- Top investment opportunities
- Startup of the Week: Shyft home-moving marketplace grows 330%
- March 8th: The future of 3D printing with Nas Daily
- AEYE Health aims to save millions from blindness
- D-ID brings loved ones to life
- Cyabra monitors Russia’s social media propaganda war
- Plantish cooks up 3D-printed, plant-based ‘salmon’ fillet
- OurCrowd and Microsoft host CyberTech guests
- OurCrowd hosts Fem JLM workshop
- TytoCare aids Ukrainian villages, forms first partnership in Brazil
- Biolojic Design antibody approved for in-human cancer drug trial
- ThetaRay’s technology can enforce economic sanctions on Russia
- Introductions
- More than 4,500 high-tech jobs
Startup of the Week:
Shyft: Home-moving marketplace grows 330%
Moving home is big business. Partnerships with Google and AARP – the largest membership organization in the US – are driving net revenue growth to a projected 330% this year at Shyft, the digital marketplace upending the way Americans move home in the modern era. More than 15 million people relocate each year in the US alone, a huge market bogged down in paperwork and analog practices – and 2 million of them are AARP members. Shyft’s online marketplace connects hundreds of moving companies with personal and corporate customers around the world. It has already moved 200,000 people in 68 countries. Shyft is one of only 15 AARP branded providers – all the others are already billion-dollar companies. The Hartford, a Fortune 500 insurance company, reports that 92% of its $3B in personal premiums in 2020 came via its AARP partnership. Shyft is the exclusive relocation partner for Google’s flexible work program, through which more than 10,000 Google employees have already applied to work remotely. The company sees the Google program as a model for future-proofed corporate relocation schemes easily tailored for other major firms. With a further 130% net revenue increase projected for 2023 and more pilots in the pipeline, Shyft is on track for unicorn status. Future Labs Capital joins this $30M Series B round alongside existing investors Blumberg Capital, Inovia Capital, Forefront (Barbara Corcoran), Endeavor, Gaingels, Inwell Ventures (ex-Airbnb), a large strategic corporate insurance VC and OurCrowd.
March 8th: The future of 3D printing with Nas Daily
Join us on Tuesday, March 8th when Nas Daily creator Nuseir Yassin will give OurCrowd investors an exclusive first look at his new video on Plantish, the startup that’s 3D printing plant-based “salmon steaks”. Celebrity chef Nir Zook explains how to cook them. Erez Vigodman, the former CEO of Strauss and Teva Pharmaceuticals, reveals why he’s become the Chairman of Largix, which is 3D printing huge items for industry, and Yishai Amir tells us how his experience leading the printing, design and graphics revolution at HP can help Largix today. 3D printing industry pioneer Avi Reichenthal explains how Nexa3D is providing parts for the Williams Formula 1 racing team. With Ofek Ron, Co-founder and CEO of Plantish, Ronen Orr, Co-founder and CEO of Largix, and Geert Denutte, Founder of CGK Group.
AEYE Health aims to save millions from blindness
“Millions of people are going blind just because they aren’t getting tested. This is how we will put an end to the problem,” Dr. Zack Dvey-Aharon, CEO of AEYE Health tells Lisa Gann in the Times of Israel. In the US alone, some 35 million diabetics and 90 million prediabetics are at risk of developing diabetic retinopathy, the prime cause of blindness at working age. AEYE Health’s AI-powered platform enables anyone to be tested quickly at a doctor’s office or pharmacy. One day in the not-too-distant future, screening for potential loss of sight “will be as easy as walking into a CVS, putting your chin on a chinrest and learning within seconds if you’re going blind or not,” says Dvey-Aharon.
D-ID brings loved ones to life
D-ID is the startup behind Deep Nostalgia, the viral photo animation app from MyHeritage that swept the world last year, bringing old photos to life. Click below to sign an NDA and learn about the company’s next steps and its current investment round.
Cyabra monitors Russia’s social media propaganda war
While the eyes of the world are on the ground war in Ukraine, our portfolio company Cyabra is monitoring the propaganda war raging on social media platforms. The company discovered a dramatic uptick in anti-Ukraine posts, many from newly created or questionable accounts, weeks before Russia’s invasion, the Associated Press reports. “It is vital that leaders and citizens alike are aware of the high likelihood that the information they are digesting on social media stems from inauthentic sources, and therefore of questionable reliability,” says Dan Brahmy, CEO of Cyabra, now funding on the OurCrowd platform.
Plantish cooks up 3D-printed, plant-based ‘salmon’ fillet
The future of seafood is coming to a plate near you as our portfolio company Plantish works on producing the first plant-based whole-cut salmon fillet using 3D printing technology, Israel21C writes. The company aims “to save the oceans and eliminate the need to consume marine animals by providing more sustainable, more nutritious and more delicious fish options,” says Ofek Ron, Co-founder and CEO.
OurCrowd and Microsoft host CyberTech guests
OurCrowd and Microsoft for Startups hosted a VIP cocktail reception in Tel Aviv for the CyberTech Global TLV Conference. The gathering brought together conference speakers, founders, investors, C-level executives, diplomats and Microsoft and OurCrowd leadership. Among the conference speakers and exhibitors were OurCrowd portfolio companies ThetaRay, Morphisec, ItsMine, and Cybersixgill.
OurCrowd hosts Fem JLM workshop
OurCrowd hosted the third group of Fem JLM at our HQ for a workshop on workplace negotiations, led by Maissa Ballout Shamshoum. The Jerusalem-based program supports women in the tech community, helping them grow into managerial positions in the tech ecosystem with lectures, mentorship, and networking events.
Top Tech News
TytoCare aids Ukrainian villages, forms first partnership in Brazil
Qure portfolio company TytoCare donated 50 of its telemedicine devices to remote medical centers in the Ukraine through UNICEF, Israel21C reports. The goal is to keep children from traveling long distances for medical care during the war with Russia. TytoCare has been operating in Ukraine since April 2021. The company also began its first partnership in Brazil, HIT Consultant reports. It will be working with Alice, the country’s first primary care-driven health insurance plan, to provide kits to physicians and patients alike.
Biolojic Design antibody approved for in-human cancer drug trial
Our biotech pioneer Biolojic Design has a key role in an upcoming first-in-human clinical trial. The company’s AI-powered platform created an antibody which will be used by the immune-oncology firm Aulos Bioscience in a drug designed to eradicate solid tumors. The study will be conducted in partnership with Monash Health, the largest public health service provider in Victoria, Australia.
ThetaRay’s technology can enforce economic sanctions on Russia
Fintech innovator ThetaRay says its technology can help enforce the economic sanctions imposed on Russia by the US and other Western countries over the invasion of Ukraine. The company’s AI-powered monitoring and screening platform allows governments and financial institutions to identify both manual and cyber-automated attempts to violate the sanctions. “The ThetaRay system can tackle sophisticated money laundering schemes, terror financing and enforcement of global regulatory sanctions without harming ongoing financial activities,” says Mark Gazit, CEO of ThetaRay.
Introductions
Your portfolio gets stronger when the OurCrowd network gets involved. Visit our Introductions page to see which of our companies are looking for connections that you may be able to help with.
More than 4,500 High-Tech Jobs
Read the OurCrowd High-Tech Jobs Index Q3 2021 HERE.
- DevOps Team Leader at CB4 (Herzliya, Israel)
- Global Sourcing Manager at Casper (New York)
- Technical Writer at Armory (Costa Rica)
Search and filter through Portfolio Jobs to find your next challenge
