Archive For The “Israeli Tech” Category
An Israeli-made AI-powered robot assistant is being used in hundreds of hospitals, medical centers, nursing homes, and corporate buildings in Asia to help minimize human-to-human contact as millions of people take precautions due to the novel coronavirus outbreak worldwide.
Israeli startup Robotemi, the developer of the Temi robot assistant, says the product has already been distributed to hundreds of locations throughout Southeast Asia including China, Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong. The Temi was initially conceived as a companion to senior citizens and busy families and executives and was not specifically intended to help with a virus outbreak but that is exactly what is happening, the Israeli company says.
This article was originally posted by NoCamels.com. See Featured article: Artificial Intelligence.
The Temi, which the company calls the world’s first intelligent personal AI robot, is a mobile, smart-display assistant, featuring human-robot interaction capabilities and characteristics. Standing at three feet tall and featuring a 10-inch tablet for a head and thin, curved body on top of a base, the Temi can roll on four small wheels for as much as eight hours on battery power. It connects over Wi-Fi, LTE, and Bluetooth has a built-in sound system and can be used with Amazon’s Alexa technology. It also has an autonomous navigation system that allows it to move around on its own while avoiding obstacles.
As the novel coronavirus began spreading starting in late December, the Robotemi team, which is headquartered in New York with an R&D lab in Tel Aviv and a manufacturing location in Shenzhen (China), decided to add special features to the robot including a thermometer, a thermal camera, and even a sink attached to the machine where employees can wash their hands.
“In China, there are regulations currently in place where an employee arriving at the office must get his body temperature before continuing his day. Temi is standing at the front door waiting for him,” Goren explained, “There is a thermometer installed on top of the robot. It can measure the employee’s temperature and show the number on its screen.”
This is not only done in places of work, he explained. It can be integrated wherever there is a Temi, like in hotels, stores, and restaurants.
As the novel coronavirus continues to spread across the world, with infections confirmed in over 60 countries, large conferences and events are being canceled and more people are avoiding large crowds and gatherings for fear of contracting the virus. France went as far as banning all indoor gatherings of more than 5,000 people over the weekend, and countries across the globe are updating travel restrictions as the US and Australia recorded their first death from the virus. The future of the 2020 summer Olympics in Japan is also in question.
As of March 1, over 2,900 people have died after contracting the virus,
known as 2019-nCoV and which causes COVID-19, and over 85,000 have been infected globally, with a majority in China. South Korea, Italy, and Iran are also recording a growing number of confirmed coronavirus cases.
Thousands of people are in either hospitalized quarantine or home isolation as international health officials try to get a handle on the spread. In China, authorities locked down major parts of Hubei province – home to over 50 million people – where the outbreak was first recorded in the city of Wuhan.
While global travel restrictions are still being heavily enforced, others are cautiously leaving quarantine and heading back to work — but not without emergency measures in place to reduce the risk of exposure.
“Many businesses and offices already have Temi but now it is being used for specific purposes related to coronavirus,” Goren says.
This article was originally posted by NoCamels.com. See Featured article: Artificial Intelligence.
Diane Israel is a Chicago native and long-time supporter and advocate of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). She is also famous for her culinary recipes. Diane can be reached at Diane@IsraelOnIsrael.com
Tel Aviv-Yafo will be one of the most popular urban destinations in the world by 2030 if everything goes according to the municipality’s long-term tourism strategic plan.
On the heels of a powerful year for tourism in 2019, the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality recently unveiled a “Master Plan” detailing the city’s needs to make it a top holiday destination: better branding, an upgraded tourism infrastructure, more accommodation options, and efficient, integrative management.
This article was originally posted by NoCamels.com. See Featured article: Artificial Intelligence.
“The work on the Master Plan included an in-depth examination and analysis of the city from a tourism perspective. We carefully assessed our assets and advantages but were also unwavering in confronting the challenges and flaws,” said Eytan Schwartz, director of media and communications at the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality.
