CTalk
“The UK remains open for business with Israel”: British Embassy and tech leaders on Israel-UK relations
At Mind the Tech London 2025, Debbie Shapiro of the British Embassy, Yaron Inger of Lightricks, and Avital Sincai of Cydome spoke to CTech about the state of the Israel-UK business relationship, and the cultural and political intricacies Israeli entrepreneurs face when expanding into the British and European markets.
Debbie Shapiro, Avital Sincai, Yaron Inger
(Photo: LONDON FILMED)
“The UK offers Israeli businesses a combination of incentives, access to the global stage and businesses locally that are interested in all that Israeli innovation has to offer,” said Debbie Shapiro, Country Director of Business and Trade, Israel, at the British Embassy, speaking to CTech at at Mind the Tech London 2025.
Joining Shapiro on the panel were Yaron Inger, Co-Founder and CTO of Lightricks, which has about 50 employees in London, and Avital Sincai, Co-Founder and COO of Cydome, which has recently opened an office in London. Together, they discussed the intricacies of the Israel–UK business relationship, and what it means for Israeli entrepreneurs.
For Israeli companies looking to expand into these markets, the path comes with both significant opportunities and notable challenges. “Obviously, the cultures are very different,” said Inger. “Israelis are entrepreneurs in mind. They don't like a lot of structure… but in the UK everything is very, very organized, but in a good way.” He continued: “If one knows how to manage it correctly across cultures, you can really gain from the culture in the UK combined with Israelis.”
Sincai of Cydome said the company’s new UK office will support its cybersecurity offering for the maritime sector. “For us, global activity, this is the key… we still want to maintain the R&D and the technology being cyber security, Israeli technology, super innovative, but to adapt to the markets that we are leading to,” she explained.
Despite political challenges that have intensified in recent years, Shapiro maintained that trade remains strong. “Yes, it's a very difficult and challenging time, but the UK remains committed to seeing the hostages home… and the UK remains open for business with Israel,” she said. “Just in the last year, we hit around £6 billion in bilateral trade… the interest of Israel growing into [the] UK, and the openness of UK for that remains, despite all of the political challenges that we face.”
You can watch the entire exchange in the video above.
