High-tech companies from 14 countries are taking part in the Start Tel Aviv international competition whose top prize includes learning the secrets of Israel’s startup ecosystem.

Start Tel Aviv is sponsored by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tel Aviv Global & Tourism and Campus Tel Aviv, powered by Google.

One company from each of the participating countries – United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, France, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Latvia, India, China, Korea, Mexico,Sweden and Colombia – will win a five-day paid trip to Israel.

Here, they will be joined by local Israeli entrepreneurs and will participate in lectures, workshops and meetings with leading Israeli investors and professionals.

Contest winners will be announced on September 9.

The Start Tel Aviv experience will take place during the DLD Festival, Israel’s largest international high-tech gathering of innovators and entrepreneurs from around the world. The October 14-17 event features hundreds of startups, VC’s, angel investors and industry leaders including Google, Barclays, Motorola, BMC Software, Broadcom, EMC, Microsoft, GM, Amdocs, SAP, Applied Materials, Marvell, Oracle, HP, and Cisco Israel, among others.

Tel Aviv is a startup city and DLD organizers call it “the best location to get up close and personal with the entire high-tech hub.”