The start of Tel Aviv The scene underwent a transformation around 2019, from a system of “Holy Grail exits,” as Eli David, CEO of StartUp Link, says, to “building companies that don’t want to sell to Google right away.”
As has always been the case, the military is still the number one source of founders, not least because almost everyone goes through it, but also because of its emphasis on problem solving and a focus on cybersecurity, AI and robotics. There is growth in Web3, gaming and productivity startups as countries like India come online as customers. “We have a brain drain problem,” admits Michel Abadi, managing partner of Maverick Ventures Israel. “But we have a lot of patience.”
immunity
“We are mapping the immune system and all its different parts, from cell types and cell states, to provide researchers with a complete map and comprehensive understanding of the immune system,” explains Luis Voloch, who co-founded Immunai in 2018 with Noam Solomon. The platform combines single-cell multiomics, machine learning and functional genomics with high-quality patient data to identify and validate new drug targets, reduce costs and increase drug development success rates. The total amount raised so far is $295 million in three rounds from Viola Ventures, Dexcel Pharma and Koch Disruptive Technologies. Immunai has 25 academic partnerships with institutions including Harvard, Stanford and Memorial Sloan Kettering, and 30 partnerships with Fortune 100 pharmaceutical companies. The company, with offices around the world, achieved unicorn status in October 2021 — less than three years after its founding — and acquired Dropprint Genomics, a San Francisco-based computational biology startup, and Nebion, a Swiss bioinformatics company. . Plans include developing the company’s proprietary drug discovery pipeline based on acquired compounds. immunai.com
Saar Safra, CEO and co-founder of Beewise, atop a robotic beehive.Photo: Jonathan Bloom
beewise
“We have the clearest KPIs of any company I’ve launched,” says co-founder Saar Safra. “For every dollar we earn, we save two bees.” According to Safra, 75 percent of all fruit and vegetables are pollinated by bees, while 35 percent of bee colonies disappear every year. Launched in 2018 by series entrepreneur Safra and beekeeper Eliyah Radzyner, Beewise is on a mission to prevent colony collapse disorder. How? A robot that can close a hive when it detects pesticides, supply food when a colony runs short, and regulate the temperature to keep the bees alive. The company has raised $120 million in four rounds, including local VCs lool Ventures and Fortissimo Capital, as well as US financiers Corner Ventures and Insight Partners. It is opening new factories near large bee populations and claims to have reduced the collapse from 35 percent to 8 percent where they were deployed. beewise.ag
Run:AI
Run:AI has created what it calls a dedicated deep learning virtualization layer that can train AI models running on graphics processing units much faster than normally possible, while using fewer resources. Since GPU accelerators are among the most expensive devices in a data center, efficiency is essential. In 2018, Omri Geller and Ronen Dar launched Run:AI to manage workloads from the cloud, pool the resources of large clusters of GPUs and share them across different AI workloads by automatically allocating the required computing power each task needs . “We’re doing to AI hardware what VMware and virtualization did to traditional computing,” Dar says. The company has raised $118 million in three funding rounds, backed by Insight Partners, Tiger Global, TLV Partners and S-Capital VC. Since its product launch in 2020, the company’s revenue has increased tenfold, and future projects include managing inference workloads — trained AIs such as facial recognition software — from the cloud. run.ai
Empathy
Empathy combines technology and human support to help grieving family members deal with the logistical tasks and emotional trauma following the death of a loved one. The app can help arrange a funeral and validate a will, founders Ron Gura and Yonatan Bergman claim, but human support from care managers who provide emotional support is essential. Founded in 2020, the company has raised $43 million in two funding rounds from the likes of Entrée Capital and Aleph, as well as angel investors including Micha Kaufman, co-founder of Fiverr. Empathy reports that 92 percent of users reported feeling better after using the app, and that US Empathy users saved an average of $3,007. The company now has partnerships with Goldman Sachs and New York Life to help employees. empathy.com
