About Amit Kochavi

Amit Kochavi is an entrepreneur and investor, and the founder of Starwell Holdings — a Tel Aviv holding company with three arms: technology, real estate, and investments. Through it he acquires and builds Israeli IT services companies, continues his family's fourth-generation real estate business — residential, logistics, commercial, and office properties in Israel and the United States — and advises on large urban projects, including Rova 7, an 890-home development in Jaffa. Since October 2023 he has served as senior advisor to the Mayor of Sderot, working with the Tkuma Directorate in the Prime Minister's Office on the city's recovery — including a new ₪500M technology faculty at Sapir Academic College and a ₪100M program relocating tech families to the region. He founded his first company, Cormi, at 21, and serves on the boards of the Buchman Heyman Foundation and the Herb & Sharon Glaser Foundation. A descendant of Max Factor Sr., he is a member of Voice of the People, the President of Israel's council on the future of the Jewish people, and lives between Tel Aviv and Los Angeles.

I was born in Tel Aviv on December 10, 1997, and grew up between Tel Aviv and Los Angeles.

I'm a fourth-generation entrepreneur. Real estate is the family business: four generations of developing and owning residential, logistics, commercial, and office properties in Israel and the United States. One side of my family also goes back to Max Factor Sr., who left Łódź with a trade, opened a shop in Los Angeles, and turned his own name into one of the best-known brands in the world. The rule I grew up on: what you inherit matters less than what you build yourself.

In March 2019, at 21, I founded my first company, Circles. We launched an innovation-management platform, sold it to our first customers, and failed. We rebuilt the company as Cormi — a forms and workflow platform for construction and manufacturing businesses — backed by Israeli investors, including the owner of Tidhar, one of Israel's largest construction groups. Cormi is still running today.

Now I run Starwell Holdings, built around three arms. The technology arm acquires established Israeli IT services companies — profitable businesses with 20 to 50 employees — and upgrades them with AI. The real estate arm continues the family business and advises on large urban projects; right now, Rova 7 in Jaffa: about 890 homes and commercial space, developed by Kardan Real Estate and Realty Fund. The investments arm manages the group's capital in Israel and the U.S. The full picture is on the Business page.

October 7, 2023 changed my direction. Since then I've served as senior advisor to the Mayor of Sderot, working with the Tkuma Directorate in the Prime Minister's Office on the city's recovery and growth: a new ₪500M technology faculty at Sapir Academic College, a ₪100M program bringing tech families to the region, a Rimon music school, and seven bilingual kindergartens. The details are on the Public Service page. It's the most meaningful work I've done.

Alongside that, I serve on the boards of two of my family's foundations — the Buchman Heyman Foundation, founded in 1942, and the Herb & Sharon Glaser Foundation — and I'm a member of TAU Aurion, Tel Aviv University's next-generation leadership community, and of Voice of the People, the President of Israel's council on the future of the Jewish people.

I believe in free markets, strong security, a pluralistic Israel, and a close bond between Israel and Jewish communities around the world. And I believe the way to lead in Israel is to do the work first.