According to the Master Plan document, Tel Aviv said tourists have complained most about the high prices, the traffic jams and the lack of an efficient transportation system, the lack of affordable lodging, and the general uncleanliness of public spaces.
The goal is to focus on improving these aspects and focus on developing the more distinct and unique offerings.
Schwartz said Tel Aviv’s “unique DNA” as a tourist destination “rests on three pillars: the ancient city – Old Jaffa – which is our main attraction; the new city – Tel Aviv – which is characterized by phenomenal urban vitality; and, of course, the beach – with its extraordinary qualities.”
Indeed, for its 20 Destinations for 2020, Forbes magazine hailed Tel Aviv as a place where “ancient history and modern living meet in the bustling beach city along Israel’s Mediterranean coast.”
Of course, Forbes was just one of dozens of travel magazines and media sites the world over to splatter superlatives on Tel Aviv’s vibe and appeal as a tourist destination. The Washington Post chose Tel Aviv to be its first Israeli city included in its local guide series. The BBC’s Good Food magazine chose the city-by-the-sea as one of its top 10 destinations for foodies in 2020. And Google ranked Tel Aviv among its top trending destinations worldwide this year.
In addition to all these accolades, Tel Aviv snagged the spotlight in 2019 when it hosted the Eurovision Song Contest, which was the largest international event ever held in the city in its 110 years of existence.
Diane Israel is a Chicago native and long-time supporter and advocate of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). She is also famous for her culinary recipes. Diane can be reached at Diane@IsraelOnIsrael.com
Israel slipped to 6th place in the newest Bloomberg Innovation Index of 2020, dropping one spot from last year’s index where Israel ranked 5th. Prior to 2019, the country ranked 10th for two consecutive years.
Israel maintained its top spot for research and development intensity for the third year in a row in the 2020 index. But it dropped to second place for researcher concentration, where it held the top spot last year. Israel placed fifth for high-tech density and seventh for patent activity. The country ranked in the 15th spot for productivity and 31st for value-added manufacturing.
This article was originally posted by NoCamels.com. See Featured article: Artificial Intelligence.
The Bloomberg Innovation Index ranks the world’s 60 most innovative countries using seven criteria including research and development expenditure as a percentage of GDP, productivity, patent activity, concentration of researchers, including postgraduate PhD students, engaged in R&D per one million people, and concentration of high-tech companies.
While dropping to sixth place in the overall survey, Israel overtook Finland which was third in 2019. It was just one spot below Sweden, which was in seventh place last year and in fifth place this year. South Korea, the country that held the top spot in the index for the last six years, was ousted by Germany, who took first place. The US, which had fallen out of the top 10 in 2018, was in the ninth spot this year, dropping from eighth place in 2019.
Singapore came in third, up from 6th place last year, while Switzerland retained fourth place in the rankings.
Israel once again beat South Korea in the R&D intensity category as it did in 2019, which means it took first place in R&D expenditure as a percentage of GDP. First place in researcher concentration — or professionals engaged in R&D per population — went to Denmark for the second year in a row. It also took the top spot in 2019.
While Israel made a significant jump in patent activity in 2019, surging from the 19th spot from the previous year, it slipped in its number of patent filings this year to seventh place. In high-tech density, the number of locally domiciled high-tech companies, Israel retained its fifth spot for the third consecutive year. Israel once again improved its tertiary education efficiency ranking, measuring the share of new science and engineering graduates in the labor force and those enrolled in a post-secondary education program. The country took 31st place this year, moving up from 36th in 2019 and 41st in 2018.
Meanwhile, in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report for 2019-2020, published in October, Israel stood firm in 20th place out of 141 countries. It was also in 20th place in the 2018-2019 report, but dropped four places from 16th in the report from 2017-2018.
