Five promising startups in the nation of innovation
Be on the look out for these five Israeli startups.
By SHARON UDASINUpdated: MAY 11, 2017 22:57Lightning strikes over the skyline of Tel Aviv during a rain storm(photo credit: REUTERS)
In the wake of Intel’s $15 billion decision to acquire Mobileye in March, momentum in Israel’s start-up scene is building faster than ever.Israelis continue to excel across a wide spectrum of sectors such as cyber security, transportation technologies, energy, water and big data, positioning the country as an international leader in the hi-tech community.More and more local innovators are gaining global recognition, both from a technological and financial perspective, inching their way toward that coveted “unicorn” status, or the $1b. mark.Intel buying Israeli driverless car-tech firm Mobileye for $15 b. (credit: REUTERS)The question remains, which Israeli start-up will be next in the billion-dollar club?While it may be impossible to identify which Israeli start-ups truly have the potential to become the country’s next Mobileye, The Jerusalem Post is offering its best guess of five of the most promising candidates in an array of sectors.Argus Cyber Security Tel Aviv With autonomous cars emerging on roads around the globe, defending the vulnerabilities of these networked vehicles has become an increasingly urgent challenge. A rapidly rising Tel Aviv-based company, Argus Cyber Security, provides comprehensive cyber security solutions for the automotive industry, preventing hackers from threatening commercial cars and other networked vehicles.AdvertisementSince its establishment in 2013, Argus has raised $30 million in equity funding, opening up offices in Michigan, Silicon Valley, Stuttgart and Tokyo, according to start-up directory Crunchbase. As increased connectivity helps improve road safety and transit experience, Argus looks to thwart the accompanying security risks and make today’s vehicles less vulnerable to attack. The company works with private and commercial manufacturers, suppliers, fleet managers, dealerships and after-market connectivity providers to prevent malware installation, detect operating system anomalies and stop attacks from spreading within vehicle networks.Zebra Medical VisionKibbutz ShefayimBy harnessing advanced machine-learning techniques to analyze medical images, this Kibbutz Shefayim-based start-up aims to help medical professionals generate automated, accurate and timely diagnoses.After raising $8m. in 2015, just a year after its founding, the company received an additional $12m. investment last year. Zebra’s self-described mission involves “teaching computers to detect and diagnose critical medical conditions” through algorithms that strive to assist radiologists in detecting indications that might otherwise be overlooked, and in understanding the medical profiles of their patients.Topping start-up rankings on tech websites worldwide, Zebra hopes to make a significant impact. An aging global population and a rapidly growing middle class have created an “unsustainable course” wherein the demand for medical imaging solutions is far outpacing the supply of doctors who can supply these services.LemonadeTel AvivIsrael PM Netanyahu meets Chinese President, Baidu CEO in Beijing, pushing Israeli hi-tech in China (credit: REUTERS)Powered by artificial intelligence and behavioral economics, Lemonade provides peer-to-peer insurance for homeowners and renters. Customers can purchase insurance with the touch of an app, interacting with bots and machine-learning mechanisms instead of brokers and bureaucracy.Rather than incorporating a traditional insurance mechanism, Lemonade takes a flat fee and donates unclaimed money to a cause of the policyholder’s choice in a “give-back” system. People who support the same cause are the “peers” in the company’s peer-to-peer insurance model.Six months after Lemonade’s launch in New York, where the company is now headquartered, the insurance became available in Illinois in April. Lemonade is slated to roll out throughout most of the United States over the course of the year, according to the company. As of December, the company had raised some $60m., but two weeks ago, Allianz, the world’s largest insurer, announced that it would be making a strategic investment in the start-up, though it did not disclose the amount.HometalkJerusalemThe world’s largest do-it-yourself community, Hometalk boasts some nine million members who share their DIY home and gardening projects, ideas and questions through blog posts, Pinterest photos, videos and slide shows.Projects posted on Hometalk, which receives some 40 million monthly visits and 300 million monthly page views, range from making nontoxic reusable cleaning wipes from old T-shirts to revitalizing discarded furniture to planting tabletop gardens.The majority of Hometalk’s traffic comes through a variety of social media channels, as users share viral posts to friends on their networks.Unique among Israeli start-up success stories, Hometalk is a “bootstrapped” business: Its founders built the company with little capital and without external fund-raising. Founded in 2011, Hometalk has offices in Jerusalem and New York.MoovitNess ZionaMoovit.(screenshot)With more than 55 million riders in 75 countries, Moovit unifies all types of public transportation travel under one umbrella, enabling members of the public to both plan their trips and track arrival and departure schedules in real-time.A community-driven app, Moovit integrates official public transportation data with crowdsourced transit updates, in order to increase the accuracy of the information provided to users.In addition to beginning its own Moovit Carpool service last year in Israel and Italy, the company teamed up with Uber to integrate ride-share options in 22 of the countries where the public transit app operates. The collaboration with Uber built upon previous such partnerships formed with ride-share service Lyft in 2014 and Gett, an on-demand taxi provider, in 2015.After raising $81.5m. in several financing rounds from 2012 through 2015, Moovit received an investment of an undisclosed amount at the end of 2015 from Sound Ventures, a venture capital firm cofounded by actor Ashton Kutcher and Israeli-American businessman Guy Oseary.
