Investing is Israel has become more popular ever since Warren Buffett, the world’s most prominent investor, started investing in Israel. Buffett is known not to invest on foreign countries, but he too sees the promise in Israel. In May of 2006, Buffett bought Iscar, an Israeli metalworking company, for $4 billion. This marked the most Buffett ever paid for a foreign investment. In fact, this was Berkshire Heathway’s first ever purchase of a non-American company.

Since that investment, Buffett has called Israel the best place to invest and has said “We’re interested in more investments in Israel.”

Here are some other notable investments by American businesses:

  • Stanley Black & Decker’s CEO John F. Lundgren bought AeroScout, an Israeli company that created chips to track objects over the internet, for $240 million
  • Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg bought Face.com, facial recognition software, for $60 million.
  • Zuckerberg also bought Snaptu, an Israeli internet design company, for $70 Million
  • IBM’s CEO Ginni Rometty invested in Worklight, an Israeli IT and Enterprise Software company, for $95 million
  • Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer invested an R&D center in Haiifa, employing hundreds of people and costs millions of dollars a year
  • Broadcom’s CEO Scott McGregor invested in Provigent, an Israeli semiconductors business, for $313 million.
  • Apple’s CEO Tim Cook invested in Anobit, an Israeli company involved with Flash Memory, for $450 million.
  • EMC Corporation’s Joseph Tucci invested in Xtreme IO, an Israeli IT and Enterprise Software company, for $450 million.
  • Intel’s CEO Paul Otellini invested in Telmap LTD, an Israeli internet company, for $300 million.

Mobli, an Israeli startup allowing users to create their own feeds and share pictures and videos, has been backed by many American celebrities. Namely: Lance Armstrong, Leonardo Di’Caprio, Serena Willams, and Toby Maguire. Additionally, Jay-Z invested in PowerMat, an Israeli company that makes charging devices faster and easier without any wires or cords.

Israel has become the destination to invest money. Not only has it become increasingly popular to invest in Israel, it has become almost mainstream. We have people investing here that range from premier investors to hip hop stars and sports stars.

Join us, your neighbors, celebrities, and the rest of “the crowd” investing in Israeli startups at OurCrowd.com

[bra_team_member member_name=”Elan Yudkowsky” member_position=”Intern at OurCrowd” member_img_src=”http://blog.trust.ocdvlp.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/elan.jpg” member_social_list=”LinkedIn, http://www.linkedin.com/pub/elan-yudkowsky/5a/689/649″ member_columns=”2″]Elan Yudkowsky is an intern at OurCrowd. He will be attending the University of Maryland in the Spring.[/bra_team_member]