Participated · Series C · Jan 2024

Bluewhite builds retrofittable autonomous robots sold as a robots-as-a-service offering that can operate existing tractors. It develops both hardware (branded Pathfinder) and a service/data stack (branded Compass) that use AI, computer vision, and big-data analytics to deliver autonomous operation and field insights. The system can be installed in one day as an "IKEA kit" at local service centers, and retrofitted tractors remain operable by humans when needed. Customers range from small family farms to 20 of the largest year-round permanent crop growers in the U.S., with strongest traction in California and Washington. Bluewhite's robots have cumulatively logged 50,000 hours of autonomous farming across 150,000 acres, and customers typically subscribe on five-year contracts. The company plans to invest the new funding into R&D for Compass and Pathfinder and to expand in current and new markets to address labor shortages and improve asset utilization. Blue White Robotics develops an autonomous farm platform that delivers Robots-as-a-Service (RaaS), retrofitting existing farming infrastructure with intelligent autonomous algorithms. Its robot tractors perform tasks including spraying, harvesting, disking, and seeding while improving productivity, precision, and worker safety. The platform collects and distributes operational data to create new services aimed at increasing yields and reducing inputs. The company says it will use the new funding to accelerate adoption, expand U.S. sales, and attract key talent for its international team. Blue White Robotics emphasizes values of "Fellowship, Love of the land, and Innovation" in its mission to revolutionize agriculture through autonomy. The company has received $50M of investment since its inception in 2017. Blue White Robotics provides an autonomy platform that integrates multiple robot types, including aerial drones, autonomous tractors, and driverless shuttles. Rather than building its own autonomy stack, the company focuses on "autonomy now," enabling customers to manage fleets of heterogeneous robots through a single platform and a management console designed for non-technical users such as farmers and hospital administrators. In agriculture the company sells after-market autonomy kits that let farmers put existing tractors onto its platform and supports large growers with aerial spraying for pollination and crop care. Blue White Robotics aims to complement other autonomous vehicle and drone companies by providing orchestration, data collection, and vendor/customer workflows rather than competing directly. The company has raised $10 million in funding and employs about 75 people. Its vehicles run autonomous shuttles at Bar Ilan University and Tel HasShomer Hospital and were used in 2020 to deliver COVID-19 equipment, samples, and tests.

Led · Series A · Jan 2023

myInterview is a Tel Aviv-based provider of asynchronous video interviewing software that uses AI to encourage candidates to express themselves and help hiring managers identify the best hires. The platform offers an automated, AI-augmented interviewing framework with team collaboration, workflow management, reporting, enterprise-grade security, and integrations with applicant tracking systems and other HR applications. Employers can leverage the solution to continually identify and attract qualified staff and reduce time-to-hire cycles by up to 70%. myInterview's platform is used by more than 10,000 companies, including 7-Eleven, Ocado, Facebook, Six Flags and Chick-fil-A. Led by co-CEOs Benjamin Gillman and Amalia Bercot, the company plans to use the funding to expand its product offering to meet growing demand from brands for recruiting solutions. The company recently raised $11M in a Series A round. myInterview is a video-based recruitment platform that allows candidates to upload video responses to prompted questions while giving recruiters transcripts and tagging to sort submissions. The platform includes myInterview Intelligence, machine-learning tools that analyze responses for keywords, phrases and tone and apply the Big Five Personality Model to generate shortlists. The company says it has been used by more than 2,000 companies, mostly in the United States and United Kingdom, and more than two million candidates have used the platform. Notable clients include Ocado, B&M and P&O Ferries; myInterview has worked with Facebook Career Connections and maintains a strategic partnership with reed.co.uk. Founded in 2016, the company started with products to integrate into existing recruitment systems and launched a standalone platform in early 2019. The startup plans to use new funding to expand its sales, product and research and development teams and aims to reach tens of millions of job seekers while working to mitigate bias via diverse training data and behavioral psychologist audits. myInterview provides a video-based recruitment platform that lets candidates attach video cover letters and complete video interviews to showcase personality and fit. The company plans to invest in machine-learning research to analyse videos for signals such as emotion and tone and to surface trends from successful candidate interviews. The platform is already used by employers including Pandora and Catch Group, and is also being adopted by insurance providers and universities. myInterview was launched in 2014 by Guy Abelsohn and Benjamin Gillman (Gillman is now based in Tel Aviv). The startup recently raised $1.6 million to fund expansion in the UK and US and to support its R&D roadmap. Leadership says the product aims to reduce unconscious bias from written resumes and help recruiters select better candidates more quickly and cost-effectively.

