News Briefs

Sheba Medical Center, Israel’s largest and internationally ranked hospital, has announced the creation of a first-of-its-kind launchpad for Israeli and global healthtech startups. 

The hospital says that embARC Ventures, which was presented at the annual summit of Sheba’s ARC Innovation Center, aims to nurture medical innovation by providing financial backing, mentorship and access to global markets.

Backed by ARC and leading medical diagnostics company Ilex Medical, the program guarantees financial support of $250,000 for each selected company, as well offering comprehensive mentoring and the opportunity to connect with partners in Sheba’s international network. 

The selected startups will also take part in a roadshow in the US, which will give them the opportunity to meet with potential foreign customers and partners and accelerate their entry into the global marketplace.

embARC will be managed by Dan Shwarzman, a veteran of the Israeli startup ecosystem, and will operate out of Sheba. 

Each cohort of the three-month program will include 5 to 10 startups, and each participant will have the option of using a dedicated office space for up to a year. 

“We are launching a new and unique model that will help bold entrepreneurs reach the market quicker and more efficiently,” said Shwarzman. 

“Israeli startups face immense challenges, from securing funding in high-risk stages to finding the right path to enter the US and broader global markets. We are committed to working side by side with these entrepreneurs, leveraging ARC’s global network to ensure their success.”

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Israeli startup StoreDot, which developed extreme fast charging batteries for electric vehicles (EV), has announced that its extreme fast charging (XFC) battery can now charge from 10 to 80 percent in just 10 minutes. 

The XFC prismatic cells in the battery allow for 100 miles of charge in five minutes, and StoreDot is now working to reduce the charge time to four minutes by 2026.

By eliminating charging anxiety, the Herzliya-based company says, the fast-charging feature addresses the main barrier to mass EV adoption without compromising battery health or range. 

The battery is available for immediate integration by the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) that make components for electric vehicles, following the development as part of an ongoing collaboration with international automotive manufacturer Flex|N|Gate. 

According to StoreDot, a survey in the UK and Germany showed that more than half of respondents expressed concern about switching to EVs due to lengthy charging times. This concern over a lack of fast-charging battery technology threatens growth in the EV sector, the company says.  

“This milestone not only demonstrates our ability to work closely with EV OEMs to customize the XFC technology to their specific format, it also showcases the success of our partnership with Flex|N|Gate in scaling up our prismatic cells,” said StoreDot COO Amir Tirosh. 

“Together, we’ve taken a giant leap forward in EV battery innovation, offering OEMs our game-changing XFC technology in the prismatic format many prefer. This achievement is a testament to the power of collaboration in revolutionizing the EV industry, bringing us significantly closer to our vision of making extreme fast charging a reality for millions of drivers worldwide.”

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Cymbio, a leading Tel Aviv-based company that developed a dropship and marketplace automation platform, has launched a new image upload and editing suite that allows customers to accelerate their timeline for the online market.

Cymagery AI automates the entire process, from uploading images to verifying copyright compliance, which reduces administrative workload by more than 70 percent. 

The suite’s central features include automatic image sizing, image conversion, photo editing and auto-crop and automatic face detection. 

According to Cymbio, this is the only product suite that enables complete automation of the order synchronization process for online marketplaces, thereby expediting time-to-market for vendors and allowing them to reach new audiences faster.

“Cymbio is dedicated to helping our clients bring their products to market as quickly and seamlessly as possible. Enabling our customers to automate and streamline much of their operations makes this a reality,” said Cymbio CEO and co-founder Roy Avidor. 

“The launch of Cymagery AI is the latest way we’re allowing our customers to save their most valued asset – their time. While image editing and verification is an important part of the process for online sellers, it historically has introduced a host of manual tasks,” he said. 

“Cymagery AI allows our customers to continue to scale without the hassle of manual work that typically goes along with it, allowing them to eliminate these tedious tasks, and focus on growing their business.”

