November 18, 2021

Israeli Startups Seek Investors and Partners in Silicon Valley

With a population of approximately 9.2 million inhabitants, Israel possesses one of the world's most robust startup ecosystems. And some of the startups have gone to grow into large successful ventures including Wix.com (Nasdaq: WIX), a software company that provides cloud-based web development services, and Waze, a provider of satellite navigation software that Google purchased for $966 million in 2013. The country is now producing innovative startups in medicine, media, Internet, cybersecurity, water technology, agritech, fintech, telecom, IoT and robotics. As this website explains, "Israeli startups are an attractive proposition for stakeholders – bringing life-saving and quality-enhancing advances to the world, and may generate significant return for their investors."

Startups worldwide continued to raise capital from investors despite travel restrictions caused by the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. In fact, according to this TechCrunch article, "Israel's startup ecosystem raised record amounts of funding and produced 19 IPOs in 2020, despite the pandemic." However, there is no substitute for delivering an in-person presentation to a group of investors. Similar to an event I attended in Sunnyvale, Calif. on Sept. 28th, 2021, which featured a group of startups from Austria, I had the pleasure of attending an event in nearby Mountain View on Nov. 17th where the following six Israeli startups made a presentation to a room full of investors and potential partners:

1. AnyLog virtualizes edge data and resources (sensors, gateways and servers) allowing users and applications to interact, manage and monitor distributed data and resources from a single node, replacing the need to interact with hundreds, thousands and more edge nodes. Outlining the problem AnyLog is solving, Moshe Shadmon, the company's Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), explained, "The diversity of the data and the distribution of the data at the edge limit the functionality that can be delivered by applications running on the edge." He added: "The edge does not include the wealth of services that are available at the data center, or in the cloud, to transform the data to meaningful insight." The AnyLog network is operational with customers using the network in the following areas: Smart City (decentralized energy grid to allow energy share among neighbors), Oil & Gas (real-time edge AI application to control production processes), and Industrial (real-time monitoring and predictive maintenance of machinery).

2. BactoByte developed a novel technology aiming to reduce the burden of infection disease by enabling a new standard in antibiotic administration. According to Miron Krokhmal, his company's solution is a rapid, precise, and cost-effective antibiotics susceptibility analysis system that is eliminating the need for Petri dish-based testing in a clinical laboratory. "Our BactoSense solution introduces a unique mechanism of action providing the shortest total-time-to-result of 2-8 hours as an alternative to the current golden standard of 3-5 days."

3. Okibo developed a robot that is designed to autonomously traverse the rough terrain of construction sites with high precision, while maintaining human and equipment safety. As displayed in the demo video below, Okibo's robot requires minimal human intervention. Guy German, the firm's CEO, anticipates general contractors will serve as Okibo's primary customers.


4. Q-factor, which is led by Hezzy Pollyack, is a developer of intelligent software solutions for search problems. The company has developed Argus, is a centrally licensed, easy to deploy security, operations and safety tool designed to support conventional video management, operations and safety system configurations. Argus is built according to the needs of critical infrastructure companies in the oil and gas, transportation, and smart city sectors.

5. Simpaas developed an e-commerce marketplace ecosystem-as-a-service. According to the company's CEO, Gil Elias, the Simpaas all-in-one ecosystem provides a short time to market and a ready-to-use tailored-made catalog template. "While local enterprises are usually behind on the digital globalization space," Mr. Elias said "they are looking to build better and extensive offerings to their clients."

6. Tuqqi is a virtual working space tailored to an organization to help it work better, collaborate with ease, and deliver remarkable results. During his presentation, Ido Hurvits, Tuqqi's Founder and CEO highlighted how his company's platform provided value to the Association for Israel's LGBT Task Force "by dramatically decreasing inquiry response time, controlling ongoing information, taking recruitment to the next level, and staying in touch with hundreds of volunteers." A case study about this initiative may be found here.

It is encouraging to see startups from abroad resuming their efforts to visit the United States to meet with prospective investors. While video calls are a great way to make an initial introduction, in-person events and meetings are more effective for startup founders to make their pitch to a group of investors. And gatherings like the one I attended featuring startups from Israel are providing investors and potential partners the opportunity to engage in meaningful discussions to learn more about the problem the startups are solving, who is experiencing the problem, and understanding the size of the market opportunity.

What are your thoughts about the startups listed above? Are you engaged with Israeli startups that are producing innovative solutions?

Aaron Rose is a board member, corporate advisor, and co-founder of great companies. He also serves as the editor of GT Perspectives, an online forum focused on turning perspective into opportunity.

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