Arieli Capital launching Wellness Tech Bootcamp

Arieli Capital, a U.S.-based holdings and investment company that is active in innovation and technology, and the Bridge Healing Arts Center, a U.S. healthcare and real estate company, have launched the Wellness Tech Bootcamp, an international program that is focused on encouraging startups to develop technologies to improve physical and mental health. The program will host ten startups and help them connect with relevant brands, global customers, and investors.

Some companies and investors participating in the program include Sharenet, Domynate NYC, Oracle, Frontier, Onboard, and others. The Bootcamp will take place at the Bridge Healing Arts Center facilities in Connecticut and New York in April 2022.

Some of the Israeli startups that applied to participate in the program include:

RightHear, which develops accessibility solutions for the blind and visually impaired. Its apps make the public space more accessible for people with visual impairments, and has worked to make life easier for those by patterning with companies including McDonald's, Pizza Hut, and Microsoft.

Happy Things is an app that helps people to live a happier life. Using the principles of positive psychology, it guides and encourages users to engage in small, simple, doable, diverse, and daily activities that are scientifically proven to contribute to happiness. Examples include listening to a song that spurs a happy memory; paying someone a compliment; or thinking of three happy things that happened to users that week.

CoBe Labs has engineered a friendly chatbot mental health app, which provides a holistic solution to the crises frequently occurring among young adults, and helps teenagers cope with mental distress in an accessible way straight from their smartphones’, wherever and whenever.

Kai is a personal wellness coach in the form of a smart (and caring) AI companion that works to improve mental health by offering therapeutic talks, life skills mentoring, or meditation to help eliminate anxiety and loneliness.

Give & Tech is a platform that targets tech companies, which aim to maximize their social impact. It facilitates professional and personalized volunteering by donating 90% of the tuition fees to social impact nonprofits. So far, Give & Tech has donated (or helped donate) NIS 400,000 ($123,600) to six Israeli nonprofits. It also offers a wide range of programs, including courses, workshops, and mentoring. Some 250 industry leaders joined the effort, and over 600 participants have attended its activities.

Arieli Capital manages and invests in innovation platforms, centers, accelerators, commercialization companies, and academic research, and is also the main shareholder of SHARENET, a financial and banking data company. It runs a wide range of innovation-promoting programs and centers in Israel, such as collaborations between the Frontier Agricultural Innovation Center and the Ramat Hanegev Regional Council, and Ocean Tech, an international ocean innovation community, which collaborates with Start-up Nation Central, the Connecticut Digital Wellness startup accelerator, and many others.

Or Haviv, partner and head of global ventures at Arieli Capital, said: "The events during Covid-19 accelerated the growth of the healthcare industry and the global demand for better physical and emotional health. This growth led to increased demand for technologies and innovation in various sectors such as sports, healthcare, food, travel, finance, life-work balance, design, and more. As a result, companies and various organizations are searching for ways to optimize and enhance their products with innovation and increase their share of the market by adopting and creating novel products that would benefit us all.”