• Dragonera

  Led · Seed · Dec 2016

  Dragonera provides an AI-based end-to-end software development service that assembles pre-existing microservices and applies AI to deliver prototypes through to production. The platform leverages reusable microservices to cover up to 70% of a final product, with remaining work handled by Dragonera’s designer and developer network. Clients receive a cost-and-timeline proposal within 24 hours, and fully functional products are delivered in 14–45 days. Services start at a few thousand dollars for an MVP, targeting significant reductions in time-to-market and development cost. The company plans to use new funding to accelerate rollout of its automated development service into new markets. Dragonera was founded in 2016 and is based in Tel Aviv, Israel.

• Zirra

  Participated · Equity · Oct 2016

  Zirra uses proprietary AI to evaluate startups by aggregating data across as many as 80 parameters (team quality, media momentum, funding gaps, etc.) and calibrating results with qualitative input from a network of domain experts. Its outputs include estimated valuations, competitor lists, estimated time to exit, risk and success factors, and ratings for team, product, momentum, and execution. The company sells Startup Spotlight Reports for investors and entrepreneurs, a version for job seekers, deeper bespoke reports, and plans to launch an on-demand chatbot. Zirra serves several dozens of institutional clients in Israel and the United States and employs around 15 people. The company reported a self-stated valuation of $6 million and has raised $2.5 million to date.

• Beyond Verbal

  Participated · Series A · Sep 2016

  Beyond Verbal develops analytics technology that infers emotions, well-being, and health conditions from the human voice. Founded in 2012 and led by CEO Yuval Mor, the company builds on more than two decades of research by Chief Science Officer Dr. Levanon. Its technology has applications in improving call-center effectiveness, quantifying emotions for market research, and tracking health conditions over time. Beyond Verbal has ongoing studies and collaborations with the Mayo Clinic, the University of Chicago, Scripps, and Hadassah Medical Center. The company intends to use new funding for continued R&D in the health and wellness space and to commercialize its emotions analytics technology. Beyond Verbal is a Tel Aviv–based provider of an emotions analytics platform that analyzes voice to infer emotional states and character traits. Led by CEO Yuval Mor, the company has developed patented technology that extracts an individual’s emotions and character traits from raw voice in real time as they speak. It has launched a cloud-based Wellness API for developers of wellness and fitness solutions to create emotionally aware apps, devices, and services. The API turns a smartphone, microphone-equipped wearable, or app into a sensor that discovers and tracks emotional wellbeing over time and in correlation with lifestyle activities and events. Beyond Verbal raised an additional $3.3M in funding, bringing total capital raised to more than $7M, and planned to make the API available at the end of the month. The round was led by Winnovation and SingulariTeam. Beyond Verbal Communication develops software that analyzes vocal signals to detect emotions, enabling emotion analytics for call centers, automotive safety, hiring and voice applications. Led by CEO Yuval Mor and based in Tel Aviv, the company’s technology currently supports 26 languages. It has 12 employees and provides examples such as identifying whether a customer is happy or tense, whether a driver is distracted or drunk, or whether a job candidate is confident or insecure. The company plans to use new funding to advance research and development and expand marketing within the nascent voice-technology market. Beyond Verbal intends to generate revenue by offering an API to voice-technology developers, licensing its technology to larger telecommunications and advertising players, and developing and selling voice-controlled or voice-sensing apps of its own. The company previously raised a round in May from Genesis Angels and Kenges Rakishev. Beyond Verbal builds voice-recognition software that decodes emotions by analyzing vocal range and intonation rather than just words. Its algorithms claim to detect emotions and nuances such as anger, anxiety, happiness and satisfaction, and to infer mood, attitude and decision-making characteristics. The company offers its technology as a cloud-based, API-style licensed service and provides analytics and diagnostics to help customers track detected emotions. Potential applications cited include customer service quality monitoring, games, dating services and personal assistants. Beyond Verbal positions itself against players like Nuance and competitors such as Affectiva and Nice, arguing its focus on intonation provides a richer emotional signal. The startup has not yet announced customers, though the CEO said a first customer was likely in the next few weeks.

