Tag: corporate innovation

5 Trends in AI Making an Impact

5 Trends in AI Making an Impact

Jul 2, 2019 | ,

From drones delivering medication to rural clinics to smart sensors helping farmers save water, here are the ways artificial intelligence is effecting positive change in the world Throughout time, depictions of Artificial Intelligence have inspired mixed feelings, driving us to wonder if we truly want intelligent systems in our lives. An evil swarm of robot soldiers set out to destroy humanity (“SKYNET” from Terminator): BAD. A robot that takes care of all of our household needs (“Rosie” from the Jetsons): GOOD. Waking up after getting married only to find out your better half is a robot (“Fembots” from Austin Powers): BAD. A genius sidekick to help your fleet at all times (“Data” from Star Trek): GOOD. The systems we have created in our imagined world showcase our love-hate relationship with the concept of intelligent machines. But what once existed only in fantasies is quickly being catapulted into the vanguard of our very existence — from unprecedented disaster response and major revolutions in agriculture, to drastic increases in the accessibility of healthcare and mobility. Due to the advent of cloud...

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In the News: Big news from 3 brilliant startups

In the News: Big news from 3 brilliant startups

May 19, 2019 | ,

Congrats to Hailo on the launch of Hailo-8, their deep learning processor for edge devices. MultiVu raised a $7M seed round for its next-gen 3D sensor, led by OurCrowd, Cardumen Capital and Hong Kong-based Junson Capital. In other big news, Zebra Medical Vision received FDA approval for the world’s first AI chest X-ray triage product.  Startup Nation and beyond Including insights from myself and others: India & Israel – The New Tech Frontiers. Check out Venture Capital Journal: OurCrowd, Israel’s most active investor, blends VC and crowdfunding model.  With a second WannaCry looming, more than half of industrial sites are vulnerable. How do we avoid it? See it in Forbes. Top tech news this week Agriculture…Machine vision is the newest weapon against crop loss, featuring Taranis. Healthcare…Surgical Theater Wows at the Milken Institute Global Conference. Enterprise Software…Nike Unveils ‘A Game-Changing Innovation’: A Fit Feature To Fix Shoe Sizing Online And In-Store, featuring Invertex. News from the Industry  The world’s aging population is larger than ever before and growing. Can the ailments of old age become a thing of the past due to the rise of groundbreaking technology? New Tech Tackles Old Age:...

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Honing Harvest: With CropX, this farmer can water crops with precision

Honing Harvest: With CropX, this farmer can water crops with precision

May 7, 2019 | , ,

The hardest thing was to see what the results were two days after you watered, to see if you were leaching things down or if you were actually applying enough. Born and raised in Colorado, Kendall Nye has been farming as long as he can remember. One of the greatest challenges is determining when and how much to water crops without a real-time indication of the plants’ needs. Founded in 2015, Israel-based CropX developed an integrated hardware and software system for measuring soil moisture, temperature and conductivity. The CropX device scans fields and sends that collected data to the cloud where it can be accessed by the farmer, providing optimal irrigation suggestions. Precisely watering crops according to their needs allows farmers to increase yield while substantially decreasing water usage.  “CropX has given confirmation into what you have done 48 hours previously now,” Kendall says. “[It] gives me more confidence in our watering techniques.”  Through widespread use of its sensors, CropX intends to collect the world’s largest database of soil data, allowing the technology’s advanced algorithm to analyze network effects in the soil, further optimizing productivity and efficient use of resources. Tomer Tzach, the company’s...

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Can Startups Fix Broken Accounts?

Can Startups Fix Broken Accounts?

Mar 31, 2019 | ,

Below is an excerpt from OurCrowd’s Q1 Innovation Insider, which you can download here. Life without banking and credit cards in 2019 can feel like a real stretch of the imagination, but for many across the globe — from the developing world to the United States — it is very real. No credit score means no financial history. No financial history means no lease. No lease means no mortgage, ever. No credit card means no e-commerce. No bank account means high fees for every cash checked. The obstacles go on and on. As the saying goes, it is expensive to be poor. The unbanked and underbanked are people who mostly use cash because they either do not have access to banking services or choose to steer clear of them. These groups are composed of all kinds of people. There are nearly 1.7 billion people in the world who are unbanked, or 31% of adults. Most of this group is found in the developing world, where many adults have limited access to smartphones, computers, or internet connections and thus often...

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In the News: Nearly $800M raised by Israeli food, agtech startups over 5 years

In the News: Nearly $800M raised by Israeli food, agtech startups over 5 years

Mar 25, 2019 |

Did you know: About 19,000 farmers in eight countries use the Taranis imaging and analysis platform to help prevent disease and pest infestation in major crop groups? Israeli food and agtech startups have raised close to $800M over 5 years. Impact investing is a big theme for us this year, and we are pleased to share our latest edition of OurCrowd’s Innovation Insider, where you can read up on ‘impactful’ insights from our analysts and members of our Corporate Innovation Program. Download your copy here.  Startup Nation and beyond BOL Pharma ranks among the world’s largest medical cannabis GMP production, research and development facilities and clinical trials hubs: Medical Cannabis is the Future of Medicine & Israel is Racing Ahead. Cancer Treatment Company HIL to Set Up $5 Million Jerusalem Manufacture Center, where it intends to manufacture its first beta units. Top tech news this week  Consumer Software…data.world Announces Enterprise-Grade Modern Catalog for Data and Analysis. Healthcare…‘Making a little sugar feel like plenty’, featuring DouxMatok. Consumer Hardware…Precision Agriculture Could Start Second Green Revolution, featuring Consumer Physics. News from the Industry  For centuries, paraplegics – like Israeli software engineer Adir...

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