How the IDF is recruiting the Israeli startup industry

The innovation center of the Israel Ministry of Defense and the IDF are launching their second cohort. Some 90 startup companies applied to the second cycle of INNOFENSE, an innovation program for dual-use technological projects for the civilian and security sectors, established by IMoD’s DDR&D (MAF’AT) in collaboration with the IDF Ground and Air arms and iHLS.

Five startups will be selected for a six-month program after the examination of all the technologies.

“The IDF considers it important to promote innovative developments with advanced capabilities, as they are organizational transformers and are able to break existing glass ceilings and move forward to an exponential progress of the organization," said Lt. Col. Ro'i Weitzfeld, Head of the Innovation Branch in the IDF.

The first cycle of INNOFENSE saw several success stories, including Keotic, a company that has been incorporated into the Air Force. Keotic was founded in 2018 as a developer of artificial intelligence that analyzes texts. The Air and Space Forces identified the potential and decided to adopt this startup at the technological feasibility proof stages and harness it to the worlds of safety and control. Keotic’s technology mimics the human learning process through artificial intelligence. The technology knows how to process documents in any language and in any field, and becomes an expert who knows how to produce insights and provide a response to any question.

Hundreds of thousands of safety inquiries have been entered into the system and each time the Corps take a certain action the system is asked a question: what can happen or what to watch out for - and gets all the knowledge, insights and conclusions learned in the past. As part of the Innovation Center, the Air Force examined the system and after recognizing that the technology was working, decided to integrate it into the Corps.

In the second cycle, IDF units sought advanced technologies in various fields, from security to completely civilian fields: cloud cybersecurity, autonomous landing of drones, sensors operating in urban environments, blockchain, energy solutions, garbage disposal solutions, simulators, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and more.

The International Conference on HLS, Cyber & Innovation organized by iHLS, will take place at Expo Tel Aviv on November 17-18 and present the activities of the Innovation Center and the potential for expanding cooperation between the IDF and the defense and innovation industry in Israel.