In that report, Israel also secured the top rank for entrepreneurship and the embrace of disruptive ideas as well as macroeconomic stability (the minimizing of a national economy’s vulnerability to the impact of external shocks, companies’ innovative growth, R&D expenditures, and multi-stakeholder collaboration.
Israel received an overall score of 76.7, while the average score for the 141 economies was 61 points.
The report, first published in 2004, ranks an economy’s competitiveness based on 12 pillars (categories) including innovation capability, business dynamism, market size, health, skills, macroeconomic stability, institutions, and infrastructure, and 103 indicators (subcategories.)
The latest index paints a “gloomy picture” a decade after the world financial crisis with a world economy “locked in a cycle of low or flat productivity growth.” The report’s survey of 13,000 business executives also highlights a “deep uncertainty and lower confidence.”
According to the report, Israel is an innovation hub, ranking 15th on the Innovation capability pillar thanks to a well-developed ecosystem, and up from last year’s 16th place.
For the second year in a row, Israel came in first of 141 countries in R&D expenditure as a percentage of GDP under the innovation capability pillar. It also ranked first in the multi-stakeholder collaboration sub-pillar, up from third last year.
“Israel spends the most of any country on R&D (4.3 percent of GDP) and is where entrepreneurial culture is the strongest, the acceptance for entrepreneurial failure the highest, where companies embrace change the most, and where innovative companies grow the fastest,” the WEF report read.
Israel ranked second in the venture capital availability subcategory and “ease of finding skilled employees” as it did last year, coming in only behind the United States in that sub-pillar. Both factors support a “flourishing and innovative private sector”, according to the WEF report.
In the WEF’s Global Competitiveness Report for 2019-2020, Singapore knocked the United States out of the top spot as the most competitive country in the world. The United States came in second and Hong Kong ranked third, surging four spots from last year’s report. The Netherlands came in fourth and Switzerland dropped one spot to round out the top five.
Diane Israel is a Chicago native and long-time supporter and advocate of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). She is also famous for her culinary recipes. Diane can be reached at Diane@IsraelOnIsrael.com
Israeli startups and high-tech companies raised a record-breaking $8.3 billion in 522 deals over the course of 2019, according to a new report by IVC Research Center and ZAG-S&W Zysman, Aharoni, Gayer & Co law firm published on Wednesday.
This marked a 30 percent increase compared to 2018 when Israeli companies raised $6.35 billion in 532 deals.
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From 2010-2019, Israeli tech companies raised a total of $39.1 billion, according to the report. Since 2010, capital raising by Israeli tech companies has grown by a whopping 400 percent and the number of deals by 64 percent, the report said. In 2010, Israeli high-tech firms raised $2.1 billion in 319 deals.
VC-backed deals accounted for $6.4 billion in 2019 compared to $4.75 billion in 2018 and $1.13 billion in 2010, which marked “a decade of extensive growth,” according to the report.
This article was originally posted by NoCamels.com. See Featured article: Artificial Intelligence.
“2019 marked a record year, capping a decade of successive increases in capital invested in the Israeli high-tech industry. The final quarter of 2019, and the entire year of 2019, symbolize the clear and consistent trend of the Israeli high-tech industry: tremendous growth and frequent record breaking,” Shmulik Zysman, managing partner and tech industry leader at Zysman, Aharoni, Gayer & Co. (ZAG-S&W), said in a statement.
Zysman said this growth is partly due to the growing foreign capital invested in the Israeli high-tech industry, as well as investments in a wide range of fields, from software and the internet through life sciences to semiconductors.
Still, the phenomenon of “venture capital with less risk” has gone from warning sign to “real, alarming trend” as more and more VCs declined to invest in early-stage companies in favor of late-stage firms, according to Zysman.
In 2019, seed funding rounds for early-stage companies decreased to $148 million, dropping from $169 million in 2018.
