Startups Respond to the Ukraine Crisis: Solving the Global Challenges

This article is sponsored by OurCrowd.

As the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues to disrupt the flow of vital food, medical, mineral, and energy resources and lead to more threatening cyber attacks, nimble startups around the world are applying new technologies to address these challenges.

OurCrowd, Israel’s most active crowdfunding platform, announced on Wednesday, that on Monday, May 2, it will host “Startups Respond to the Ukraine Crisis: Solving the Global Challenges,” an online discussion with experts and entrepreneurs they believe is poised to shake up the fields now under pressure from the war in Ukraine, including medicine, energy, food, cybersecurity, and supply chain logistics.

Guests at the virtual event will include Dr. Galia Barkai, the director of Israel’s first virtual hospital; Gleb Kogan, director of business development at TytoCare; Freightos CEO Ziv Schreiber; Michal Levy, Senior Vice President, Agriculture Innovation, Israel Ministry of Agriculture; Rafi Mendelsohn, VP Marketing, Cyabra; Andrew Bennett, CEO of mPrest. Leah Stern, OurCrowd Partner for Global Communications, will host the discussion.

Israel’s Sheba Medical Center began the initiative to set up a field hospital inside Ukraine as the Russia-Ukraine war intensified. From a collection of tents near the Polish border, medical staff have been treating refugees and locals and have worked remotely with physicians back at Sheba using telemedicine tools

“This field hospital will change the paradigm of what humanitarian aid can be,” says Dr. Galia Barkai, director of the Sheba Beyond program, Israel’s first virtual hospital. Barkai is also the head of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Unit, head of Telemedicine Services, and was instrumental in leading Sheba’s first coronavirus telemedicine program in February 2020 before the pandemic swept the country.

Technology developed Israeli telehealth companies, like TytoCare, connected patients to clinicians with diagnostic instruments that allowed doctors to perform remote medical examinations.

“We can bring the highest-level physicians to the field without actually having to bring them physically,” Barkai says.

Research shows that epidemics and pandemics are exacerbated by conflict. Canada’s SaNOtize has developed a nasal spray that protects against infection by COVID-19 and other viruses.

“In the absence of vaccination – which we see in countries like Ukraine – it is a great first line of defense to help protect the people from disease,” says Dr. Gili Regev, SaNOtize’s CEO and co-founder.

The war has exacerbated serious problems with the global supply chain already highlighted by the pandemic, disrupting the export of energy, food, semiconductors, and other commodities.

Freightos, based in Jerusalem, has developed a digital platform for international shipping that harnesses technology and data from global logistics providers, importers, air carriers, and ocean liners to help companies find sought-after freight space – a booking.com for international freight, says CEO Ziv Schreiber.

International shipping is “a surprisingly outdated industry,” and what’s key to making it work better is digitization, as happened in the travel industry, Schreiber says. 

The war has also triggered a drive for greater energy independence, especially by European countries that rely heavily on Russian gas and coal.

mPrest, the company that created the software behind Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, is using its technology to help large electricity providers like the New York Power Authority manage their grids and integrate cleaner technologies.

“This move to clean energy is happening,” says CEO Andrew Bennett. “Now you have an additional incentive, and that’s energy independence.”

In addition to violence on the ground, Russia is also waging an information war against Ukraine, spreading disinformation on social networks. Tel Aviv-based Cyabra uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to sift through publicly available information to pinpoint malicious activity.

‘Startups Respond to the Ukraine Crisis’ hosted by OurCrowd will be held online on Monday, May 2, and available for streaming from May 3. To register, click here: