Tel Aviv University's Entrepreneurship Center

What Tel Aviv University's Entrepreneurship Center does

Tel Aviv University's Entrepreneurship Center (מרכז היזמות | אוניברסיטת תל אביב) is an academic unit embedded within Israel's largest university, launched between 2018 and 2019, that delivers structured entrepreneurship programming to undergraduate, graduate, and professional students with explicit outreach to Israeli Arab society and women. The center operates a portfolio of cohort-based accelerators, workshops, hackathons, and credit-bearing courses — including the jumpTAU multicultural accelerator (more than 10 cohorts completed, currently recruiting Cohort 12 with a 13-workshop cycle), starTAU introductory workshops, impactTAU for social entrepreneurs, hackTAU hackathons, Yazamiyot for women graduate students, Project-to-Startup for engineering teams, a LegalTech track for law students, and the Metro Lines structured educational pathway organized into Blue, Green, Red, Purple, and Grey tracks. Teaching methodology draws on Design Thinking, Lean Startup, and experiential prototyping, and AI/ML tools — including Alethea, a generative-AI reading assistant — are surfaced in the curriculum as applied learning material.

The center is built around an integrated pipeline that begins with academic credit courses, progresses through experiential programs and accelerators, and feeds ventures into TAU Ventures for seed and pre-seed investment. Industry mentors, corporate partners, and academic faculty staff the programs. The Shenkar College / ACT Innovation Center partnership extends design entrepreneurship into a cross-institution track, and Alethea's March 2024 acquisition by Clarivate represents the center's first documented portfolio exit.

The center's revenue model relies on three non-traditional mechanisms: nominal 'seriousness fees' charged to participants (120 to 690 NIS per program, denominated in shekels rather than dollars), academic credit-bearing course enrollment that monetizes through the university system, and competitive grant funding — most notably the Israel Innovation Authority tender won in 2022 to operate the Jewish-Arab multicultural accelerator. The center is not a stand-alone commercial enterprise; it functions as a unit within a public university funded by its host institution, grants, and minimal participation fees. Tel Aviv University ranks 7th globally in PitchBook's 2022 ranking of entrepreneur-producing universities, with 814 undergraduate founders attributed to the institution who have raised $26.5B collectively, and the center cites $200M in cumulative funding raised by its own cohort alumni.

Name

Tel Aviv University's Entrepreneurship Center

Legal name

Tel Aviv University's Entrepreneurship Center (מרכז היזמות | אוניברסיטת תל אביב)

Website

https://enter.tau.ac.il

Company type

Private

Founded year

2019

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Tel Aviv University's Entrepreneurship Center operates as an academic unit offering structured entrepreneurship programs — including jumpTAU, starTAU, impactTAU, Yazamiyot women's entrepreneurship, hackTAU hackathons, and LegalTech — to undergraduate, graduate, and Arab society participants, with ventures feeding into TAU Ventures.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Entrepreneurship Education Services

NAICS

Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools (6113), Educational Support Services (61171)

akta.pro primary industry

Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Venture Creation Centers (EDAHAHAH)

akta.pro secondary industries

Youth Business Incubators & Accelerators (EDAMAHAC), Entrepreneurship Foundations & Startup Basics (EDAMAHAA), Social Entrepreneurship & Impact Business (EDAMAHAK), Career Exploration & Industry Exposure (Guest Speakers, Company Visits) (EDAMAHAJ)

Keywords

• Entrepreneurship education
• Startup accelerator programs
• Academic innovation training
• Student venture incubation
• Social impact entrepreneurship

Headquarters

HQ city

Tel Aviv

HQ country

Israel

HQ region

Middle East

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Program Fees: The center charges participation fees for various programs: jumpTAU accelerator (690 NIS per participant), impactTAU (120 NIS for campus students, 200 NIS for alumni), Yazamiyot Campus (250 NIS for students/faculty, 390 NIS for alumni). These fees are described as 'seriousness fees' (דמי רצינות).
2. Academic Credits: Courses such as 'From Project to Startup' award 4 academic credits (ש'ס) as part of the engineering faculty curriculum.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels11 records

Core offering

Tel Aviv University's Entrepreneurship Center is an academic unit that delivers structured entrepreneurship education and venture creation programs to university students. It operates accelerators (jumpTAU, Yazamiyot on Campus), workshop programs (starTAU, impactTAU), hackathons (hackTAU), and academic courses across faculties, combined with executive mentorship and pathways to early-stage funding.

