The accelerator is located in Karmiel, within the campus of Braude Academic College which is managing it. Karmiel is located at the center of the Galilee, with easy access by train, bus and car.

No, we’re looking for entrepreneurs living anywhere in Israel, if they’re addressing the industrial market (see below). And we don’t mandate moving to the Galilee. 

The accelerator’s sessions in Karmiel are held once a week, and it’s not required  to be present at Karmiel in person more than this. Some of the sessions will be done using the internet (Zoom). 

Of course, we’d like to further develop the Galilee, and we’re located in Karmiel, so we’d love to see Galilee based entrepreneurs taking part in the accelerator program and non-Galilee entrepreneurs moving to the beautiful Galilee, which is also becoming the Israeli national Industry 4.0 hub, with the accelerator, i4valley incubator and the national Institute for Smart industry, all located in Karmiel.
But we refer to the accelerator as a national level program, Galilee head-quartered, and uniquely focused on Industrial startups.

The accelerator program is made of two tracks, one is a WAVE1 and another is WAVE2. 

WAVE1 is intended for entrepreneurs before penetrating the market (i.e., no customers using the product, or very few). You can be a single entrepreneur without a team and even with just a startup idea, that’s ok.

WAVE2 is intended for early-stage startups which are a bit more mature, already having a product with initial customers, looking for additional market validation and later on fast growth, after already nailing down some basic business model assumptions. Some WAVE1 startups are going to continue to WAVE2, and some startups start directly with WAVE2. 

For the WAVE1 – yes, you can study or work while participating. We require in-person attendance once a week, usually on Friday morning or sometimes on Thursday afternoon or evening.

In between these weekly sessions, you’re expected to work on your startup, make real progress and get in touch with the mentors, but this can be done using Skype, or phone or meeting in a place which is convenient for all. Focusing only on your startup would probably make it easier for you to make real progress faster but you should be able to continue working or studying even with participating.

For WAVE2 – we require at least one of the co-founders to be fully dedicated to working on the startup, in Karmiel or not.

Yes, the Galilee Accelerator for Smart Industry is looking only for startups that address the needs and problems of the industrial sector, i.e., manufacturers. This may include not only the production aspect, but other factory related domains such as supply chain, logistics, maintenance, service, engineering etc.

We are not interested in solving specific problems for a specific factory – we’re looking for startups addressing a market (e.g., electronics systems manufacturers). And we’re not interested in an idea of a new physical product that a manufacturer might be producing – we’re looking just to address the needs and the problems of the industry. Look up some examples here.

We don’t take anything from the entrepreneurs. Nada. And yes, it’s totally free of charge. We only want to see your commitment, move fast in serving your startup and your customers.

We’d like to see the Israeli industry 4.0 startups scene flourishing, with a lot of successful startups. And we’d like to see the Galilee Accelerator and Karmiel serving as a major hub for industrial startups.

Karmiel, at the heart of the Galilee is hosting a lot of industrial companies in it (like Keter Plastic, Klil, Trellidor and TDK), and around it in Bar-Lev, Misgav and Tefen industrial parks. The Krayot and the city of Haifa area nearby are also having significant presence of indusial companies.  The city of Karmiel and The Braude Academic College Karmiel have a special focus on the manufacturers’ sector and maintain deep and long-term relationships with many industrial companies.

And beside all that, the Galiliee and Karmiel as its capitol offer wonderful weather, nature and communities and we’d like to see the Galilee thrives. Join us and become a part of it!