The Milken Innovation Center in Israel hosted a Financial Innovation Lab at the Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem’s Milken-Mizel Campus on Tuesday, June 18, where a diverse group of investors and advisors, including representatives from Apollo Global Management, Aon Israel, Clarity Capital, Goldrock Capital, Phoenix Group, OurCrowd and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange met for a day of strategy and planning with representatives from the region to catalyze Israel’s economy through financial innovation, collaboration and small business support.

The focus was on areas impacted by the war, such as the Gaza Envelope, the Western Negev Cluster– with the potential to extend learnings from the Lab to benefit the North and other regions throughout Israel.

“The Lab engaged financial practitioners and technology innovators to help structure

work teams combining private, public, and philanthropic capital for the region to grow back

better faster for an inclusive and regenerative recovery for all the communities in the Western

Negev,” said Glenn Yago, Senior Director of the Milken Innovation Center-Israel.

Jonathan Medved, CEO of OurCrowd, shared and an optimistic message about the future of tech, including how technologies such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing will change the world. “Israel is going to play a huge role in that,” he said.

The day featured presentations on various topics which delved into the work Milken Innovation Center is helping to accomplish with its various partners around the country, including case studies such as Ogen and ReGrow.

Ogen, Israel's leading social lender, was presented at the conference as a prime example of utilizing blended finance models for impactful investment and societal benefit. With a 34-year legacy, Ogen advances financial well-being and opportunities for Israel's underserved communities, managing a credit portfolio of 560 million NIS and disbursing over 2 billion NIS in zero-interest and low-interest loans to small businesses, non-profits, and individuals with little credit history.

Moshe Daniel, Deputy CEO of Ogen, said, “At Ogen, we are committed to bolstering Israel’s financial resilience by combining philanthropic, public, and private capital to create sustainable lending solutions. By fostering financial inclusion and economic growth through blended finance models, we aim to build a stronger, more resilient Israel.”

ReGrow is a new initiative founded in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack to aid farmers who had their equipment and farmland destroyed by Hamas terrorists. To date, they have provided millions of dollars’ worth of aid to the farmers in the form of a forgivable loan, allowing them to pay the amount back as they become able to generate enough income during the recovery. Other possible investment targets for development were presented by the National Recovery Administration, the Western Negev Cluster, and businesses and communities throughout the region.

The Milken Innovation Center, based at the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research, specializes in developing market-based solutions to Israel’s economic challenges with the goal of transforming the country into a global leader in sustainable development enabling job creation and capital formation.

 Apollo served as an anchor sponsor of this Financial Innovation Lab which followed initial discussions at the Milken Institute Global Conference “Shaping a Shared Future” in May 2024 in Los Angeles.  An earlier pre-Lab workshop hosted by Apollo Global Management in New York in February 2024 explored small business, infrastructure and technology structured finance solutions.