Startup Nation Central announced that it was scaling back its activities and staff to focus on connecting Israeli tech companies with business opportunities in the Gulf, India and U.S. states as part of a strategic pivot to “innovation diplomacy,” the organization’s board told stakeholders in a letter on Sunday, which was shared exclusively with eJewishPhilanthropy. 

In the letter, the organization’s board said that the shift comes as the Israeli economy has developed significantly in the 13 years since SNC was created and does not need the same kind of support as it did then. “To meet this moment, SNC will wind down some activities to focus on the important work of innovation diplomacy,” the board said. 

According to the Israeli financial newspaper Globes, which first reported on the layoffs, 65 of SNC’s 80 employees are expected to be terminated. 

“Given the Israeli ecosystem’s maturity, SNC must now mature, focus, pivot and realign to continue adding value,” the board said. “To support this focused mandate, SNC will operate with a smaller, more specialized team. This was not an easy decision, but we believe it is necessary to move SNC forward.”

Noting its work bringing Israeli tech firms to Bahrain, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates in the wake of the Abraham Accords, the board said that the organization would continue working to “protect and ultimately expand the Abraham Accords.”

Speaking on the latest episode of his podcast, “Call Me Back,” SNC co-founder and board member Dan Senor explained that the Israeli economy and tech sector had grown strong enough to no longer need the type of support that the organization had been providing.

“When we started the organization, global investment in Israel was $2.6 billion. Last year, it was $17 billion,” he said. “We’re also cognizant of the fact that the Israeli ecosystem is so established right now… that organizations like Startup Nation Central are not as central in terms of getting Israel plugged into the global scene. But we do want to focus on… the future of the Abraham Accords.”

The organization’s board said that SNC would retain its Tel Aviv headquarters, which it would use for “space for partner initiatives, sector nonprofits, delegations, working groups and high-level convenings.”

This round of layoffs, which will affect a large majority of the organization’s staff, comes two years after SNC announced that it was laying off 18 employees due to a drop in funding. At the time, the organization’s then-CEO Avi Hasson said that the terminations were the result of changing priorities for SNC’s funders in the wake of the Oct. 7 terror attacks. 

SNC, which is now led by interim CEO Aviva Steinberger, has received support over the years from a number of Jewish funders, including investors Paul Singer and Daniel Loeb, as well as the William Davidson Foundation, among others. “We will continue to work closely with founders, investors, corporates, governments and partners in Israel and around the world, and we look forward to sharing additional details about our initiatives and programming in the months ahead,” the board said.