OurCrowd

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Turning the Table

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From wildfires in Australia to flooding in the American Midwest, the effects of climate change around the world cannot be ignored. Natural disasters are nothing new, but they are being intensified by climate change as never before. And we humans have our fingerprints all over the problem. Our food systems – what we eat and how we procure it – are major drivers of rising temperatures and extreme weather patterns.

As it exists today, our global food systems contribute 25% of the greenhouse gases that give rise to global warming. With population growth topping 1% per year and per capita calorie consumption increasing across the world, global food demand will continue to rise. Meat and dairy production bear much of the blame for our food’s impact on the climate. Livestock accounts for 14.5% of the world’s greenhouse gases — more than all forms of global transportation combined. Worse still, global demand for meat has doubled over the past 30 years as nations become wealthier and larger.

The time has never been better for new technology to disrupt these alarming trends. Food and beverage technology, or “FoodTech,” holds the potential to improve how we eat — from increased food yield, improved nutritional value and freshness to innovations in supply chain and procurement. While in the past the food business has lagged behind other industries in its implementation of new technologies, broad changes in consumer preferences have given startups a new impetus to innovate. An increased awareness of social and environmental issues is driving consumers to look for products and technologies that will help them align their personal values with their purchasing choices. This makes FoodTech a growing and increasingly attractive sector to investors. As a result, over the last five years investment in emerging FoodTech has tripled.

What new developments will shape this promising sector? Below, are three trends in FoodTech that are poised to make an impact and offer significant potential for growth: sustainability, health and personalization, and supply- chain innovation.

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Watch: How BioCatch used behavior analysis to protect Royal Bank of Scotland

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Numbers can be stolen, signatures forged, and IDs hacked; but an individual’s behavioral biometric motion is unique, consistent and identifiable. The field of behavioral biometrics detects cyberattacks in real-time. 

Financial institutions all over the world use BioCatch for behavioral biometrics to protect clients and their assets. In October 2019, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) shared how they used BioCatch to detect a suspicious transaction in its corporate banking unit, as featured in the Wall Street Journal. 

“BioCatch’s breakthrough technology has already become an integral part of our fraud and authentication strategy,” stated RBS Chief Administrative Officer, Simon McNamara. 

McNamara recently sat with BioCatch’s CEO, Howard Edelstein, and Edelstein explains how his technology addresses current security needs and is working on preventing future threats. Watch the complete interview.  

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Your body, disrupted

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In April, scientists at Tel Aviv University “printed” the world’s first 3D vascularized heart using a patient’s own cells and biological material. This is just the tip of the medical iceberg. We expect healthcare to change in the next decade as disruptive technologies promise to improve patient outcomes, making medicine more personalized, effective, and interconnected.

The Path to Personal Care: Genetics

How similar do you think you are to a banana? You actually share 60% of your genetic code with this healthy snack. DNA is the core building block of every living thing, and minute changes in genetic codes are responsible for unbelievable differences between us. From 23andMe DNA tests providing personalized reports about your ancestry to Igentify revolutionizing genetic testing and counseling, scientists are harnessing our understanding of genetics to provide real value to society.

Medicine still relies heavily on general population statistics. The doctor evaluates your symptoms, considers your age, weight, family health history, and ultimately determines treatment. But far too often we simply do not respond and return to the doctor, having wasted money, effort, and time.

Soon, medicine will cater therapeutics to the individual. take cancer as an example: today’s treatment plans often include physically removing a tumor. It is an invasive process and falls short of addressing metastasized cancers and their underlying causes. Systemic treatments are limited, and even when they work it can take a number of therapy cycles to find the right drug. In order to prevent that, Barcode Diagnostics designed a patented-protected technology to assist oncologists in identifying the most effective chemotherapy cocktail before the patients’ first treatment.

AlphaTAU is on the cutting-edge of cancer therapy, treating solid tumors with radioactive seeds that release short-lived alpha-emitting atoms. Cancer care of the future will involve evaluating your genome, examining the DNA of your specific cancer, and tailoring a gene therapy treatment that allows your body to fight off the disease at its core.
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Quantum Leap

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Blockchain, 3D printing, big data, internet of things, artificial intelligence. A decade ago these were nascent technologies known only to hardcore geeks. Fast forward 10 years and they affect the everyday lives of billions. The question now is, what’s next?

Quantum computers are one of the hottest buzzwords today. Developed by governments including the United States, Russia, and China and companies like IBM, Google, Microsoft, and Alibaba, quantum computers may offer computing power that far exceeds anything we have seen to date.

Most recently, Google announced its new 72-qubit quantum computer in March 2018. What does this mean? 50 qubits is considered the approximate number at which quantum computing becomes capable of calculations that conventional computers cannot handle in a timely manner.

Scientists believe that we can use quantum computers to tackle and explore problems that cannot be solved otherwise. This innovative approach will enable us to understand many of nature’s mysteries, create new medicines and materials, and come up with better ways to safeguard our data or explore space.

Conventional computers use bits, a basic unit of information, each of which can have a value of either 0 or 1. For example, in two bits we can represent four different states “00”,”01”,”10,” and “11.” Quantum computers use qubits. Qubits can hold a zero, a one, or any proportion of both zero and one at the same time.
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Catching a Second Wind

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Every year, more brick-and-mortar stores close their doors for the final time. Malls and department stores, once a mainstay of American suburbia, are struggling in the age of online shopping. Even well-established brands like Toys “R” Us and Sears are not immune to these trends, both declaring bankruptcy in 2018.

