The group of 23 Israeli companies visiting Australia span energy, technology and medical innovations, and their arrival comes after the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce led 20 business and government trade and investment delegations to Israel last year.

These included visits headed by then NSW premier Mike Baird and businesswoman Lucy Turnbull, who's also the prime minister's wife.

Such activity is continuing apace in 2017.

In June, non-executive directors Diane Smith-Gander and Helen Coonan will lead a delegation to Israel. A few months later, another will be hosted by Macquarie Group chief executive Nicholas Moore, whose delegation will focus on the water and energy sectors.

Paul Bassat's Square Peg Capital has invested at least $65 million in 25 Israeli start-ups. Pat Scala

Towards the end of the year, ANZ Banking Group chairman David Gonski and Commonwealth Bank of Australia chief executive Ian Narev will lead another business tour to Israel.

"It's a very exciting time for Australia and Israel's relationship," said Michelle Blum, chief executive of the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce.

"There's a great deal of interest not only in the learnings from the success of Israel's innovation ecosystem, but there's a great interest in both sides in building partnerships between businesses in a range of different areas."


Among the Israeli companies with executives accompanying Mr Netanyahu's visit is cyber security firm CyberGym, which appointed former Australian diplomat Geoff Raby as its chairman last September.

Inna Braverman,co-founder of Eco Wave Power, giving a TED talk. Eco Wave Power is one of 23 Israeli companies visiting Australia on a delegation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Eco Wave Power

Another is Teva Pharmaceuticals, the world's largest manufacturer of generic medicines and drugs. As well there's Eco Wave Power, a company co-founded by Inna Braverman, which harvests wave power and converts it into electricity. The company through its technology provides 15 per cent of Gibraltar's power, and separately has a 50-megawatt project in development in China. The company also has interests in Britain, Chile, Mexico and India.

Ms Braverman's interest in such alternative energy sources is personal. She was born in Ukraine two weeks before the Chernobyl nuclear reactor exploded in 1986 and radiation spread into the city where she lived.

Paul Bassat's Square Peg, which has invested at least $65 million in 25 Israeli start-ups in the past few years, said a common theme among Israeli companies was that many focused on "solving really difficult and important problems".

Mr Bassat, who is a director of the federal government's Innovation Australia board, said Israel had over the course of several decades developed "a strong ecosystem of entrepreneurs, investors, software engineers, mentors and accelerators".

"You don't often see that. It is important in the development of technology companies."

Israel has the world's highest concentration of high-technology start-ups per capita.


Mr Bassat said the visit by Mr Netanyahu was an important one for Australia. "It's been a big issue in Israel that no sitting prime minister has been to Australia before."

In the 2015-16 financial year, two-way trade between Australia and Israel tallied $1.1 billion while Australian investment in Israel in 2015 was $663 million, and Israel's in Australia was $262 million.

"Israel is at the forefront of technology," said businessman Peter Ivany, of the business delegation's opportunity to deepen business relationships between the two countries. "We can relate to each other and share things and work together."

Mr Ivany, through his own investment vehicle, has investments in a number of technology companies globally.