8 FINALISTS CHOSEN FOR ISRAELI SEMIFINALS OF GIA16

Eight Israeli startups were chosen from amongst 140 companies to compete for the opportunity to represent Israel at the finals of the Global Innovation Awards 2016 in Beijing this August.

At the Israel event this Monday, June 20th, the companies will vie for a chance to compete against startups from the U.S., Europe and China for prizes worth $1.5M cash (prize money, not equity investment), the opportunity for investment from a fund established by the Shengjing Group specially for the competition, and exposure for their technological solutions from investors and leading companies from China and throughout the world.

 

This 2nd annual Global Innovation Awards were established by leading Chinese management consulting firm Shengjing Group and are taking place in China, the U.S., Europe, and Israel. The Israel segment of the competition is being led by internationally recognized VC firm JVP. Local competition partners include global technology corporations with strong footholds in Israel and other leading Israeli firms including EMC, Microsoft Accelerator, Poalim Hi-Tech, EY Israel, HFN, Nautilus by Aol and PR Newswire.

 

JVP launched the Israel stage of the competition in March this year. 140 Israeli startups entered the Israel stage of the global competition from a wide variety of fields. Eight were chosen for the semifinal competition by judges from amongst the leaders in the Israeli hi-tech ecosystem.

According to JVP Partner and competition judge Yoav Tzruya: “In contrast to last year’s competition, we are seeing a wider variety of topics addressed, as well as startups with much stronger motivation and solid plans to penetrate the Chinese market. Many of these companies presented developed business strategies and increased awareness of the potential for Israeli innovation in the Chinese and other Asian markets, and not just as a source of capital. This is due to increased activity of Chinese players in Israel, and due to the impressive achievements of last year’s Israeli finalists, which gained real value from their achievements in the competition – a dramatic rise in fundraising, new clients and exposure. We’re also seeing a number of companies with solutions based on academic research, and it is certainly encouraging to see the depth of these companies’ technologies.”

This year, a wide variety of startups participated in the competition from a number of different sectors, including FinTech, Pharma, Medical Devices, Healthcare IT, Enterprise Software, Internet, Media, IoT and more.

The eight semifinalists include:

Boomerang is developing a genetic device for cancer therapy based on a concept of a logic AND gate: the activation of our CRISPR-based system is dependent on the existence of two cancer-specific markers inside the cell, promising an extremely specific treatment. Using advanced gene editing tools, our system is able to effectively eliminate cancer cells by activating suicide genes. Moreover, our system can be potentially designed according to the genetics of each patient’s tumor, paving the way to personalized medicine.

PayKey’s first of its kind secured payment keyboard makes everyday banking easier and more efficient than ever before. PayKey’s technology puts banks where their customers are – on social networks (Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, WeChat, Twitter etc.). By extending the mobile banking functionality into the social arena, banks increase usage of mobile application, secure P2P transactions, and enhance the brand’s value. With PayKey, users can split bills, buy gifts together, share taxi fare, and settle IOU’s, right from the device keyboard.

GreenIQ, the leader of the smart garden revolution, developed an IoT platform for efficient landscape irrigation. The platform controls irrigation scheduling based on current and forecasted weather, and saves up to 50% on the garden’s water consumption. At the endpoint of the system there is a Smart Garden Hub that connects to the internet via Wi-Fi or 3G and can be controlled from anywhere, at any time, using an app. GreenIQ’s IoT platform enables connectivity to soil sensors for moisture balance control and to a flow meter that provides leaks and pipe break alerts. GreenIQ is the perfect solution for homeowners, professional landscapers, irrigation companies, commercial real estate, and municipalities.

Yoobic is a mobile productivity solution helping brands collaborate more effectively with retail stores in order to improve the in-store shopping experience and increase revenue. Whether you are a Brand or a Retailer, YOOBIC’s dedicated mobile app empowers you to monitor exactly how items are displayed in retail spaces. Brands can collaborate seamlessly with Retail Stores in order to track the pricing, placement and promotion of their products. YOOBIC captures real-time merchandising and operational data to ensure a perfect in-store execution.

 

Techsomed develops a real-time monitoring system for thermal ablation procedures for such fields as oncology, cardiology and hypertension. Thermal ablations suffer from high rate of treatment failures and life threatening complications, since the physician cannot tell in real-time which tissue is dead or alive, performing the treatment effectively blind. Our technology, for the first time, can monitor and control the ablation. We achieve this by tracking, via 3D ultrasound, the tissues’ biological response to heating, thus making ablation precise and safe.

Imagry is a machine learning startup that has developed an image-recognition engine containing 30,000 categories as well as a video multi-object detector that can be embedded in any device. Imagry employs state-of-the-art technology in Deep Learning and has invented techniques to scale image recognition while at the same time keeping the computational footprint very low. Imagry’s product solves the major issue of making data locked in endless amounts of images and videos accessible. By empowering any device with the ability to automatically understand and utilize the significant content and data contained in images and videos, a wide variety of businesses (such as: IOT, wearables, media, smart devices and Homeland Security) are able to build a new generation of smart products.

NiniSpeech revolutionizes speech therapy using unique mobile technologies. Speech therapy is a $30B annual industry, still acting in traditional manual fashion, resulting in very poor outcome – 84% relapse rate in stuttering therapy. NiNiSpeech offers the first of its kind digital solution that boosts the therapist’s and patients’ experience, maximizes outcome, and reduces costs. The NiNiSpeech system is used in top clinics around the world and is endorsed by key opinion leaders. NiNiSpeech has won prestigious awards in the USA, Europe and China for its novel disruptive products.

Aerial Guardis a software company that develops advanced autonomous navigation systems for unmanned vehicles. We target the civilian drone industry and help drone manufacturers to automate their drones by providing them with autonomous capabilities such as sense and avoid and intelligent navigation in compliance with the drone mission.

Join us for the Semi-Finals. RSVP here!

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