• Sirin Labs

  Participated · Seed · Apr 2016

  Sirin Labs develops FINNEY, an open-source smart device (PC and smartphone) designed to run on an independent blockchain network and enable fast, fee-less peer payments. FINNEY devices include a cold storage crypto wallet compatible with common cryptocurrencies. The company says the devices use a distributed ledger consensus mechanism that avoids mining fees. Sirin Labs closed a large crowdsale to fund its plans and will use proceeds to increase production and invest in sales and marketing. The business is led by Founder & Co-CEO Moshe Hogeg and Chairman Kenges Rakishev. The company is described as Swiss-Israeli. Sirin Labs is developing a next-generation mobile phone that emphasizes privacy and global connectivity. Founded in 2012 by Moshe Hogeg and based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, the company builds technology with support from R&D teams working from a facility in Tel Aviv. It currently employs over 100 R&D experts across Sweden, Israel and the United States. Sirin plans to launch its first smartphone and open a flagship store in London in May 2016, and is using its financing to continue bringing that device to market. Tal Cohen serves as CEO and the broader leadership team includes VPs overseeing R&D, operations, finance, services and HR. Financially, the company launched with a $72 million VC round raised in November 2013.

• StoreDot

  Participated · Equity · Aug 2015

  StoreDot develops extreme fast-charging (XFC) battery cells and proprietary organic and inorganic compounds that enable full EV charging in about five minutes. The company is shipping cell samples for real-world testing by leading automotive manufacturers and is in advanced talks for integration of its XFC technology into future models. StoreDot is advancing a technology roadmap that includes silicon-dominant XFC cells targeted for mass production in 2024 and extreme energy density (XED) solid-state cells planned for future deployment. The company plans to use new capital to complete R&D and scale up mass production of silicon-dominant XFC cells and to continue progress on XED solid-state cells. Funding will also support ramping StoreDot’s California-based R&D center and commencing scale-up operations in key global locations ahead of full mass production. StoreDot is a Herzeliya, Israel-based nanotechnology company that develops lithium-ion, ultra-fast charging energy-storage technologies for mobile and industrial markets. Led by Co-Founder and CEO Dr. Doron Myersdorf, the company has developed "flash" battery technology intended to enable charging experiences comparable to refueling, targeting a five-minute EV charge. Using this lithium-ion platform, StoreDot is developing a new type of electric-car battery to support next-generation ultra-fast EV charging infrastructure. The company expected first sales of its flash batteries for mobile devices as early as 2019. StoreDot is advancing commercialization and ecosystem partnerships alongside strategic investors to accelerate its product rollout and EV plans. StoreDot is developing a new generation of quick-charging batteries that it says can charge phones and vehicles in five minutes or less by redesigning the anode, cathode, charge transfer and separator. The company combines novel organic and inorganic nanomaterials and holds roughly 50 patents around its technology. StoreDot has not yet commercialized products; it expects mobile batteries to come to market first and for Daimler trucks to be the first vehicle deployment around 2020. Regulatory approvals and new charging standards remain outstanding challenges the company is actively engaging on. StoreDot says the primary remaining risk is execution rather than R&D. The company is led by CEO and co-founder Doron Myersdorf and is based in Israel. StoreDot Ltd. is a Tel Aviv–based specialty materials innovator developing proprietary FlashBattery technology. The company says its FlashBattery can enable electric vehicles to fully charge in five minutes. StoreDot plans to perfect the battery and to develop a powerful charging station, a fast-charging standard, and an integrated FlashBattery management system. The new funding will support creation and commercialization of a dedicated Electric Vehicle business unit, including hiring and additional laboratory space, and aims to build an instantly-charging car prototype. StoreDot originally developed the FlashBattery technology for the smartphone domain and is extending it to the EV market. Financially, the company announced an $18 million financing for the EV unit, bringing total funding to date to $66 million. StoreDot develops bio-organic nano-crystal and quantum-dot technologies aimed at enabling ultra fast-charging smartphone batteries and other electronics. The company demonstrated a prototype that charged from flat to full in 30 seconds, though that prototype used a less-than-full-capacity, oversized cell. Commercialization requires adapting the chemistry and packaging to a full-capacity battery that fits inside a standard smartphone; StoreDot says a fully functioning in-phone prototype will be ready in the second half of 2016 and on the market in early 2017. The company also plans hires and development of additional products using its nano-crystal tech, including BioLED displays, superfast Flash memory and bio-lasers, and is exploring “nano-medicine” use cases such as drug delivery and bio-labeling. StoreDot was spun out of Alzheimer’s research at Tel Aviv University and has positioned its materials as cheaper, non-toxic alternatives for electronics. It closed a $42 million Series B to fund commercialization and continued product development.

No current team members are available.