Despite the drop, Zysman remains positive. “It’s easy to remain optimistic, however, when in the last year the total capital raised by the Israeli high-tech industry was more than 30 percent higher than in 2018. Another reason for optimism is that we have recently noticed many investors dedicated to investment in early-stage companies. These are positive signs that we hope to see in the coming quarters.”
Later rounds continued to attract large amounts of capital in 2019, accounting for $2.87 billion compared to $1.91 billion in 2018.
Mega rounds, where companies raised more than $50 million, peaked in 2019 with 41 deals that captured 50 percent of the annual capital inflow. There were 20 “mega” deals in 2019. All companies that raised more than $100 million each were in growth stages, and mostly in the software sector, the report said.
Mid-size deals of $10 million to $50 million stood out, according to the report, but the number of smaller deals of up to $1 million decreased to 17 percent. These deals made up 24 percent of the total amount of deals in 2010.
“More Israeli companies in the growth stage aim to become their market’s leader. The continual increase in the amounts invested in mature start-ups is due to new investors, such as Israeli and foreign private equity funds,”
said Guy Holzman, IVC CEO. “Furthermore, IVC noticed a decline in the number of newly established companies. We believe that both trends will continue in 2020.”
The software sector led the pack in 2019 with $4.4 billion raised in 26 deals that were each over $50 million, making up 58 percent of the total amount raised in the sector.
Interest in AI-based companies and cybersecurity firms skyrocketed, according to the report, with AI firms raising $3.7 billion in 199 deals in 2019 and cybersecurity companies raising $1.88 billion. Eighteen deals over $50 million accounted for 55 percent of the total amount of capital raised by AI-based firms.
Fintech companies raised $1.7 billion in 2019, up from $880 million in 2018.
And life sciences companies raised $1.37 billion in 121 deals in 2019, up from $1.18 billion in 102 deals the previous year.
The authors of the report also made predictions for 2020, noting that “barring any dramatic changes,” the Israeli private market will “continue to attract investors” and “allocated capital for large and more established companies will continue to grow.”
The number of first investments is expected to continue to slow down, the report said, and this trend, which was first recognized in 2018 and expanded in 2019, will not change course in the coming year.
AI and cybersecurity companies will also continue to be the most attractive for investors.
The pre-IPO round figures suggest that more companies will explore the IPO option in 2020.
Diane Israel is a Chicago native and long-time supporter and advocate of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). She is also famous for her culinary recipes. Diane can be reached at Diane@IsraelOnIsrael.com
Intel kicked off the launch of its new accelerator program in Israel on Tuesday for early-stage startups, announcing the nine data-centric companies that will be participating in the 16-week initiative.
The program, called “Ignite,” was first announced in June. Its aim is to “leverage Intel’s global market access, business, and technology leadership to provide early-stage startups [with a] unique advantage on their path to disrupt the future,” the tech giant said at the time.
“Intel has always worked in concert with open ecosystems to scale new technologies so they can be transformational for our customers, business and society,” said Intel CEO Bob Swan in June during a trip to Israel for the announcement. “Israel has the deep skill base in AI, autonomous systems and the underlying technologies critical to these inflections that make it a natural choice to launch our Ignite program,” Swan said.
They are:
- Cloudwize – a startup that enables organizations to maximize the value of their cloud architecture.
- Addionics – an Israeli startup with offices in the UK founded in 2017 that accelerates smart electrification by redesigning battery architecture.
- GleanLabs – a Tel Aviv-based startup founded in 2017 that offers an automatic employee competency mapping and management platform for large R&D organizations.
- Deci AI – a startup that provides acceleration of deep learning models, substantially reducing latency and cost-to-serve.
- Hi Auto – a startup that helps OEMs reinvent how customers spend their time in the car by offering a whitelabel voice platform that converses naturally with customers and works under any noise conditions.
- Granulate – a startup that developed software to reduce compute costs by up to 60 percent while maximizing performance.
- Mine – a startup that developed a platform to empower individuals and businesses to discover their digital footprint in order to reduce redundant risk.