Product overview

Tel Aviv University's Entrepreneurship Center operates as an educational institution offering a comprehensive ecosystem of entrepreneurship programs rather than a traditional product company. The portfolio includes multiple distinct programs: jumpTAU (multicultural startup accelerator), Yazamiyot on Campus (women's entrepreneurship), starTAU (introductory workshops), impactTAU (social entrepreneurship), academic course structures through Metro Lines, hackTAU (competitions), and specialized programs like From Project to Startup and From Idea to Startup LegalTech. The center also supports ventures through TAU Ventures investment fund and has produced startups including Alethea (acquired by Clarivate) and Jeeran, which apply AI for academic assistance and social connection respectively. Programs are offered across different tracks (Blue, Green, Red, Purple Metro Lines) and target various demographics from undergraduate students to faculty researchers.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• jumpTAU Accelerator

Quantifiable outcome

• Graduates raised close to $200 million for their startups
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability4 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• ACT Shenkar (Shenkar College)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe ACT Innovation Center was established with support from the Industrial Entrepreneurship Encouragement Fund at Shenkar College and represents a unique connection between the college and industry. The center focuses on multidisciplinary innovation development and promotes creative potential through joint projects and international programs, combining engineering, design, and art for advanced interdisciplinary work.
• Senior Industry MentorscoreOthersSenior business mentors including Sarit Shani Natanson (former HP, Amdocs, Nokia Siemens), Ziv Tsoref (Kitov.ai), Tamar Bar-Noy Gotlin (Leumi Card), Eyal Ben-Haim (Bank Leumi COO), Shirly Yechilevich (Bank Leumi), Ariel Herold (former VP R&D at Indigo/HP, led 4 startups), Moshit Yaffe, Yossi Amossy (co-founder of 2 startups), Tamar Shinhorn, Ittamar Givton, and others provide mentorship to student ventures in the Project-to-Startup program.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Zell Entrepreneurship Program (Reichman University / IDC Herzliya): Israel's other leading university entrepreneurship program, offering accelerator tracks, mentorship, and investor connections for student founders. Directly competes with TAU's Entrepreneurship Center for the same pool of Israeli university entrepreneurs and institutional support.
• Hebrew University Entrepreneurship Center: Jerusalem-based university entrepreneurship center within Hebrew University, offering similar programs (accelerators, courses, mentorship, funding pathways). Direct competitor to TAU's center for Israeli student founders and PitchBook-ranked alumni outcomes.
• Technion Entrepreneurship Center (Bronica Center / T-Hub): Technion's entrepreneurship and innovation center, focused on engineering and deep-tech student founders. Directly comparable as Israel's premier tech university entrepreneurship program with similar accelerator and venture pathway structures.
• MIT Sandbox: MIT's flagship entrepreneurship program providing seed funding, mentorship, and educational resources to student founders. Comparable as a top-tier university program producing venture-backable startups with strong alumni networks.
• Harvard Innovation Lab (i-lab): Harvard's university-wide innovation hub offering programs, mentorship, and workspace to student founders. Comparable as a comprehensive university entrepreneurship center with structured pathways, mentorship, and demo-day style events.
• Berkeley SkyDeck: UC Berkeley's accelerator combining university resources with venture capital backing (Berkeley SkyDeck Fund). Comparable as a university-affiliated accelerator producing venture-backable startups with structured cohort programs.

Broad incumbents

• Stanford StartX: Stanford-affiliated startup accelerator offering mentorship and investor access to founders. While broader in scope and more venture-aligned, it serves a similar function of accelerating university-affiliated founders towards funding and exits.
• Y Combinator: Global leading startup accelerator with significant Israeli founder participation. While not university-affiliated, it competes for the same Israeli student founders and represents the gold standard that the center's alumni are often later admitted to.

Regional players

• SOSA NYC/Tel Aviv: Israel-headquartered tech innovation hub and corporate venture platform. While not a university program, it operates in the same Israeli tech ecosystem and serves as a complementary platform connecting startups to corporate partners and investors.
• College of Management Academic Studies (Masham) Entrepreneurship Programs: Israeli college offering entrepreneurship education and startup support programs. Serves a similar function of training Israeli student founders, though smaller scale than TAU's center.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/TAUVOD
• Facebookfacebook.com/tau2go
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/school/3154?pathWildcard=3154
• Instagraminstagram.com/telavivuni

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Subsidiaries6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Tel Aviv University's Entrepreneurship Center