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Israeli renewable energy company Arava Power says its first US solar power project SUNRAY has officially begun commercial operations in Texas. 

The project was developed in collaboration with top Israeli oil and gas retailer Paz Group, and funded in partnership with Israeli insurance company Menora Mivtachim, at a total cost of $330 million.

SUNRAY covers an area of some 1,200 acres and is being leased for a cumulative period of 50 years. The site contains more than 500,000 solar panels and is expected to produce 515 gigawatt-hours of electricity per year. 

This will prevent the emission of 225,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide and provide clean electricity to 43,000 homes in the San Antonio area every year. 

Arava and Paz began working on SUNRAY in 2021. The project completed its financial closing last year and received approval for commercial operations and finished construction last month.

“We succeeded in developing our first US project under extremely challenging market conditions,” said Arava Power CEO Ilan Zidkony. 

“Our company is proud of this achievement and are grateful for the confidence of top-tier partners and financiers. The commercial operation of SUNRAY is a key milestone in Arava Power’s US vision, with a portfolio of projects in various stages of development totaling 1.3 gigawatts across the US.”

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A leading Israeli provider of veterinary syringes has unveiled two new automatic products it says will address specific needs of the fish industry.

Petah Tikva-based ThaMa-Vet’s metal, fixed-dosage syringes allow for fast, precise vaccination of fish and are already in use by a number of vaccine companies, proving to be highly dependable in vaccinating millions of fish.

The single barrel ThaMa 405 is a fixed dosage syringe used for mass treatment of fish. It comes with features needed for wet environment vaccinations, is easy to assemble and can be used repeatedly.

The double-barrelled ThaMa 422 is a fixed dosage syringe that can administer two different vaccines in two different dosages at once with just one needle.

“The aquaculture industry is developing rapidly and is expected to double in size over the next decade,” said ThaMa-Vet CEO Udi Nechmad. 

“We have been approached by fish growers, who express their frustration with the lack of a reliable, durable and easy to handle fish syringe in the market,” he said. 

“Recognizing the complexity of vaccinating fish, we developed the new syringes –– emphasizing the need for micro-dosage –– which are lightweight, user friendly and allow precise dosage administration, making the vaccination process significantly smoother for massive quantities of fish.”

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Essence SmartCare, an Israeli developer of a remote technology that helps seniors live independently in their own homes, is partnering with leading Swedish alarm management platform Skyresponse to integrate its end-to-end senior care solution in multiple European countries. 

The partnership means that more than two million senior citizens in the UK, Nordic countries and the DACH region (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) will have expanded access to the Care@Home activity monitoring platform.

Skyresponse’s Alarm Receiving Centres (ARCs) will be equipped with the next-generation Care@Home platform, which includes digital features such as wireless, radar-based fall detection, personalized monitoring, an emergency panic button and voice activation.

 It also includes a voice extender that allows seniors to make two-way calls from anywhere in their home even when they cannot reach a panic button.  

“We at Essence understand the immense promise of digitalisation in the health sector and are proud to facilitate the transition and ensure that seniors can reap its many benefits,” said Essence VP Revenue Yossi Graff. 

“Partnering with Skyresponse, a company who, like Essence SmartCare, is at the forefront of advanced connectivity, we aim to set a new standard in telecare solutions, ensuring uncompromised care for seniors aging from the comfort of their homes,” he said. 

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An Israeli-Indian treatment for knee pain caused by osteoarthritis has received Fast Track designation by the US Food and Drug Administration – a status granted to developing therapies that address unmet and urgent medical needs. 

The novel MM-II treatment being developed by Tel Aviv-based Moebius Medical and Sun Pharma of Mumbai involves using liposomes (fats) to reduce friction on the knee joint, thereby easing joint pain. 

The two companies are currently preparing to enter Phase 3 clinical trials for MM-II, after data from a randomized, controlled, Phase 2b study showed that a single injection of the therapy provided greater pain relief than a placebo for up to 26 weeks.  