- HourOne – a company with offices in NYC and Vancouver that developed a synthetic video creation platform powered by artificial intelligence.
- NOVOS – an Israeli startup founded in 2017 that developed a training platform for gamers who want to improve their skills.
The program has recruited leading mentors in various fields to deliver workshops and training focused on technology and entrepreneurship, including Gil Hirsch, founder of Face.com, Roni Zahavi CEO and co-founder of Hibob, and Ron Yekutiel, founder and chairman of Kaltura, Intel said. The participating companies will also receive financial advice from Deloitte, legal guidance from Pearl Cohen, and IT services from Intel.
This article was originally posted by NoCamels.com. Featured article: Artificial Intelligence.
Diane Israel is a Chicago native and long-time supporter and advocate of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). She is also famous for her culinary recipes. Diane can be reached at Diane@IsraelOnIsrael.com
Learn more about Diane Israel. Also, see Diane Israel on LinkedIn.
“Ignite will supply these selected startups with the tools for success,” said Tzahi (Zack) Weisfeld, head of Ignite, in a statement.
Weisfeld, a former global head of Microsoft for Startups added: “Intel is responsible for much of the world’s technological infrastructure and aims to be twenty steps ahead of the game. The participants have the opportunity to take part in our vision, and can have an enormous impact on their fields through leading innovation globally.”
“For the startups to succeed is for Intel to succeed — it goes both ways,” Weisfeld said.
He tells NoCamels in a phone interview that Ignite is not just another accelerator. “It’s a high-intensity program that’s very thorough with a dedicated team and strong mentorship backing,” he explains.
Weisfeld says the startups will benefit from four types of mentors: industry mentors where they’ll be “matched” with committed, serial entrepreneurs in a managed process; Intel tech mentors where startups will be partnered with experts who will help drive the technical aspects; industry experts based on the needs of the individual startups; and workshop leaders who will help with the development of processes like product development and go-to-market strategies.
“These connections that they build can be invaluable and can last a lifetime,” Weisfeld says.
Intel will take no equity from the startups but the program will demand their time and energy. Weisfeld himself will meet weekly with each startup to assess progress and help guide them through any challenges, he says.
“This program’s KPIs [key performance indicators] are the business success of startups, their traction, and any follow-up funding,” Weisfeld explains.
Like the program, the selection process was also rigorous, he says. The startups were evaluated by two teams of between six to seven judges made up of industry experts and Intel executives. “We wanted to see a tech-based big idea that seeks to provide a solution to something, a good team, a good CEO, good energy, and coachability,” Weisfeld says, describing the whole process “more like a VC than an accelerator.”
“As Israel’s largest high tech company, we want to support the major technological changes emerging across our startup community,” Yaniv Garty, general manager of Intel Israel, said back in June.
“Ignite is an important step in this direction, focused on our efforts to transform the world through working on innovations in AI, autonomous, cyber and next-generation computing. With our advances in these areas, Intel is positioned to help companies charge forward. I’m confident that Intel’s unique expertise in hardware, software, and manufacturing will help the startups grow and succeed,” he added.
Intel employs about 11,000 people in Israel and another 1,000 from the Jerusalem-based autonomous systems company Mobileye which it acquired in 2017 for $15.3 billion. It is considered the largest employer in the high-tech sector.
Rival Israeli content recommendation companies Taboola and Outbrain announced that they are merging to form a combined company that will hopefully become a meaningful advertising competitor to Google and Facebook.
As part of the deal, Taboola is set to pay $250 million for 30 percent of Outbrain’s shares and will hold a 70 percent stake in the merged entity, Globes first reported on Thursday.
This article was originally posted by NoCamels.com. Featured article: Artificial Intelligence.
Diane Israel is a Chicago native and long-time supporter and advocate of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). She is also famous for her culinary recipes. Diane can be reached at Diane@IsraelOnIsrael.com
Learn more about Diane Israel. Also, see Diane Israel on LinkedIn.
