2016 | ~10,000 Members
Moshe Friedman, Founder and CEO
Sari Roth, Kamatech VP
Avreimi Weingut, Head of Accelerator
Prof. Amnon Shashua, Founder at Mobileye, Chairman of the advisory board
Chemi Peres, Chairman of the steering committee
Kamatech was founded in 2016 by a number of young Haredi ('Ultra Orthodox' in Hebrew) entrepreneurs with the assistance of leading high-tech figures in Israel and a mission to facilitate the integration of young Haredi men and women into the forefront of Israel’s high-tech workforce. To date the community has more than 10,000 members and works with close to one hundred companies including Cisco, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Western Digital, as well as many Israeli companies and venture capital firms, and is backed by the Ministry of Economy and the Israel Innovation Authority.
"Our challenge of assisting Haredim to improve their chances of entry into the hi-tech industry is more relevant than ever,” says co-founder and CEO Moshe Friedman. “We aim for impact and growth, which will be enabled by improving the financial standing of families and entire communities within the Haredi society. These efforts can reduce disparities, contribute to Israel’s economy, make the high-tech environment more diverse to help overcome prejudice and encourage mutual understanding within the
Israeli society.”
To achieve that the community operates in five strategic programs. In its Ultra-Code it offers mentorship, soft skills, and job placement to young women. Active Code is a new joint program of the Ministry of Science and Technology and KamaTech whereby 26 groups go through a practical training program in cutting edge technologies. Extra Code is a variety of professional courses for Haredi men and women in leading subjects such as DevOps, data, cyber, etc. while mentoring them on job placement. The KamaTech Accelerator is the community acceleration program designed for startups with 50 alumni who combined raised more than $320 million and employ over 1000 people. In building the ecosystem the focus is on lobbying employers, running diversity workshops for high-tech companies, recruiting additional companies with whom to partner, and facilitating high-tech events for thousands of Haredi members including meetups, lectures, and hackathons.
Photos courtesy of KamaTech