Galilee startup hub seeks to strengthen tech industry in Israel’s periphery

HUBayta, a new Israeli innovation and entrepreneurship hub, is expected to be inaugurated next month in the remote Galilee Panhandle region near the Lebanese border. The initiative aims to expand Israel’s tech industry and create more high-tech jobs in the country’s northern periphery, far from the Start-Up Nation’s traditional center in Tel Aviv.

The northern Galilee region is known for its natural beauty and biblical history, however, it has long suffered from limited job opportunities and underpopulation. The war with Hezbollah that began in October 2023 further undermined the region’s prospects, with tens of thousands of Israelis displaced from their homes due to rocket and drone attacks on civilian communities.

Nisan Ze’evi (42), a third-generation Galilee resident who worked as an investment manager at the JVP venture capital fund, explained the idea behind the new tech hub initiative. 

“We decided not to wait for the government. We are implementing Trumpeldor’s practice: last furrow, last border. Last startup at the last border,” Ze’evi said, referring to Joseph Trumpeldor, a Russian Jewish Zionist soldier who organized the Zion Mule Corps and who fell in battle defending the northern Jewish community of Tel Hai in 1920. Trumpeldor is hailed today as a Jewish hero in Israel’s pre-state history. 

After completing a year of military service, Ze’evi and several of his friends from the tech sector decided to launch an initiative aimed at strengthening the local economy. Calling itself “HUBayta – Returning to the Galilee,” the residents’ group has vowed to take matters into its own hands rather than wait for government assistance.

Many locals have been critical of what they see as insufficient government support following the war. Earlier this month, residents of Kiryat Shmona, the largest city in the region, protested against what they called the government’s “abandonment” of Israel’s northernmost communities.

The local group initially raised NIS 8 million (about $2.5 million) to renovate a 1,500-square-meter (16,000-square-foot) complex in the area. Designed to resemble one of Tel Aviv’s many tech office towers, the new hub has already drawn a strong response.

Even before its official opening, occupancy has reached 85%, with around 20 startups expected to move into the hub in January.

The project is being carried out in partnership with the OpenValley coworking network. Approximately 80 new tech jobs are expected to be created by early 2026, with an additional 200 jobs projected within two years.

Ze’evi explained that the Israel Innovation Authority offers startups financial incentives to choose this northern hub instead of Tel Aviv as their operational base.  

“The value proposition for companies that come here and are eligible for support from the Israel Innovation Authority has three layers,” he said. Ze’evi stressed that startups won't need to compromise on quality.

“Infrastructure at the level of New York and Tel Aviv, assistance in recruiting technological talent and human capital, and help in securing state grants for opening operations along the confrontation line.” 

Ofri Eliyahu-Rimoni, a 39-year-old resident in the northern Israeli rural community of Yesud HaMa'ala, left a prominent position as a spokeswoman for El Al Airlines and decided to return to the region where she grew up. 

“I left the Galilee after my military service, like most young people from the region who enlist,” she recalled. “Then the war came. I watched from afar what was happening to my home and the lack of concern, and I realized I wanted to come back. Settlement is the most important civilian mission right now." 

Like Ze’evi, she emphasized that the local group seeks to strengthen the region even without assistance from the government. 

“We’re no longer waiting for anyone,” Ofri explained. “We believe in working with organizations and partnerships, but we don’t wait for them to join us. In the Galilee’s DNA there are people who ran forward – Baron Rothschild, Trumpeldor, and others. The lesson of the war is that we have to work regionally, not each local authority on its own."