As seen on Financial Times “Business accelerator aims to drive Florida-Israel links”

Oren Milstein, an Israeli entrepreneur, had just given a presentation on his radiation protection start-up when he heard that Jeff Vinik, the investor and owner of the Tampa Bay Lightning ice hockey team, wanted to speak to him. Mr Vinik had been in the audience at an event organised by the Florida Israel Business Accelerator (Fiba) and was impressed by how StemRad was expanding its vision from equipment for emergency services and astronauts to a much larger market of radiologists. He went on to lead a $6m funding round. “It was a hit from day one and he joined and became our largest investor,” the chief executive says. “He’s a very proactive investor, he tries to help in every way, shape and form.” StemRad spent years in the research and development phase, designing protection for people who encounter radiation. It had won a contract with Nasa to develop equipment for female astronauts, who are more vulnerable to radiation, but had yet to properly break into the US. Now, Mr Milstein is preparing to move to Tampa. “Tampa is really undergoing a revolution,” he says.

The start-up was one of the first to use Fiba, which aims to bring Israeli companies to Tampa by giving guidance on the US market, from cultural differences to getting products validated.

Read the full article on Financial Times here. 

---