“This Fast Track designation, which will enable FDA to review MM-II in an expedited manner, is an important milestone in the development of MM-II, and follows our recently released Phase 2b data, which showed MM-II’s potential to provide effective and durable treatment for patients with knee pain of Osteoarthritis,” said Moebius Medical CEO Moshe Weinstein. 

“As we enter Phase 3 development, we are very encouraged by the FDA’s decision to grant Fast Track designation to MM-II and recognize its potential to fill an unmet medical need for patients suffering from Osteoarthritis,” said Marek Honczarenko, senior vice president and head of global development at Sun Pharma.

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UBQ Materials, an Israeli greentech startup that transforms household waste into multifunctional bio-based replacement for plastic, is planning to transform the way Americans dispose of their garbage, and has appointed former White House climate expert Gina McCarthy to its International Advisory Board. 

UBQ Materials’ globally patented technology converts the waste into a material that can be used in the construction, retail and even automotive industries.  

The material is made entirely from household waste, including non-compostable organics and hard-to-recycle plastics, in a process that has zero emissions and uses little energy and no water, giving it a carbon footprint 15-20 times lower than that of alternative resins. 

“UBQ’s technology can help the US transform its solid waste disposal practices in ways that eliminate the need for waste landfilling or incineration, reduce health and odor impacts on neighboring communities, and eliminate harmful methane emissions,” said MCarthy, who served as the White House National Climate Advisor under US President Joe Biden and as Administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency during Barack Obama’s tenure. 

“By converting solid waste into a sustainable circular thermoplastic that acts as a plastic substitute, we can stop covering up our waste and start transforming and reusing it in safe, affordable and beneficial ways,” she said.   

“Gina is a heavy hitter and a voice of influence advancing the US’ climate action efforts,” said UBQ Materials co-founder and co-CEO Jack “Tato” Bigio. 

“She has taken decades of government experience in the environmental and climate field and is creating opportunities to advance real solutions to the most pressing climate challenges,” he said.  

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The co-founder of an Israeli startup that developed an instant test for eye degeneration in diabetics has been included on TIME100 AI – TIME magazine’s ranking of the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence for 2024.

Zack Dvey-Aharon is the CEO of AEYE Health, which created an AI-based method to test for diabetic retinopathy by a family doctor, at a pharmacy or even in a patient’s own home, with immediate results.   

AEYE Health’s proprietary technology analyzes an image of the eye taken with a simple store-bought camera, without having to dilate the pupil. The test is currently only available in the US, but the company believes it will soon be accessible to patients in Israel through the healthcare system.

 “This year’s list offers examples of the possibilities for AI when it moves out of the lab and into the world. Innovators including Zack Dvey-Aharon at AEYE Health… are showing the real-world potential for AI to improve how we live and work,” said the magazine. 

“Entrepreneurs like Dvey-Aharon demonstrate AI’s potential to improve our lives.” 

The others on the list include Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

“I am extremely excited to be included in TIME’s 100 most influential in AI, alongside the field’s leading figures,” said Dvey-Aharon. 

“This is a unique and historic period for AI technological advancements, and thanks to AEYE Health’s technology, the vision of many around the world will be saved.”

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An Israeli healthcare company that treats neurological issues using ultrasound has entered into a strategic collaboration with a US company that provides essential services for R&D in the pharma and biotech industries. 

The five-year strategic collaboration will provide clients of the Massachusetts-based Charles River access to Insightec’s global service and technology platform for the application of focused ultrasound (FUS) for drug discovery and preclinical development of therapeutics in neuroscience.

The low-frequency ultrasound platform developed by Insightec non-invasively disrupts the blood-brain barrier (BBB). 

The BBB is an extra layer around the brain that protects it from harmful substances, germs and other sources of potential damage. But it can also act as a hindrance when treating brain cancer and neurodegenerative diseases, as it can prevent some therapies from reaching the targeted area. 

