Launched in 2016 by the Tampa Jewish Community Centers & Federation, the Florida-Israel Business Accelerator (FIBA – pronounced Fee-Bah) is a technology accelerator designed to establish and grow successful, high-growth tech ventures in the Tampa Bay area. Our core program, FIBA Launch, is an accelerator program which acts as a conduit for Israeli entrepreneurs to open a Tampa Bay office responsible for the U.S. operations including but not limited to sales, marketing, tech support, and customer service for their product or technology. FIBA is essentially a soft landing pad for Israeli technology companies who seek to enter into the North American market.
Unique in every way, FIBA has broken from the traditional mold of the how an organization engages its community. Housed within the Bryan Glazer Family Jewish Community Center, FIBA engages a broad spectrum of interest from among both, the Jewish and non-Jewish communities.
Its mission is two-fold:
First, to foster economic growth and stimulate innovation within the expanding business ecosystem in Tampa Bay by attracting high-growth Israeli tech ventures and facilitate their launch and expansion. Second, to engage the entire spectrum of the Tampa Jewish community including high school and college-age students as interns and budding entrepreneurs, millennials, young professionals, adult professionals and serial entrepreneurs as mentors and potential investors, as well as seniors for mentoring, investing and other coaching services. In doing so, all of Tampa Bay is exposed to Israel’s most renowned commodity – disruptive and life changing technological innovations – and is better positioned to combat the rising tide of anti-Semitism and disinformation, as well as the misconceptions regarding Israel. In addition, FIBA provides a unique and new platform from which the Tampa JCCs & Federation can engage the unaffiliated, as well as develop new relationships within the non-Jewish community including local business leaders, corporate sponsors, state and local government officials, and the area’s leading universities.