dubaijerusalem a thaw in relations between israel and the united arab emirates has raised expectations of an influx of funding in silicon wadi israels answer to silicon valleythe uae has excess amounts of money but not enough places to invest it in the middle east said eldad tamir founder and ceo of the tamir fishman investment house one of israels top investment fundsthe high tech sector here is thirsty for money and having new investors from the uae will help us diversify a bit from our usual chinese and american investorbut deepseated animosity towards israel among some investors could cap inflows according to investment bankers and fund managers in the uae the middle easts financial hubthe emotional part is definitely a rollercoaster ride and will take a substantial time to overcome according to one uaebased capital markets investor who declined to be namedcurrently uae investors typically remove israel when investing in global or regional share indexes but that should change given this months agreement to normalise diplomatic ties according to citi israel head neil corneyif asset managers were following some kind of global index israel would get its relevant or relative weight for those investments corney told reutersregional investment funds many of which are headquartered in the uae however may not get the green light to invest in israel if their investors come from arab countries that dont recognise the country according to two fund managersthe accord which makes the uae only the third arab state after egypt and jordan to have official relations with israel has stirred dismay in parts of the middle east although it prompted a cautious welcome from some of the uaes gulf alliesa good fitwith the uae economy and real estate sector in the doldrums due to the coronavirus israel with its strong tech focus is an appealing investment alternative for the oilrich conglomeration of citystatesits more likely you are going to see uae money investing in israeli technology more than anything else said corneyim sure that some israeli companies would look to try to attract investment as well from the uae particularly in the energy sector he said uaeisraeli joint ventures would be a good fitthe healthcare and information technology sectors which have thrived during the global pandemic make up about 36 of the israeli stock market with the tel aviv technology index up 32 and the tabiomed index up 27 so far in 2020 versus a 16 decline in the bluechip indexdubais benchmark index is down nearly 18 yeartodate and abu dhabis is 11 weakertech sectorthe israeli tech sector comprising thousands of startups has been a magnet for investors even during the pandemic with venture capital funding rising by more than a third to 525 billion in the first half of 2020 from a year ago data from the israel venture capital research center and zag law firm showedisraeli software firm jfrog on monday filed for a share offering on the us techheavy nasdaq of up to 100 million while medical imaging company