The ultrasound procedure, however, has seen positive clinical results across several neurological diseases, including Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.  

“This partnership will not only expand the application of our low-frequency focused ultrasound technology, but also accelerate the development of groundbreaking therapies for neurological conditions,” said Arjun Desai, the chief strategic innovation officer at Haifa-based Insightec. 

“By combining our expertise, we aim to revolutionize the way next generation therapeutics are delivered and actuated in the brain, ultimately improving the lives of millions globally,” he said.  

“Our collaboration with Insightec represents a significant step forward in advancing neuroscience research,” said Prof. Julie Frearson, senior VP and chief scientific officer at Charles River. 

“As we look toward the future of drug discovery, we recognize that technology will be a cornerstone of innovation. The integration of focused ultrasound technology into our preclinical services will enhance the precision and effectiveness of therapeutic delivery strategies, allowing us to refine our use of research models and support the discovery of novel medicines.”

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Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science has been recognized as one the world’s top 10 research institutions in the annual rankings produced by the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) at Leiden University in the Netherlands. 

The list, known as the Leiden Ranking, places Weizmann tenth for overall quality of research, joining such institutions as Princeton, Harvard, MIT and Oxford University. 

The Rehovot-based public university was also ranked number six in the world for research quality in the biomedical and health sciences. 

The Leiden Ranking, created in 2007, is based on the quality of an institution’s research – its number of scientific publications and the number of citations they receive, and further data including the size of each establishment.

According to Weizmann, its scientists published 2,450 scientific papers between 2019 and 2022, which received 38,760 citations. 

During that period, 63 percent of its scientific papers were included in the top 50 percent of publications with the greatest influence in their field. Furthermore, 18 percent of them were included in the top 10 percent of publications and 2.5 percent were in the top 1 percent.

And in the fields of biomedical and health sciences, more than 20 percent of the institute’s scientific papers were ranked in the top 10 percent of the most influential scientific publications.

Weizmann was also recently placed in the top 100 for the 2024 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) compiled annually by ShanghaiRanking Consultancy. 

The Israeli institute was placed 69th overall – the highest ranking of all of the country’s academic institutions. It was also ranked 44th and 45th, respectively, for chemistry and biology.

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Top Israeli humanitarian aid agency IsraAID has begun the third phase of a three-part program to train psychologists across Ukraine, even as a rise in Russian attacks on civilian targets killed dozens of people this week. 

The third phase in the “Psychologist Doctor Patient” program follows the successful completion of the prior stages, which saw 163 psychologists given specialized training to work at the country’s overburdened medical facilities. 

The project is part of Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska’s mental health program and is being implemented in cooperation with regional healthcare facilities.  

It provides Ukrainian psychologists with specialized expertise, stations them in hospitals and medical facilities, and uses their feedback and experience to refine a model that can be replicated across the country.

“Devastating attacks over the last three days that took lives of over 60 people and injured over 300 are just one more reminder of the urgency of mental health needs in already overburdened Ukrainian hospitals. Doctors and patients are faced with the harshest realities of this war, and they require both an urgent and long-term approach,” said IsraAID Ukraine Protection Program Manager Yulia Breus.

“This set of tools can improve psychological care across the country, at medical facilities of all different levels and types. We’re proud of all that we’ve achieved in the first two phases of this project, and we’re excited to use everything we’ve learned to create long-lasting, systemic change. We remain committed to Ukrainian communities, both now and on the long road to recovery,” she said. 

 “The first person who people go to is a family doctor – they are the front line for psychological support. We had COVID, then we had war. Ukrainians had barely adjusted to COVID reality when the war struck, and we had to deal with psychosocial support for doctors and patients. It was then when a demand for emergency response shaped. We are grateful to IsraAID that they started their training then – when it was so needed,” said Lesya Karnaukh, Deputy Head of Kyiv Oblast State Administration. 

