“Israel is definitely a place we want to be”

“TechEnergy Ventures is a corporate venture capital fund. We are part of an industrial group called Techint,” said Andrea Siciliani, investor at TechEnergy Ventures during the final round of the Israeli Climate Awards hosted by Calcalist and Doral. “We are mainly focused on steel making, so we produce about 15 million tons of steel per year, which is a quite decent amount.”

An Italian-Argentinian fund, Siciliani says that TechEnergy Ventures has invested in two Israeli startups already, and is interested in expanding. “The ecosystem here is great. It is built by great entrepreneurs coming with great ideas coming from great universities, so Israel is definitely a place we want to be.”

The Israeli Climate Awards were held on Wednesday with five climate tech companies competing in the final round of the competition. The aim of the competition is to support new startups in the energy and climate sectors and find Israel's next big breakthrough in the fight against the climate crisis.

You can watch the full interview in the video above.