Ethiopian-Israeli Entrepreneur Leads AI-Driven Logistics Startup Generating Tens of Millions Annually
A 40-year-old Ethiopian-Israeli entrepreneur, co-founder and CTO of the logistics startup Trado, has built a successful company generating tens of millions of shekels annually. Born in Kiryat Gat shortly after his parents immigrated from Ethiopia in the early 1980s, he grew up in Rehovot as the second of six siblings. His father runs a transportation business and his mother works as a cleaner at Elbit Systems.
Despite excelling in biology and computer science during high school, he was assigned to a non-technical intelligence role in the Israeli military, reflecting systemic barriers faced by Ethiopian Israelis. After completing his service in 2008, he trained as a software tester at Tech-Career, a center dedicated to Ethiopian immigrants, and became a lecturer there. He then worked in software development roles at companies including 888 and ooVoo Labs, while earning a degree in information systems from Ono Academic College.
He later became the first employee at Quick, an online supermarket ordering and delivery platform, and also invested in a small ice cream shop, gaining business management experience. In 2019, he co-founded DataMix, a startup providing business insights from point-of-sale data, which eventually closed. In 2022, he launched Trado, a platform enabling organizations to create digital trading marketplaces, primarily serving commodity sectors like sugar, coffee, and rice, as well as retail, pharmaceuticals, and food.
Trado operates with about ten employees, uses AI technology, and has partnerships mainly in the U.S., Central America, and Africa. The company is bootstrapped, relying solely on revenue, and is considering outside investment. The entrepreneur highlights the severe underrepresentation of Ethiopian Israelis in high-tech, with only 1% employed in the sector compared to 12% of the general population, describing it as a "concrete ceiling." He serves as a board member of Tech-Career to help improve this disparity.
Looking ahead, he aims to list Trado on NASDAQ and establish an investment fund for Ethiopian and peripheral Israeli entrepreneurs. His story reflects both personal resilience and a commitment to expanding opportunities for his community in Israel's tech industry.
