Israeli startups and the tech community are bracing for more conflict and scrambling to ensure employees’ safety after this weekend’s deadly attack by Hamas, an assault that has set off an intensifying exchange of airstrikes and rocket fire in Gaza between the militant group and Israel.

Gideon Soesman, head of Toronto-based Greensoil Investments, said five of the fund’s 22 portfolio companies are based in Israel. In an interview with The Logic, Soesman said he has been in constant contact with all five CEOs, who are working from home in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv for safety reasons. Two of the executives have children in the military, he said. 

The grim circumstances these startups face are just a few examples of how businesses are bracing for prolonged disruptions amid broader warnings about the economic toll of the conflict. 

Resilience amid the carnage: Startups in the region will face added challenges in a space already rife with uncertainty.

Greensoil’s Soesman said founders in Israel are used to navigating extreme adversity and will rebuild when and if the conflict ceases. The agtech fund has invested in Israeli startups including BioHarvest, a company that has engineered red grape cells that aim to lower heart disease risk, and Phenome Networks, a cloud-based plant-breeding data platform. 

“Israelis are resilient, Israelis are strong and Israelis know how to deal with uncertainty,” Soesman said. “And that’s really the basis of a successful startup. These companies will come together, they will deal with the current situation, and then they will continue to build beautiful companies out of the country.” 

Other VC funds including Toronto’s Group Ventures have prioritized investments in Israel. The country has sought to establish a hub in cybersecurity technology in particular, an effort that has attracted companies including pharmaceutical giant Bayer.

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai tweeted that he was “deeply saddened by the terrorist attacks in Israel,” saying the company has two offices and more than 2,000 employees in the country. The tech giant has made contact with all of its local employees, and is working to share cyber activity that it’s seeing, Pichai said. 

The economic impact: The outbreak of war in the region may pose another shock to a global economy that is already showing signs of slowing. According to the International Monetary Fund’s latest forecast, released Tuesday, global economic growth will slow to 2.9 per cent in 2024, down from 3.5 per cent in 2022. 

“The global economy is limping along, not sprinting,” IMF chief economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas said in a press conference, adding that the organization is “monitoring the situation closely” though it’s “too early” to assess the days-old conflict’s impact on global growth.