than cherry-picking opportunities venture capital companies might well have taken on by themselves.

Waze: it lent about $1m to the company, and got about $3m back; the Israeli tax authority also reclaimed about $230m on the sale to Google in taxes paid to transfer the company’s intellectual property overseas