Tel Aviv on a Winning Streak for Smart Innovation & Creativity

Tel Aviv is a city in the spotlight after it received three huge international recognition in quick succession at the end of 2014.

In early November, Tel Aviv received the World’s Smart Cities Award, coming first among 250 competing cities at the World Smart Cities Expo in Barcelona. The award was in acknowledgement of the city’s pioneering approach to citizen-municipal engagement. The Digi-Tel Residents club engages the resident directly with the Municipality. It is a project unique to Tel Aviv which provides any subscribing resident over the age of 13 with individually tailored, location-specific information and services. Through the card, residents of Tel Aviv can get updates on when to register for kindergarten, last minute discounts for the theater or even notification of road works in the vicinity.

In December, Tel Aviv was recognized by UNESCO as a Creative City in the category of Media Arts. The city’s flourishing high-tech scene and enterprises both earned Tel Aviv its place in the Creative Cities Network. Currently there are more than 1000 early stage startups in Tel Aviv, a city with just over 400,000 residents. Tel Aviv has the second highest number of startups of any city in the world, and has the highest number of startups per capita. The city has previously received official recognition from UNESCO as a world heritage site for its extraordinary and beautiful collection of more than 4000 original white Bauhaus international style buildings.

The Bloomberg Philanthropies grant was generously presented this December to Tel Aviv one of only two cities outside of the US to receive such a donation. Tel Aviv will receive an annual grant of $650,000 in order to set up an innovation team whose sole purpose is to resolve two of Tel Aviv’s most challenging problems.

Tel Aviv Global is a municipal company managed directly under the Office of the Mayor of Tel Aviv-Yafo. Its primary efforts are directed toward making the city more accessible to the world and facilitating its quantum leap in the global arena, achieved in cooperation with municipal, national and private partners. The company focuses on three main pillars: Economic Development, Visit Tel Aviv and Global Communications, which together produce the infrastructure needed for global economic growth.

Contact information
Hannah Confino
Tel: +972 54 642 3516