Google Backs Israel Entrepreneurs as Local Financing Drops: Tech

The Google Inc. executive with his bright yellow vest was impossible to miss in the middle of the Israeli startup owners seeking cash in a rusty boathouse at Tel Aviv’s Jaffa port.

David Lawee, Google’s mergers and acquisitions chief, used the early November session, called Garage Geeks, to round out his contact list. “I’ve met about 100 Israeli companies in two days and that’s, like, super-efficient,” he said between conversations at the corporate speed-dating-style event arranged by startup investor Yossi Vardi that introduced local businesses to multinationals.