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Innovation comes in many forms. It may take shape in a unique, groundbreaking technological development, at times it is reflected an innovative idea, and other times it focuses on creating an organizational framework that allows the innovation to be realized. Throughout its history, the State of Israel has provided an environment that supports and encourages entrepreneurs, developers and inventors to be bold and further their ideas. The amazing combination of talented people and a supportive system has created the greenhouse in which the Israeli hi-tech industry has blossomed in recent years. Waze, the company that represents groundbreaking Israeli initiative, began in 2006 as a project led by entrepreneur Ehud Shabtai called “FreeMap Israel”, which aimed to create a free mapping database of Israel through a community of users and map editors. In 2007, entrepreneurs Uri Levine and Amir Shinar joined Ehud and together they launched Waze in 2008, joined by Noam Bardin as company CEO in 2009. Waze was born from the belief that crowd sourcing can improve drivers’ driving experience and their ability to deal with traffic congestion along the way. The app made this information accessible through an innovative, dynamic, collaborative technological platform that reacts in real time. Waze was the first free navigation app for both IPhone and Android devices and as such, became an instant sensation, accruing more than 50 million users and dozens of employees in Israel and the U.S. within just a few years. To all philatelic items issued on August 2023
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