The companies said in a statement that the merger “will provide enhanced advertising efficacy and reach to marketers worldwide, while helping news organizations and other digital properties more effectively find growth in the years to come.
They also said that their consolidated buying platform will provide advertisers with greater efficiencies, increased revenue, accelerated innovation through two strong R&D teams, and better customer experience. “By joining forces, we’ll be able to create a more robust competitor to Facebook and Google, giving advertisers a more meaningful choice,” said Taboola founder and CEO Adam Singolda in a press statement, citing recent data that showed that almost 70 percent of total US digital advertising revenue in 2019 is controlled by only three companies – Google, Facebook, and Amazon.
“We’re passionate about driving growth for our customers and supporting the open web, which we consider critical in a world where walled gardens are strong, and perhaps too strong. Working together, we will continue investing to better connect advertising dollars with local and national news organizations, strengthening journalism over the next decade. This is why we’re merging; this is our mission,” Singolda said.
Singolda, who will head the combined company as CEO, founded Taboola in 2007 with headquarters in New York. Taboola’s major partners include the Daily Mail and USA Today and it has said that it was on track to hit the $1 billion revenue mark in 2019. The company also says its partnered publishers, mobile carriers and handset manufacturers, use Taboola to drive audience monetization and engagement with a reach of over 1.4 billion a month.
Outbrain was founded in 2006 by Yaron Galai and Ori Lahav as an online advertising company specializing in presenting sponsored website links. The company has grown to hold 18 offices worldwide and boasts an impressive 275 billion monthly recommendations in 14 different languages. Customers include CNN, the BBC, Mashable, MSNBC, Slate Haaretz, and Le Parisien.
Imagine an entirely flat and modular platform in which the motor, steering, suspension, drivetrain, sensing, brakes, thermal systems, and electronics are all integrated into the vehicle’s wheels. All components previously found under the hood of the car would now be incorporated into the vehicle base, and the inner wheel space would contain electric motors and a miniature gearbox, with this revolutionary design.
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Cars have come a long way since they first emerged at the dawn of the 20th century. The first “modern motorcar” was the 1901 Mercedes, which could reach a peak speed of 53 miles (85 km/h) per hour. In 1908, American automaker Ford introduced the Ford Model T, the first affordable automobile credited with revolutionizing modern transportation.
The automobile granted individuals greater independence and mobility and spurred the growth of outdoor recreation, tourism, and construction. Although car ownership is virtually universal in the developed world today, the automotive industry is anything but static – autonomous vehicles, electric and hybrid cars, electrification of infrastructure, connected cars, and shared transport are all megatrends now remaking the auto industry.
Israel is a leading player in the transforming auto industry, with some 500 startups and companies in the auto tech arena. These companies’ efforts range from detecting sleepy drivers to creating digital cockpits, developing electrified infrastructure that can charge electric vehicles while in full motion over smart roads, intelligent transport systems, vehicle cybersecurity, and satellite navigation technologies.
Tel Aviv-based company REE has emerged from stealth mode this month after six years of development to introduce its unprecedented approach to vehicle design and functions, specifically for the electric vehicle (EV) market. This market, which includes both hybrid and electric battery-operated vehicles, is especially promising but still relatively small with just over two million units sold in 2018. The two main challenges it faces are cost and logistics. Battery packs are cumbersome and expensive, even as costs are falling, and charging infrastructure requires major investment.
REE sought to flip the script on these gaps and developed an entirely flat and modular platform in which the motor, steering, suspension, drivetrain, sensing, brakes, thermal systems, and electronics are all integrated into the vehicle’s wheels. All components previously found under the hood of the car would now be incorporated into the vehicle base, and the inner wheel space would contain electric motors and a miniature gearbox, with REE’s design.
The goal, REE said in a statement this month, was to “fundamentally change[s] the way electric vehicles are built to power widespread vehicle electrification.”
