Tag: innovative technologies

Winning the Gold for Innovation: The OurCrowd Olympics Connection

The Olympic Games have always been a time for the world to come together and admire the potential of the human species as a whole, especially the athletes’ physical and mental capabilities, like talent, skill, and strategy. But there’s a lot more to admire about the international sporting event, namely the proliferation of amazing technological advances that help the athletes on an individual level and facilitate the event itself taking place. High-level security technology, medical innovations, and imaging technology, for example, are being put to service in sports and sporting events to prevent and treat injury, improve training and performance, enhance the experience for fans, and more. As the 2016 Rio Olympics are rapidly coming to a close, we survey four outstanding companies from our portfolio, highlighting their current and potential contributions to the sports technology sub-sectors and events inside and outside the arenas – the OurCrowd-Olympics connection. BriefCam As the developers of a revolutionary video synopsis technology, BriefCam has a direct connection to the summer Olympics as it is helping Rio monitor its bank of surveillance cameras and is assisting authorities in keeping track of what’s happening at street...

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And the Geek Award 2016 goes to… OurCrowd portfolio companies!

Last week, leading Israeli tech blog Geektime hosted the 2016 Geek Awards, the first annual competition and award ceremony to recognize and celebrate the most compelling startups, entrepreneurs, and investors of the year in Israel. The team of judges that helped pick the candidates and winners in various different categories included leading experts and representatives from the industry, such as Saul Singer, Inbal Orpaz, Hilla Brenner, Assaf Gilad, David Shamah, and more. 5 of OurCrowd’s portfolio companies were nominated in four different categories (Engie was nominated twice!), winning two awards! Here is the breakdown of OurCrowd representation at the 2016 Geek Awards: Best Israeli IoT startup Both Engie and Argus were nominated in this category, with the latter taking home the prize! Other nominees included Sensibo, Earlysense, and GreenIQ. Argus Cyber Security is one of the first startups to address the security challenges inherent in connected cars. In October Argus, an Israeli firm focused on automotive computer protection, announced that they wrapped up a $26 million Series B funding round. Argus markets an embedded hardware that integrates with the car’s computing systems on the production line, acting like a standard...

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LIVE BLOG: OurCrowd’s 2016 Global Investor Summit

After months of planning, we’re excited to finally kick off OurCrowd’s 2016 Global Investor Summit in Jerusalem. Over 3,000 attendees from around the world are weathering the storm and streaming into Binyanei Hauma for what is going to be an incredible event! We will be updating this blog live throughout the day — come back to see new features, highlights, and updates here! ———– Welcome to Jerusalem! Doors opened at 8AM with breakfast; the Summit kick-off will begin promptly at 9AM. Don’t miss the opening, including a look at the future car with Honda Silicon Valley Lab. Register on arrival: When you arrive, first visit the registration booths to collect your name tag, agenda, notebook and other materials. Download the event app: Click here to download the official Summit app and view the updated agenda, a who’s who of attendees, and more goodies throughout the day. OurCrowd’s staff are waiting at the Information Desk for the Summit attendees, if you need help getting around or want to accredit — this is the place to go! For the full Summit agenda, please...

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The Next Thing in Cybersecurity Innovation: Securing your future?

Imagine a sense of security on the internet, where the identity of website users is known and secure based on how fast or slow they swipe their fingers across the touchscreen of a phone or tablet, and how much theirs hands shake. The patented cybersecurity system, called BioCatch, also evaluates eye-hand coordination and palm size, combining all of this information to generate what its CEO Avi Turgeman calls a “cognitive signature” for users, able to identify when an unfamiliar person may be using a device. For now, this is a last-line of defense against unauthorized access to data, hacking attempts and other cyber-crimes, but someday this sort of built-in technology may replace passwords. In other words, machines may just know who is using them. It is this sort of technology — and the increased vulnerability of data — that is driving the ever-expanding future of cybersecurity. As the world becomes increasingly digital, and hacking attempts grow increasingly more sophisticated, there is a growing demand for new and expanded security solutions.  And the demand isn’t just coming from IT companies,...

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5 Innovative Technologies Tackling Women’s Health Challenges

In the United States, heart disease is the number one cause of death in women, responsible for about 1 in 4 female deaths. But only 54% of women realize this, and many are not diagnosed until it is too late. In fact, 64% of women who die of coronary disease do not have any previous symptoms, or at least do not recognize such symptoms, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Another disease, cervical cancer, which when caught early can be treated with much success, can be fatal if not detected. Of the 275,000 women who die each year around the world from this disease, 85% are in poor countries, where screening is not as accessible as in the United States and Europe. As we see here, in the field of women’s health, there are a number of factors, including perception, education, and access to care that can mean the difference between life and death. These statistics are sobering, but there are many changes in progress that leave room for optimism, including developments in the high-tech field. There...

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