In what became an annual tradition, I am excited to share the 2026 Israeli startup landscape collection on VC Cafe. Over the years, I’ve maintained a deep fascination with startup landscape maps and have collected each map that was pubslished since 2019. It’s a snapshot in time, a piece of research that requires a lot of work and curation which offers a bird’s-eye view of Israel’s thriving startup sectors.
The last two years (2024-2025) on the surface were extremely difficult for Israeli startups These years were marred by war, hostages, record number of recruitments for reserve service and a background of rising global antisemitism and negative impact on the Israel brand. In practice though, they redefined the meaning of resilience for Israeli entrepreneurs. With fundraising levels nearing the peak of 2021 and record breaking exits (primarily driven by Cybersecurity) Israeli startup came out stronger on the other side. I expect 2026 to be a year of building and growth, boosted by the global advancements in AI.
This post will be updated regularly throughout the year with the new startup landscape maps. To see how far we’ve come, you can browse the previous editions from Q3-Q4 2022, Q1-Q2 2022, July 2021, July 2020 and May 2019 as well as the 2023 annual landscape collection, the 2024 startup landscape collection and the 2025 Israeli startup landscape collection, which was the busiest to date.
One more thing – my passion for startup landscapes is not just limited to Israel. So I opened a Reddit community for other startup landscape enthusiast. You can find it at https://www.reddit.com/r/startuplandscapes
Israel’s Defence Tech Ecosystem 2026
According to Viola Ventures, Israel’s Defence tech sector has reached “escape velocity,” now comprising over 300 startups and accounting for 4% of Israel’s total tech funding. This evolution is driven by a unique three-layer structure: the established “primes” (like Rafael and Elbit), a middle generation of global exporters, and a new wave of AI-native startups founded by veterans with deep operational experience. These newer companies are compressing traditional decade-long development cycles into months, transitioning from “product-market fit” to “battle-fit”, to address modern challenges like drone swarms, GPS-denied environments, and the need for cheaper, autonomous countermeasures. More at Calcalist.
Israeli Space Tech landscape
Published by Startup Nation Central in January 2026, the Israeli space tech landscape has demonstrated significant resilience and growth. The map includes 89 companies and the sector attracted approximately $242 million in funding during 2025, a figure that highlights steady investor confidence despite broader macroeconomic challenges. The ecosystem’s expansion is driven by a surge in “New Space” ventures, with primary categories including Satellite Communications, Earth Observation, Ground Stations, and Upstream Hardware. The report underscores a strategic shift toward dual-use technologies, serving both commercial and security needs, positioning Israel as a specialised hub for downstream data applications and advanced propulsion systems.
Israeli Fintech landscape
Published by Viola Group in January 2026, the State of Fintech report reveals a sector that remains a cornerstone of the Israeli ecosystem, now home to 512 active companies. The landscape secured $2.3 billion in funding throughout 2025, marking a significant rebound and a return to “sustainable growth” patterns following a period of market correction. The ecosystem is characterized by the dominance of Insurtech, Payments, and Enterprise Fintech, but 2026 highlights a sharp growth trend in AI-driven financial orchestration and fraud prevention. The report emphasizes that the sector has matured from early-stage disruption to providing critical infrastructure for global financial institutions, with over 35% of the companies now operating at a growth stage (Round B or later), underscoring the shift toward long-term profitability and global scale.
Israeli mental health landscape
Published by Startup Nation Central in collaboration with the ICAR Collective, the 8400 Health Network, and Bezyl, the 2026 Mental Health Technology Map highlights a sector undergoing rapid consolidation and clinical maturation. The landscape currently tracks 178 active companies, which collectively raised $352 million in funding during 2025, a dramatic 150% increase from the previous year, despite a decrease in the total number of deal rounds. This growth signals a shift away from general wellness apps toward “deep-tech” and clinical solutions, driven by Israel’s role as a “living lab” for trauma response. The primary categories are led by Managed Care (75 companies), followed by Self-Care (47 companies), Therapeutics (24 companies), and Workflow Automation (17 companies), reflecting a strategic focus on integrating digital innovation directly into formal healthcare systems and provider workflows.
AI Infrastructure landscape
In February 2026, TLV Partners published on Ctech its updated map of the Israeli AI infrastructure landscape, revealing a dynamic ecosystem of approximately 80 startups aggressively pivoting toward the “Agentic Era.” The report highlights a massive surge in infrastructure investment, anchored by Nebius’s $900 million commitment to Israeli data centers and Nvidia’s expansion into the country as its second global headquarters. Israeli founders are now actively building a “new stack” across five core categories:
- Compute & Hardware – Startups optimising the physical and virtual layers of AI
- Model Development (Sovereign Models) – startups building independent “sovereign” models to ensure Israel maintains strategic technological autonomy and reduces reliance on foreign tech giants
- Orchestration & Frameworks – “agentic” workflow, providing the tools and frameworks necessary to coordinate multiple AI agents as they plan and execute complex, multi-step tasks
- Data & Memory – developing the specialized storage and retrieval systems that allow AI agents to maintain long-term context, remember past interactions, and access relevant real-time data
- AI Integrity – Moving beyond traditional cybersecurity, this category features companies building the foundational trust and “integrity” layers required to ensure autonomous systems act predictably and safely within high-stakes environments
- shifting their focus from simple model training to creating reliable, autonomous agents that can safely manage sensitive corporate and government data.
Retail tech
The new Re:Tech report (in partnership with Startup Nation Central, Moonshot AI and Metriko) paints a clear picture: after two years of contraction, Israel’s retail tech ecosystem has hit an inflection point.
By the numbers:
- 502 active startups
- $463M raised in 2025 (+135% YoY)
- 23 deals (up from 17 in 2024)
- Median deal size: $15M (up from $5M in 2023)
- 11 exits Top 20% of rounds capture 40% of total capital
Israel Industrial AI market map
The Israeli industrial AI landscape published by Bardin in May 2026 is characterised by a strategic shift toward “Deep Industrial AI,” where the focus has moved from general predictive maintenance to autonomous, closed-loop systems that manage complex manufacturing environments with minimal human intervention. The landscape includes software-first, AI-native companies. Founded post-2015. Not acquired. Active and building, pre-seed through late-stage. Strictly industrial buyers. The ecosystem is currently dominated by startups specialising in Autonomous Process Control (APC) and Edge AI, allowing real-time optimisation directly on the factory floor without heavy reliance on cloud latency. Furthermore, there is a significant trend toward Generative AI for Engineering, where models are used to synthesise vast amounts of unstructured sensor data and technical manuals to provide frontline workers with “Copilots” for troubleshooting and rapid prototyping. This maturity is supported by a robust collaborative framework between veteran defense-tech talent and traditional global industrial giants, who use Israel as a “beta site” for deploying scalable AI solutions in sectors ranging from semiconductors to heavy chemicals.
He is a former General Partner at Google Ventures (GV) in Europe, former head of Google for Entrepreneurs in Europe, and founding head of Campus London, Google's first startup hub. Eze writes on Israeli tech, venture capital, artificial intelligence, and founder strategy.
He is also the founder of Techbikers, a nonprofit that brings together the startup ecosystem on cycling challenges in support of Room to Read.
- Weekly Firgun Newsletter – May 8 2026 - May 8, 2026
- Israel’s 2026 National AI Strategy - May 7, 2026
- The Chokepoint Thesis: Moats, Affordance and Diffusion - May 7, 2026