This design is a crucial addition to the electric and autonomous vehicle revolution and can be adapted to the use of SUVs, trucks and personal and shared vehicle models.
REE says the design’s low center of gravity maximizes efficiency and supports agility and stability and the integrated wheel offers manufacturers freedom for body configurations. The flat platform would reduce the weight of the vehicle by 33 percent, allowing for a higher load per ride while also freeing up space by 67 percent, reducing costs and increasing efficiency, according to the company.
REE co-founder and CEO Daniel Barel told Interesting Engineering in an exclusive interview this month ahead of the launch that “the single biggest expenditure for an OEM [original equipment manufacturer] auto manufacturer is the platform…it costs billions, it takes years, and each OEM has between two and six platforms at any given moment, and two or three in development. We went in and said ‘what if you might need only one? That might be worth something.”
Diane Israel is a Chicago native and long-time supporter and advocate of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). She is also famous for her culinary recipes. Diane can be reached at Diane@IsraelOnIsrael.com
Learn more about Diane Israel. Also, see Diane Israel on LinkedIn.
Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA), an emergency medical care and disaster response provider, announced that it inaugurated its new ‘Sea-Bulance’ service to assist people in need of critical medical treatment and rescue while at sea.
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The Sea-Bulance currently operates in the Sea of Galilee, a freshwater lake in northern Israel known in Hebrew as the Kinneret. MDA said the boat, a whale r500 professional, can reach speeds of up to 35 knots (more than 60 km / h) and can travel from one side of the Sea of Galilee to the other in just 10 minutes.
It is equipped with advanced medical tools including a defibrillator, ventilation equipment, and a stretcher, and can carry up to six people, MDA said.
The Sea-Bulance enables the paramedics to arrive “with advanced medical equipment to patients while they are still in the waters of Lake Kinneret, thus saving critical minutes, versus cases where the injured person receives medical treatment only when he reaches the shore.”
MDA said that last summer, its medics treated over 160 people rescued from the waters around the country, including seven who drowned on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.
“MDA did not wait for the next event and launched the Sea-Bulance in order to save lives,” the organization said in a statement.
“The boat is designed to provide medical assistance to all those who need us on the beach and especially in the water, including people who drowned, who are on a boat and feel bad, or those who were injured in a vessel accident,” explained the head of MDA Immediate Response Force, Yossi Halabi in the statement. “The bow of the boat opens and allows a quick and easy bringing the victim to the boat, within the water area.”
MDA said the Sea-Bulance has already been used in a number of occasions over the past week to treat a man who suffered a severe allergic reaction, a man who felt unwell while in the waters, a windsurfer who was in distress, and a young woman who was injured during a cruise. The boat also helped in the rescue of a man and his grandchildren who were stuck miles from shore due to their boat’s technical malfunction, and in the search of a man who was feared to be drowning in the waters, the organization added.
Magen David Adom Director-General Eli Bin said in the statement that the organization was “constantly thinking about saving lives, and with the Sea-Bulance we can provide medical treatment in water, in cases where every minute is critical.”
The boat was purchased with a donation. Note: This article originally appeared on NoCamels.com
Diane Israel is a Chicago native and long-time supporter and advocate of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). She is also famous for her culinary recipes. Diane can be reached at Diane@IsraelOnIsrael.com
Learn more about Diane Israel. Also, see Diane Israel on LinkedIn.
Israel will not attempt a second mission to the moon after all, Israeli non-profit SpaceIL, the organization behind Israel’s historic initiative to land a spacecraft on the moon, said this week. This despite a previous and much-publicized announcement that it would launch a second spacecraft, just days after its first one, Beresheet, crash-landed on the lunar surface.
The crash on April 11 dashed Israel’s hopes of becoming the fourth country in the world (after Russia, China, and the US) to complete a controlled lunar landing.