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Jerusalem-based nonprofit SparkIL, which enables Jews around the world to support small businesses in Israel, has launched a 10 million shekel (approx. $2.7 million) emergency loan fund to assist companies in the north who have been affected by the relentless bombing from the Hezbollah terrorist organization in neighboring Lebanon. 

Northern Israel is home to approximately 90,000 of the 660,000 small and medium-sized businesses across the country, SparkIL says, and has been long overlooked as a crucial contributor to the Israeli economy. 

The small businesses in the region employ some 500,000 people, many of whom have been evacuated from their homes. Thousand businesses on the northern border have also been abandoned for months due to the situation.

Business owners or other self-employed people in the north are eligible for an immediate, interest-free loan of up to 100,000 shekels ($27,000) per business.

The SparkIL platform is also enabling people around the world to directly support a small Israeli business of their choice, with loans beginning at $25 apiece. 

“For over seven months, business owners in the North have had to accept a stark new reality of evacuation from their homes and workplaces, non-stop rocket and mortar attacks, and possibly even a war on the northern front that could break out at any moment,” said SparkIL CEO Na’ama Ore. 

“That is why we have decided to harness the passion and generosity of both Diaspora Jews and Israelis who are eager to help, empowering them to become social investors through our platform. Each loan represents the importance of our mutual guarantee as an Israeli society and as a Jewish people to support each other, and especially to support the business owners in the North who are now facing a total collapse of their regional economy.”

In December, the organization announced a similar fund to help small businesses in southern Israel that were impacted by the war in Gaza. 

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Israeli healthcare company Aidoc has announced seven new AI-powered solutions for the European healthcare market, expanding its existing, award-winning aiOS platform that helps clinicians provide rapid treatment for patients. 

The seven new solutions, all of which have CE approval for medical devices, include four that deal with the urgent cases of blocked blood vessels; a tear in the aorta; spinal fracture; and a malplaced tube for opening the airway in the throat. 

The other three solutions relate to assessing cardiovascular and neurological conditions, including a buildup of calcium in the coronary arteries.  

With the addition of the new solutions, the aiOS platform now offers 26 AI-driven features for the European market, where it is extensively deployed.  

“Health systems in Europe face severe challenges with increasing patient backlogs and staff shortages. To address these challenges, we are now taking clinical AI to the next level by increasing the speed and the scope of developing and implementing new AI-modules” said Aidoc VP Europe Alexander Boehmcker. 

“Aidoc has already established itself as the leading clinical AI platform. With the introduction of these new solutions, we have scaled up our capability to flag more pathologies, and provide important measurements with our new quantification solutions,” he said. 

“Coupled with our platform’s ability to rapidly activate care teams and ensure robust patient follow-up, we’re poised to deliver better outcomes for patients and providers. I am especially proud that now all our Aidoc AI-modules are CE-marked under the new [medical device regulation].” 

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Epsilor, an internationally recognized Israeli producer of military-grade batteries and chargers, has made the first delivery of its COMBATT 6T batteries to defense and aerospace company Hanwha Defence Australia (HDA), for placement in vehicles for the Australian Army. 

A subsidiary of Hanwha Aerospace, South Korea’s largest defense corporation, HDA will integrate the COMBATT battery into its Redback Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV), which it is supplying to the military.

The battery was selected following a rigorous testing process, and Epsilor says it can store 3,630Wh of energy, giving it the highest energy density in the market. 

“Whilst the Australian market sets a significant footprint in Epsilor’s global marketing activities, the global and growing demand for high energy density batteries for the Redback IFV, creates further opportunities for Epsilor to provide its COMBATT 6T batteries to new customers worldwide,” said Epsilor Director of Sales & Marketing Merav Kolody Shubeli.

Created more than 40 years ago, Epsilor manufactures custom-made and standard batteries, chargers and mobile power systems for a range of industries, including defense, aerospace, medical and marine. 

The company has production facilities in both Israel (Beit Shemesh and Dimona) and the US, from which it has manufactured millions of batteries and chargers to scores of customers around the world.  

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