Israel’s National Postal Service Seeks Innovative Tech For Major Overhaul

The Startup Nation may be a world center for innovative tech and world-changing inventions, but its national postal service is notoriously inefficient, unreliable, and outdated.

As such, the Israel Post Company, a government-owned corporation, is launching an innovation center in Tel Aviv, which will operate as a new unit within the company, and a new program calling on local startups to submit proposals for solutions.

The cooperation with startups will focus on “the development of services and products of Israeli technological ventures in areas relevant to the company’s future operations, such as online trading, advanced financial services, logistics and intelligent transportation, artificial intelligence, IoT, customer service and experience, queue and demand management, blockchain and others,” the postal service said in a statement.

The Israel Postal Company will offer startups selected for the pilot access to the postal infrastructure and related expertise in Israel and abroad. A commercial agreement and/or an investment in a given startup may follow.

“We will help enterprises grow and transform their products into commercially proven products and beta integration with our professionals, allowing them access to local and international business organizations, including government and public organizations, global online trading platforms, and more with whom we work. In return, we will be awarded new and unique solutions that will improve the future activity of the mail,” said Hezi Zaig, chairman of the board of directors of Israel Post.

“We are interested in cooperating with the local high-tech industry and with business potential projects with an emphasis on start-ups who have already developed a prototype for the product,” said Maya Calderon, who will head the innovation center.

“The selected start-ups will carry out a pilot with Israel Post and the supporting professional teams, and together they will formulate the business model and the products and services that are relevant to the company’s needs,” she added.