WINNERS OF THE GIA ISRAELI SEMI-FINALS

Jerusalem, Israel. Beijing, China. July 1st, 2015 – The three Israeli startups chosen to represent Israel at the finals of the Shengjing Global Innovation Awards 2015 in Beijing this August are Wayerz, DiaCardio, SecuriThings.

The winners will compete against startups from the U.S., Europe and China for prizes worth $1.5M (without equity), the opportunity for investment from a special $25M fund established by the Shengjing Group especially for the competition, and exposure for their technological solutions from investors and leading companies from China and throughout the world.

The Beijing finals will be part of the Zhongguancun International Entrepreneur Festival. The finalists are expected to go on a road show which will include meetings with Chinese tech giants such as Alibaba, Baidu and Xiaomi. The road show will receive extensive coverage from CCTV, China’s national TV network.

The Global Innovation Awards were established by leading Chinese management consulting firm Shengjing Group and are taking place in China, the U.S., Europe, Latin America and Israel. The Israel segment of the competition was led by internationally recognized VC firm JVP. JVP’s local competition partners include global technology corporations with strong footholds in Israel such as EMC and Deutsche Telecom, leading Israeli academic institutions such as the Hebrew University’s Technology Transfer Company Yissum and IDC Executive Education as well as international accounting firm PwC, the Herzog Fox & Neeman Law Firm (HFN) and media partners PR Newswire. 
JVP launched the Israel stage of the competition in February to unprecedented interest. 180 Israeli startups entered the Israel stage of the global competition. Nine made it to the semifinal competition:
1. SecuriThings is an IoT Security Platform, which easily integrates with IoT manufacturers and platforms to protect against illegal access to devices.
2. DiACardio, a software company, revolutionizes the practice of “Echocardiography” (Ultrasound of the heart). The Company develops unique and innovative algorithms, which evaluate fast, accurately and automatically the function of the heart.
3. Engie is a mobile app that connects to the car computer, tracks the car condition, diagnoses malfunctions and offers real-time bids from mechanics nearby.
4. FabriXense introduces a novel approach for biomedical monitoring of a person incorporated into smart clothing.
5. Genoox is a big data platform for analyzing and managing genetic data in the cloud.
6. PayBox is a social payment network that simplifies the process of group payments.
7. TinyTap is a social platform which empowers families, teachers and students to learn from each other by creating their own personalized learning apps and playing thousands of new ones shared daily by a worldwide community of educators and learners worldwide.
8. TrenDemon is the leading content marketing automation and customer journey analytics platform.
9. Wayerz provides an integrated platform that optimizes international wiring, correspondent inter-bank reporting, and reconciliation.
Startups in the competition came from the areas of Big Data & Data Science, Internet & Mobile, Enterprise Software, Cyber-security, Storage, FinTech, IoT – Internet of Things, Wearable Computing and Digital Health.
“The competition is part of a new strategic cooperation between JVP and Shengjing to promote investment in Israeli startups and to promote Israeli startups in the Chinese market,” said JVP Managing Partner Kobi Rozengarten. “Israel creates leading companies in technological development and innovation, and that is exactly what the Chinese are looking for. The Israeli finalists come from areas in which Israel is considered a world leader. I wish them much luck and am sure they will make us proud.”
“The Israeli market is of great interest to us,” said Sherrie Wang, Senior Partner at Shengjing. “We have invested $50 million in Israel already and we are only beginning. This competition is very important for us because it connects us directly to the Israeli startup industry and brings the startups directly to China. The Awards offer the biggest prizes ever in a startup competition. Our global prize has grown, reaching $25 million. Many Chinese investors joined in on the initiative after hearing that Israeli startups would be coming to China. Opportunities for these Israelis in China are enormous and we will open doors for them.”
Among the participants in the event in which the Israeli finalists were chosen:
Mr. Han Jun, Science & Technology Counselor of Chinese Embassy to Israel. Jun emphasized that trade between Israel and China stands at $10.8 Billion and that China is Israel’s largest trading partner in Asia. According to Jun, “In China, they are interested in investing a great deal of money and resources into the kind of innovation that Israel has been blessed with. The connection between China and Israel is a recipe for success.”
Knesset Member Dr. Erel Margalit, Founder of JVP and Chairman of the Israel-China Parliamentary Friendship Group. Margalit said: “This past year represented the peak of Israel-China relations, in which the Governments of China and Israel signed agreements in trade and scientific and technological development between the two countries, with a strong emphasis on the world of hi-tech. Now is the time to realize the vision of both governments, via the private sector and the entrepreneurs themselves. I believe that next year will see enormous development in the significance of China to Israel, both economically and politically.”
Also participating were: Xueling Cao, Director at Shengjing, Raffi Kesten and Gadi Tirosh, Managing Partners at JVP; JVP Partners Yoav Tzruya, Fiona Darmon, Uri Adoni, and Nimrod KozlovskiDr. Orna Berry, Corporate VP at EMC; Guy Horowitz, Vice President Business Development & Managing Director Deutsche Telekom BD & Venturing LTD, Tamir Huberman, VP, Head of Business Development Computer Science & Director of IT, Yissum; Eitan Glazer, Partner, Energy & Cleantech Leader PwC Israel; Attn. Ronen Hausirer, Partner, HFN Law Firm; and Dr. Yossi Maaravi, Adelson School of Entrepreneurship at IDC Herzliya.

The Three Finalists that Will Represent Israel in the Beijing Finals:

1. SecuriThings is an IoT Security Platform, which easily integrates with IoT manufacturers and platforms to protect against illegal access to devices. SecuriThings mitigates attacks by seamlessly assessing IoT activities in real time, while providing manufacturers and service providers a holistic view of threats across identities and devices. www.securithings.com

  1. DiaCardio, a Software company, revolutionizes the practice of “Echocardiography” (Ultrasound of the heart). The Company develops unique and innovative algorithms, which evaluate fast, accurately and automatically the function of the heart. DiaCardio’s software can be easily integrated into any Echocardiographic device. The software is FDA cleared and CE approved and initial sales have been obtained.www.diacardio.com
  2. Wayerzprovides an integrated platform that optimizes international wiring, correspondent inter-bank reporting, and reconciliation. Our multi-solution platform focuses on improvement of productivity and automation of bank-to-bank systems, transactions and interfaces; increasing the real-time control and transparency of FI relationships.By tracking global wiring schedules and statistics in real time, our technology enables banks and their corporate clients to choose the optimum route for every wire – based on wiring cost, wiring time, restrictions, and additional considerations.www.wayerz.com
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