Israel the start up nation and Germany - growing confidence

Vardina Hilloo

Over the past 20 years, Israel has been considered a world leader in hi-tech and science. In recent years,
the land has become a high-tech start-up powerhouse , called “The start up nation”  and it has been courted
by Japanese and Chinese companies that come to study, cooperate and invest in technology companies,
a serious rival to other technology and venture capital ecosystems such as California’s Silicon Valley, Shanghai
and London.

In Germany, the issue slowly trickled and only recently the state of North Rhine-Westphalia decided,
through an arm of the regional economic ministry NRW Invest, to open an office in Tel Aviv that represented
its economic interests. A good news so fare.

At the beginning of November  it was known that Gemany’s Continental AG, an automotive
manufacturing firm, was buying Israeli startup Argus Cyber Security to strengthen its capabilities
in automotive cyber security, as the confidence in Israel`s high tech sector is growing.

In a statement, the German firm confirmed reports in the Hebrew media last week of the acquisition,
which was estimated at around $400 million. The Continental statement did not disclose financial details.
Argus was founded in 2013 by alumni of the IDF’s elite Unit 8200, CEO Ofer Ben-Noon, Oron Lavi
and Yaron Galula, with Zohar Zisapel, a co-founder of the RAD Group who is also an investor in the firm.

The Israeli startup is headquartered in Tel Aviv, has a team of more than 70 people and has
“the most comprehensive, market-ready solution suites in the industry, based on 38 granted and
pending patents,” Continental’s statement said.

Argus is already supplying its cybersecurity solutions to car manufacturers and suppliers worldwide,
and the firm has representation in Japan, Germany and North America.

Argus will become a part of Elektrobit (EB), Continental’s software subsidiary. But it will also continue
to work with all automotive suppliers globally, the statement said. The acquisition will enable the merger
of Continental’s automotive know-how, Argus’ technology and solutions that are already in the market
, and EB’s deep automotive software knowledge, Continental said.

Together, the companies will offer multi-layered, end-to-end security solutions and services, including
intrusion detection and prevention, attack surface protection and fleet cyber security health monitoring
and management via a security operations center (SOC) to protect vehicles in the field. The companies
will also provide software updates over-the-air solutions, the statement said.

The new government under the leadership of the Christian Democrats CDU and the Liberals FDP is
now renewing hope for reciprocal visits and close and fruitful cooperation with Israel in the fields of cyber,
digitalization, technologies, medicine, and more.