NeuraLight
Most neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease or Alzheimer’s disease, have a highly subjective, non-sensitive examination and diagnosis of symptoms, hindering timely diagnosis, drug development, and precision care. Co-founded by CEO Micha Breakstone and CTO Edmund Benami in 2021, NeuraLight is building the world’s largest database of symptoms, employing more than 1,000 volunteers to date. NeuraLight recently entered into its first commercial contract with a publicly traded pharmaceutical company to aid the therapeutic discovery of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The company has raised $30.5 million in two rounds from Koch Disruptive Technologies, Samsung Next, Operator Partners and VSC Ventures. Three trials involving Parkinson’s and MS patients are planned for this fall in collaboration with major hospitals. neurallight.ai
LUSIX
LUSIX produces lab-grown diamonds for the gemstone market and industrial applications in its solar-powered lab. The company has raised $135 million — with LVMH Luxury Ventures leading the company’s recent $90 million round intended to fund the expansion of its manufacturing capacity in Israel with a second 100 percent solar facility coming online this summer. The company was founded in 2016 as a spin-out of digital printing company Landa, by physicist Yossi Yayon and entrepreneur Benny Landa. “The journey of lab-grown diamonds has only just begun and has been embraced by consumers, especially millennials and Gen Z,” says Landa. lusix.com
Better juice
Better Juice uses enzymes from microorganisms to convert sugar in fruit juice into non-digestible fiber, claiming to reduce up to 80 percent of all sugars in juice. Founded in 2018 by Eran Blachinsky at Hebrew University, Jerusalem, it has received $8 million in seed funding led by iAngels with Food Tech Lab and The Kitchen Hub. Blachinsky says his process doesn’t affect the smell or taste of the juice, although it does reduce the sweetness. Manufacturers can adjust the processes to select the amount of sugar they want to remove. The recent round will fund other product lines such as ice cream, soft drinks and jams. better-juice.com
Yanib Maor, founder of Tevel.Photo: Jonathan Bloom
Tevel
“Farmers around the world are struggling to recruit fruit pickers, a situation that puts the entire industry at risk,” said Tevel founder Yaniv Maor. The company has raised $32.1 million, most recently from agricultural equipment manufacturers including Japan’s Kubota and China’s Forbon, for its fleet of drones to perform picking, thinning and pruning in orchards. A single unit consists of a wheeled vehicle with four quadcopter drones electrically tethered to the vehicle and equipped with a meter-long mechanical claw and AI-powered eyes that can distinguish between fruits and judge their size and ripeness. The company plans a commercial rollout in Southern Europe by the end of 2022. tevel-tech.com
AiVF
More than 8 million babies have been born through IVF since 1978 — although, with nearly 3 million IVF cycles a year, the treatment-to-birth ratio could be better, say embryologist Daniella Gilboa and in vitro fertilization specialist Daniel Seidman, founders of AiVF . The company is combining AI-based computer vision with a database of previous studies to identify the embryos most likely to be successfully fertilized without invasive testing. Founded in 2018, the company has raised $35 million in a series of rounds with investors including Insight Partners and Adam Neumann’s Family Office. After receiving a European CE mark in 2021, the company is now planning expansion in the US. aivf.co
Trigo
For a startup founded in 2018, Trigo has picked a tough target to beat: Amazon, which has opened 70 frictionless checkouts. “We are the only company that can convert existing stores into standalone stores,” explains Michael Gabay, CEO and co-founder of brother Daniel. The company’s computer vision system includes camera hardware and coded ‘grab and go’ software that allows customers to pick up items and be billed before they leave the store. Trigo has raised $104 million in a series of rounds with support from the likes of 83North, Vertex Ventures, Red Dot Capital Partners and Tesco, which opened its first checkout-free Trigo store in London in October 2021. Trigo will be deployed in Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK in 2022. trigotail.com
