Israel sports over 100 active accelerator programs in the country with a target of supporting startups at their various stages of growth. At the end of 2020, a lot of these programs closed out yet another cycle. So with a new year upon us, we thought we’d take a look at a few innovative companies we hope to keep hearing about in 2021.
The AI preventing traffic jams
IBM’s AlphaZone accelerator completed its 10th cycle and among its alumni, ITC (Intelligent Traffic Control), which developed an AI-powered system aiming to cut back on traffic jams. ITC’s system is connected to existing traffic cameras and transmits data, like vehicle type, speed, and other various defined parameters, to a control center for analysis.
By analyzing the incoming data from hundreds of different vehicles a minute, ITC’s AI control center can calculate expected traffic times, adjusting traffic lights accordingly.
Another alumnus of AlphaZone is Sternum, a company claiming to develop the first system that provides end-to-end security for all IoT devices. The agentless solution enables manufacturers real-time security for their IoT devices, without added hardware or software.
Sternum’s flagship product - Embedded Integrity Verification - EIV - adds a layer of defense that identifies embedded code at risk, runs verification to prevent malfunction of the device, or attempt to manipulate the device’s memory. The company was founded by Natali Tshuva, previously of Cellebrite and NSO, Arik Farber, Lian Granot, and Boaz Shedletsky.
Virtual games instead of standard child development testing
The Fusion LA program, an accelerator aimed at helping Israeli startups scale in the U.S., finished another batch that produced GiantLeap. The Israeli startup is trying to disrupt the standard methods of child development diagnosis - a system adapted to the current bizarre global reality. GiantLeap developed a system that collects developmental data from children through an app, where they play different games for 20 minutes. By combining the collected developmental data with subjective feedback from parents and others involved in the child’s life - like teachers, for example - the system produces a comprehensive ‘map’ of a child’s skills and abilities.
The insight is then simplified to help educate parents on their children’s struggles, and therefore help them improve, In addition, the results also show parents their kids’ strengths and which subjects to nurture. The company has raised a total of $900K from GoAhead Ventures and Fusion LA.
Another startup coming from under the Fusion LA umbrella is attempting to inject AI into customer service. The technology developed by Plantt.io learns and analyzes how a company communicates with its customers, whether through phone, email, chat, or other channels, to identify bottlenecks and better understand where automation can add value. Once the system detects recurring issues it automatically generates a dialogue that highlights relevant answers and info to solve the customer’s request while reducing stress from technical support representatives. The company, which was founded CEO Dan Leshem and CTO Itamar Eizik, has raised $1 million to date.
Turning all your data into a chatbot
Spurting from Intel Ignite’s hub is Hyro, which develops a system that integrates to enterprise databases but with a Natural Language Understanding (NLU) twist. This turns databases into Knowledge Graph that can be questioned in English.
The company was founded by CEO Israel Krush, CTO Uri Valevski, and CIO Rom Cohen, and has raised $6 million to date from VC and Angel investors. The databases eventually turn into chatbots for a multitude of different industries, including healthcare and real estate, which have high customer interaction.
Decipher ultrasound results on remote
Coming out of the 365x Scale-up accelerator program is Innoging, a company developing a remote solution for deciphering ultrasound results in real-time. The Innoging team explains that in order to prevent mistakes it’s important that a human physician is constantly monitoring the procedure. However, due to a severe lack of capable radiologists, the doctors usually find themselves reviewing recorded images, thus losing data that can be seen only during a live examination. The company was founded in 2018 by Adi Baruch, Eliad Moshe, and Yehiel Polatov.
Innoging develops technology that empowers physicians and patients alike with a remote solution. The company’s algorithms can produce a high-quality image of the scanned organ, leading the caring doctor through secured cloud infrastructure to perform virtual ultrasound testing, covering a full range of angles.
The company is currently conducting clinical trials, targeting results coming in early 2021, when the company also expects to start European sales. Based on Innoging’s existing technology, the company also developed a medical simulator that has been tested by 420 users worldwide.