Instead of another moon mission, SpaceIL said it would seek out “another, significant objective for Beresheet 2.0.” The details of the endeavor were not yet known.
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“Beresheet’s journey to the moon, despite its difficult landing, is etched into our consciousness in Israel and the world as successful, ground-breaking and significant to the nature of future mission by humans to the moon,” SpaceIL said (Hebrew) on its social media channels.
SpaceIL said the feedback received over the past months from global space experts point to the mission being perceived as a “resounding success that broke many world records” including that it was the smallest spacecraft built on a shoestring budget (estimated $100 million) in the world to have made it to the moon, traveling the largest distance there. It was also the only moon mission to have been largely privately funded.
“Embarking on a similar journey would not set the bar required for ground-breaking missions. Therefore, it’s been decided to seek another significant challenge,” SpaceIL said.
Details of the new mission will follow, the organization said.
Last month, NASA released a photo of the crash site of Israel’s Beresheet lunar lander. The photo was taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) 11 days after the spacecraft crashed into the moon’s surface. NASA has partnered with SpaceIL on key aspects of the mission.
Left: Beresheet crash site, M1310536929R. Right: Ratio of after/before images enhancing subtle changes to brightness of the surface, M1310536929R/M1098722768L, scale bar is 100 meters, north is up, both panels are 490 meters wide. (NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University)
The mission was launched on February 22 (Israel time), riding piggyback on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Beresheet had orbited the Earth and then the moon, traveling 6.5 million km before attempting its landing.
Initial data gathered by the engineering teams of SpaceIL and IAI suggested that at just mere meters from the lunar surface, a technical glitch triggered a chain of events that caused the main engine of the spacecraft to malfunction, making it impossible to stop Beresheet’s velocity. Beresheet overcame the issue by restarting the engine, but it was too late and the spacecraft crashed.
National Geographic recently added Beresheet to its moon map exploring 50 years of lunar visits. Its first such map was created in 1969 as the Apollo 11 mission closed in on its goal.
The new version of the map “uses a mosaic of some 15,000 images and detailed height measurements from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has surveyed the entire surface,” National Geographic wrote.
Diane Israel is a Chicago native and long-time supporter and advocate of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). She is also famous for her culinary recipes. Diane can be reached at Diane@IsraelOnIsrael.com
Learn more about Diane Israel. Also, see Diane Israel on LinkedIn.
Israeli insurance startup Voom now offers insurance for drones, small private planes, small boats, motorcycles or e-scooters, and on an individual per-use basis.
Here’s why.
In 2018, more than 1,500 people were injured in e-scooter related accidents across the US, according to a recent study. In Israel alone, the number of deaths that involved personal electric vehicles rose from seven in 2017 to 19 in the following year, just when e-scooters pioneered the local market.
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Despite the risk, adequate insurance coverage for e-scooters and other personal transportation devices is missing. Enter Voom, an Israeli insurance platform for specialized mobility, that is developing an on-demand, telematics-based solution for “everything you can ride, fly or sail”.
“In all of these markets that are considered a ‘niche’, although they are accounting for billions of dollars in premiums, insurance is really lagging behind,” CEO Tomer Kashi tells NoCamels. Insurance companies currently do not differentiate between customer’s individual risk profiles. “It is like going to the supermarket and everyone pays the same for their shopping cart, no matter what they are buying – it’s not a great idea,” Kashi points out.
To solve this problem, Voom’s solution will include two pillars: an on-demand and per-use basis combined with an individual AI-risk analysis.
“For many modes of mobility the insurance product already exists. However, the entire underwriting and risk profiling is very primitive,” Kashi explains. “Let’s say I have a jetski. One person is using it almost every day, and another one uses it only twice a year. There is no reason that they should pay the same.”
Diane Israel is a Chicago native and long-time supporter and advocate of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). She is also famous for her culinary recipes. Diane can be reached at Diane@IsraelOnIsrael.com
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