Safer Scooters on the Streets of Rome, Heading to London Trials
LINK, the shared electric scooter service created by OurCrowd portfolio company Superpedestrian, launches in Rome in September. The company, a robotics startups spun out of MIT, already operates the scooters in several US cities and has been approved by the UK government to participate in trials for a London tender. Putting safety first, the company’s Vehicle Intelligence Platform of embedded computers and cloud software enables its scooters to protect themselves from damage during and between rides by detecting problems including battery fires, short circuits, or failed brakes, and take corrective action to avert damage. The system prevents more than half of all issues that cause scooters to fail, and streamlines operations if they arise, with cost savings of up to 50%.
SEC’s Historic Decision Broadens Definition of Accredited Investor
Last week’s historic decision by the US Securities and Exchange Commission to broaden its definition of an “accredited investor” is a game-changer for the venture capital industry, boosting access to the kind of investments in startups that OurCrowd has helped pioneer. For the first time, they went beyond an income-based or wealth-based definition to include expertise, skills and financial licensing, among other criteria, to enable an estimated million or more US households to join the ranks of the accredited investors. Allowing more people to invest in early-stage companies heralds a long-overdue democratization of the market, promoting capital formation in unlisted companies while preserving and even enhancing important investor protections. Together, these steps will unleash huge untapped reserves, enabling tomorrow’s technologies to grow faster, for the benefit of all.
UAE-Israel Deal is Good for the Region – and the World
As an Israeli delegation prepares to arrive in Abu Dhabi on the first direct El Al flight from Israel to the UAE, numbered 971 for the Emirates’ international dialing code, the pace of interaction between Israeli investors and entrepreneurs and their counterparts in the Gulf is growing by leaps and bounds. This is not just good for the region, but for the world, as I told CBN News’ Dateline Jerusalem. I wish I was on this first flight and I hope to be joining a future flight soon.
Top Tech News
Keeping Customers Connected When They Most Need It
TechSee is already enabling thousands of technicians from Verizon, Vodafone, Samsung, Heineken and SalesForce to provide customer support remotely and without entering their homes or businesses – a huge benefit during the coronavirus pandemic. The company’s award-winning augmented reality and computer vision AI has revolutionized customer service, enhancing efficiency and reducing operational costs for 70,000 users completing more than 2 million sessions per month in 43 countries. TechSee is now raising up to a $25M Preferred Series C Round led by Salesforce Ventures.
SaNOtize: It’s All About The Nose
With a recent study showing that 98% of Covid-19 patients exhibit a variety of smell dysfunctions, the nose has emerged as the frontline battleground against the virus. Once inhaled, the coronavirus incubates in the nasal passages before infecting the lungs – with disastrous effect. SaNOtize is in the middle of Phase II clinical trials under the auspices of Health Canada of its nasal spray and throat gargle that proved in lab tests to kill 99.9% of the coronavirus that causes Covid-19. This could be the world’s first effective defense against Covid-19 that kills the virus in the nose and throat before it spreads to the lungs. Based on Nobel Prize-winning nitric oxide research by the company’s board member, Prof Ferid Murad of Stanford University, we are looking forward to the results of the trials in Canada and further trials planned for Europe.
Israel’s RealView Releases New Product for $5.4B Market
RealView Imaging‘s Holoscope-x will allow physicians to improve the accuracy and efficacy of surgical procedures by creating a hologram that doctors can view within the patient’s body. The company raised $10M in Series C funding in July to develop its groundbreaking system that enables surgeons to view hyper-realistic 3D holograms of the patient’s actual anatomy during operations. “It is a very accurate and realistic image,” says Aviad Kaufman, RealView’s founder. Developed with Philips, the Dutch multinational that specializes in medical imaging, the company aims to capture a healthy slice of the global digital holography market, which is projected to reach $5.4 billion by 2024.
Two-Thirds of Fortune 500 Can’t Be Wrong
Data.world, the cloud-based data company used by more than two-thirds of corporations listed in the Fortune 500, has released new agile data governance capabilities so that organizations are no longer constrained by data silos, complicated workflows, or opaque data resources. Users can more quickly and efficiently discover new data, request access, enrich metadata, and see how data is used within the organization. “Being able to access the data you need and collaborate remotely on critical datasets is more important than ever. Taking an agile approach to data governance addresses these needs by simplifying data requests, adding transparency to how data is being used internally, and automating workflows so the entire business can get more from its data,” said Jon Loyens, co-founder of data.world. OurCrowd’s co-investors include Samsung Next, Tech Pioneers Fund and Chicago Ventures.
Upcoming Events
AI to the Rescue: How Startup Tech Is Reinventing the Hospital: Webinar, Sep. 9
Join top MedTech entrepreneurs, industry leaders, and investors on Wednesday, Sep. 9 to explore the revolution in healthcare services driven by artificial intelligence. Speakers include:
- Eli Groner, Israel head of Koch Disruptive Technologies, subsidiary of the $110 billion Koch Industries, investor in Sight Diagnostics
- Dr. Eyal Zimlichman, Deputy Director General, Chief Medical Officer and Chief Innovation Officer at Sheba Medical Center
- Daniel Levner, Co-Founder and Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of Sight Diagnostics, following its $71 million funding news
- Oren Sarig, Diagnostic Robotics
- David Harel, Co-founder and President, Cytoreason
- Dr. Morris Laster, Managing Partner, OurCrowd Pandemic Innovation Fund
- Host: Jon Medved, CEO, OurCrowd
Click here or the button below to register.
Virtual Summit on US-India-Israel Relations:
Join me on Thursday, September 3rd when I will be speaking at the US-India-Israel Virtual Summit. Click here to register. The Summit, hosted by AJC’s Asia Pacific Institute in partnership with Indiaspora, the Sunday Guardian Foundation and the Global Indian-Jewish Relations Institute, will focus on trilateral partnerships in the strategic, technology and development arenas.
Job Vacancies
Despite the coronavirus pandemic, there are open positions at our global portfolio companies. See some opportunities below:
- Director of Finance for HoneyBook (USA)
- DevOps Lead for Scopio Labs (Israel)
- Senior Data Engineer for Brodmann17 (Israel)
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