Participated · Series A · May 2019

Aleph Farms grows beef steaks from non‑genetically engineered cells isolated from a living cow, producing whole cuts without harming animals. The company released the world’s first cultivated steak in December 2018 and a cultivated ribeye in 2021. Co‑founded in 2017 by Didier Toubia, The Kitchen Hub of the Strauss Group, and Professor Shulamit Levenberg, Aleph Farms is headquartered in Israel. Its global investor network includes L Catterton, DisruptAD (ADQ), BRF, Thai Union and Cargill, and it recently announced an investment from Leonardo DiCaprio, who joined its advisory board. They cite an independent Life Cycle Analysis projecting cultivated beef could reduce climate impact by 92%, air pollution by 93%, use 95% less land and 78% less water versus industrial beef production. Aleph Farms positions its product to deliver familiar meat qualities while eliminating antibiotics and reducing risks of pathogens through an automated, sterile manufacturing process. Aleph Farms grows beef steaks from non-genetically engineered cells isolated from a living cow, producing meat without harming animals and with a reduced environmental impact. The company was co-founded in 2017 by Didier Toubia, The Kitchen Hub of the Strauss Group, and Professor Shulamit Levenberg from the Technion. Aleph is based in Rehovot, Israel. It raised $105M in a Series B to scale up manufacturing and expand operations internationally ahead of an initial market launch planned for 2022. Near-term milestones include scaling up manufacturing, growing operations internationally, and expanding its product lines and technology platform. The company is working with regulatory agencies on its plans for market entry. Aleph Farms produces real meat cuts grown from cow cells and operates a slaughter-free process to make steaks in large, clean bio-farm facilities similar to dairy operations. Its non-GMO technology, co-developed with Professor Shulamit Levenberg of the Technion, isolates the cells responsible for muscle regeneration and grows them outside the animal to form the same muscle tissue typical of steaks. The company intends to use recent funding to accelerate product development and to transform its prototype into a commercial product. Aleph was co-founded by The Kitchen Hub and Didier Toubia, who serves as CEO. The company is based in Ashdod, Israel and has positioned its platform for scale-up in controlled bio-farm environments.

Participated · Equity · Oct 2015

Jifiti provides an ecommerce gift checkout that lets shoppers send any item as a gift without knowing a shipping address or selecting product details, and a gift registry platform with mobile apps, web and in-store kiosks. Its gift checkout enables recipients to make purchase decisions when redeeming gifts online or in-store and supports sending gifts from retailers via non-commerce websites. The company’s solutions have been implemented by clients such as IKEA, DreamWorks Animation, Sears and Evite, and it counts over a hundred retail partners including Barnes & Noble, Nike, Toys R Us, Gap and Amazon. Jifiti is led by co-founder and CEO Yaacov Martin and co-founder/CMO Shaul Weisband. The company recently raised $3.3M and has raised $7.1M to date; it intends to use the funds to grow teams in the US and Israel and expand retailer and platform partnerships. Jifiti also announced a strategic partnership with Evite to enable sending gifts directly from the Evite platform. Jifiti’s flagship consumer app lets shoppers pick an item in a brick-and-mortar store, scan its barcode to “purchase” it, and notify the recipient who redeems the gift in-store. Recipients can pick up the exact item, swap sizes or colors, or choose something different; Jifiti issues prepaid codes via a partnership with MasterCard to enable redemption. The company has begun white-labeling its technology for retailers, launching a branded IKEA Portland Gift Registry app that allows scanning, item-number entry from the catalog, browsing, and group contributions toward larger purchases. The IKEA Portland experience is a test and is available now on iOS and Android. Jifiti is also pursuing other white-label projects (Sabon in New York is testing a “Gift It” button on its site). The startup says the additional funding will support the IKEA registry and further white-label efforts for larger retailers. Jifiti’s mobile app lets users scan a product barcode in-store (or select online), purchase it as a gift, and send a virtual gift card that recipients redeem in-store or online for preferred size, color, or other items. The service integrates with retailers’ own gift-card systems and aims to reintroduce thoughtful, browse-driven gifting while removing wrapping, shipping, and sizing hassles. Jifiti currently works with about 25 retailers, with another seven nearly ready to go live. Prior to this round the company had only a small amount of friends-and-family pre-seed funding, and co-founder Shaul Weisband ballparked adoption at “tens of thousands.” With the new funding the company plans product initiatives to convert physical items into digital purchases and to increase visibility and adoption on mobile and online channels. Jifiti is based in Columbus, Ohio.

Participated · Series A · May 2013

Happy Cloud is a cloud-computing company that delivers streaming games to PC, console and Android game publishers. Founded in 2009 and based in New York City, the company is led by newly named CEO Tamir Buchler. Its core product centers on streaming games via cloud infrastructure and a planned games-on-demand offering. The company intends to use proceeds from its recent fundraise to grow the team and launch that games-on-demand service. Financially, Happy Cloud completed a Series A funding round to support its next-stage product and team expansion. The company’s technology targets game publishers seeking to distribute streaming titles across multiple platforms.