Startup Village Yokneam is Israel's Alternative High Tech Ecosystem with nearly 150 different companies involved in R&D and roughly $7 billion in technology exports annually. As a National Priority A area, companies in Yokneam are eligible for major tax benefits and investment grants of up to 20%. You can always find up to date information at www.StartupVillageYokneam.org .

Yokneam’s location is unique, because it is the only startup ecosystem that is not located in an urban area. However it is very close to two of Israel’s most important academic institutions (Technion and the University of Haifa), the agricultural research station at Neve Yaar, and only an hour away from both Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

The fact that Yokneam is not a major urban area has both advantages and disadvantages for entrepreneurs who are interested in Israeli high tech. The high quality of life and lower cost of living often attracts a slightly different type of entrepreneur and R&D professionals than in Tel Aviv. Yokneam has an especially high concentration of companies who develop technologies which require longer term R&D, such as medical devices, semiconductors and network infrastructure.

The small size and diversity of the communities surrounding Yokneam provide a natural social laboratory for testing of ideas and technologies in many different social environments at the early stages of development. Although the communities surrounding Yokneam are small, they offer a large variety of lifestyles and public services, from agricultural to suburban and urban, private ownership to communal ownership, ethnic and cultural diversity (Druze, Beduin, Jews from many different ethnic backgrounds), and different levels of interactions between local communities.