The decline doesn’t seem to be letting up in 2019, with retailers shutting down 23% more stores than they did at the start of last year (2000+ store closings), according to Coresight Research.

Even stores that have weathered the storm thus far are showing bleak numbers. JC Penney closed 139 stores in 2017, despite aggressive efforts to woo Sephora customers and Sears refugees. Macy’s, its better-faring competitor, is moving away from physical storefronts, cutting its square footage by 13% between 2015 and 2018. Grocery chains like Family Dollar, whose premise of cheap goods was considered “Amazon proof,” has announced the closure of 390 stores in 2019 despite an $8.5B buyout by Dollar Tree.

And yet, American consumers are buying at a dizzying pace. E-commerce is booming, with online shopping accounting for $517.4B of spending with US merchants in 2018. Directto-consumer brands are are skipping store shelves and heading straight to the doors of customers. Amazon, which accounted for 40% of last year’s US online retail, continues to capture ever more of the market.

With e-commerce representing nearly 15% of retail sales and rising, and the nature of consumers changing, it is time to ask: what is the future of retail? There are several trends emerging that may give some insights into where the market is heading.
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Modern Plagues: Let our people live – with these startup technologies

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Cancer, diabetes, and drug abuse are among what come to mind when thinking of modern plagues on our society. These plagues are daunting and seemingly unsolvable. The modern minds behind startup technology are actually aiming to solve these issues.

Overcoming opioid addiction

Startups are utilizing technology – from AI to cannabis tech – to develop cures and solutions for overcoming opioid addiction. Riley Cote, NHL hockey player, went so far as to state at the 2019 OurCrowd Global Investor Summit that the prohibition of cannabis is actually the direct cause of the opioid crisis. Cote spoke from personal experience when he said that cannabis is a useful tool to deal with pain, and significantly less dangerous and addictive than opioids or other pain killers. Advancing this breakthrough forward, a startup called Syqe Medical has developed a pocket-sized cannabis based inhaler that is one of the promising alternatives for opioid use as a painkiller.

Dr. Gidi Stein, co-founder and CEO of MedAware, also discussed the steps he and his colleagues are taking to end pain killer addiction. Dr. Stein told a true story of a 19 year old young adult, Cory, who was prescribed opioids when he suffered from multiple fractures in his arm and shoulder. Cory initially used these pain killers for his injury, but within a few years and several stints in rehabilitation centers, Cory was found dead due to an overdose of opioids. Enter MedAware – a healthcare startup that harnesses AI and big data analytics with the aim of preventing dangerous drug prescription errors, and monitoring a patient’s drug usage with the ability to intervene before the drug becomes addictive.

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How to Navigate Israel’s Evolving Tech World

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Israel is home to more than 6,500 innovative tech companies and startups, dozens of public and private innovation players, and over 530 multinational corporations (MNCs) from 35 countries. The institutional know-how is there, as is the entrepreneurial and innovative spirit. The question is, how can MNCs tap into the tech network?

The Israeli Innovation Ecosystem Matures

Israel has become a global powerhouse for technological innovation for many reasons; world-class R&D capabilities, effective government programs, military support for company building, and an audacious approach to risk-taking have created a unique and fertile ecosystem.

The numbers speak for themselves. Israel has the highest concentration of startups (one company for every 1,400 people), the highest percentage of R&D spending per GDP at 4.5%, and the highest level of VC investments per capita at $674. However, breaking down the numbers even further shows just how much the Israeli innovation ecosystem has matured over the past few years. The number of Israeli companies raising between $10M and $20M has more than doubled since 2015, which is a testament to the country’s buzzing venture capital activity.
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Knight Riders

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Ten years ago, cars with built-in Bluetooth, GPS, and parking sensors were the domain of luxury vehicles. Now, even the most affordable economy level car has these features. The next 10 years in auto-tech promise to make the last few decades look like a warm-up.

Going Autonomous

Self-driving cars have been on our minds for a while and the question of when there will be a fully autonomous car is still debatable. Waymo’s CEO, John Krafcik, said that while self-driving cars are here, he does not know if fully automated cars (what’s usually called a Level 5 autonomous vehicle) that can drive in any condition will ever be here. Other manufacturers like BMW say they could be selling completely self-driving cars by as early as 2021.

That said, many cars already feature some level of autonomous capabilities like automatic emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, and lane-keeping assist systems. Tesla’s Autopilot, Nissan ProPILOT Assist, and Audi’s traffic jam assist are already compliant with Levels 2 and 3 of autonomous driving (driver assistance and partial automation). The race for autonomous driving tech, software and hardware alike, is on.

In 10 years, cars will make use of a myriad of sensors in order to understand their driving environment. Each type of sensor has its own strengths and weaknesses in terms of range, detection capabilities, and reliability. A fusion of technologies is required to provide the redundancy needed to sense the environment safely. LIDAR and Radar are two such sensors that supplement cameras. LIDAR systems emit rapid laser signals, sometimes up to 150,000 pulses per second at eye-safe levels. The beams hit objects in the environment, bounce back to a photo-detector, and eventually creates a three-dimensional image of the environment. The Radar system works in much the same way but uses radio waves instead of laser beams.
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