Cultured fish or packaging from mushrooms? 20 startups vying for five spots at StartUp+ final?

20 startups advanced to the semifinal stage of Calcalist and Poalim Hi-Tech's StartUp+ competition in collaboration with the Zell Entrepreneurship Program at Reichman University. The selected entrepreneurs had the opportunity to present their ventures during a five-minute pitch in front of the competition jury, after which they answered their questions. Of these, five companies will advance to the final which will be held on May 23rd. The top two places will be awarded monetary prizes, expert consulting from Poalim Hi-Tech, and an advertising package on the Calcalist website.

The judges for this year's StartUp+ competition are: Tal Barnoach, Co-Founder of the Disruptive VC fund; Nofar Amikam, Partner at Glilot Capital Partners; Tami Bronner, Partner at Vertex Ventures; Avichay Nissenbaum, Partner at Lool Ventures; Michal Kissos-Hertzog', CEO of Poalim Hi-Tech; Renana Ashkenazi, General Partner at Grove Ventures; Tal Slobodkin, Partner at StageOne Ventures; Yael Alroy, Partner at Viola Ventures; Eyal Niv, Partner at Pitango; Lee Moser, partner at AnD Ventures; Rotem Eldar, Partner at 10D Capital; Adam Fisher, Senior Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners and Elihay Vidal, Editor-in-Chief of CTech.

“Over the years, the StartUp+ program provides value and support to entrepreneurs, and aims to help them at the beginning of their journey. We at Poalim Hi-Tech believe our role is to be an anchor for the industry and deepen the platform for connections between startups and investors, especially these days. The direct meetings as part of the competition with CEOs and leading investors in the industry gives early-stage entrepreneurs a significant boost forward, and we look forward to meeting them again in a year or two from now," said Adi Horowitz-Lavie, VP of Investments and Growth at Poalim Hi-Tech.

These are the companies that advanced to the semifinals:

ANINA Culinary Art

A culinary experience in a capsule

The company develops ready-to-cook meal capsules that combine innovative technology, healthy nutrition, sustainability, and a culinary experience. The capsules contain healthy, tasty and high-quality food and are intended for easy use that simulates home cooking. The company's capsules offer a unique culinary experience with homemade textures and flavors; made from nutritious natural products rich in vegetables, while also having a long shelf life and enabling the reduction of food waste.

Bllink

A digital solution for financial management of residential buildings

The company offers a digital solution for the financial management of residential buildings, which allows the management teams to collect building council fees and pay suppliers through a digital wallet without physically coming to the location. The company's product allows receiving payments from tenants, payments to suppliers, monitoring, control and management of the financial side of residential building maintenance. The main differentiator of the company is a focus on finances, so the company can provide flexible solutions adapted to the needs of customers.

Algoplanner

Smart navigation in the supply chain

Algoplanner is an Israeli Deep Tech company focused on improving the continuous movement of goods through global supply chains while dealing with disruptive events. Its goal is to ensure business sustainability by optimizing operating costs and inventory management. The technology provides answers to critical questions for retail and manufacturing companies regarding operating costs, capacity and inventory management.

QUBEX

Growing clouds

QUBEX is building a platform that can be installed on the major cloud providers that allows companies for the first time to adjust the size of their cloud to their actual consumption. QUBEX can increase the number of servers in use within seconds, giving companies a solution to respond 10 times faster to changes in consumption, to be 12 times more resistant to spikes, at a cost of up to 5% of the other solutions on the market today.

Sea2Cell

Cultured fish

The company develops products based on fish cells grown in bioreactors. The company's unique technology allows the cells to be grown with a tiny addition of specific and expensive components, thus leading to a significant reduction in production costs of close to 80%. This breakthrough will provide a solution to the surge in fish prices and supply in the world.

ExoProTher Medical

Innovative technology for cancer treatment

The company develops an innovative oncology treatment based on a unique technology of nanoparticles as carriers of the p53 protein. This protein is known as the "DNA protector" and causes the death of cancer cells. The treatment is expected to be effective in more than 60% of cancer cases, is non-toxic and is not expected to cause side effects.

Envo

Streamlining R&D departments using AI

Envo uses artificial intelligence and big data collected from several platforms in order to create a reflective picture of what is happening in the R&D departments of organizations. The product allows the organization's management to understand in real time what the engineers are investing their time and efforts in. The company offers a unique approach to a market where there is no direct competition.

EXOSOMM

Treatment with food

EXOSOMM is a foodtech company that develops a patented nutritional component with natural exosomes, intended for medical food for patients with chronic diseases. The company's technology is based on research carried out at the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem. The company presented successful results in preclinical trials that include anti-inflammatory activity, and its first products are intended for patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (Crohn's and colitis) and diabetes.

Rider Dome

AI-based safety for bikers

Rider Dome has developed an AI-based system that provides real-time alerts to motorcyclists in order to create a protective layer against possible accidents while riding.

The system includes a platform for motorcycle fleets that enables the management, monitoring and measurement of the safety of the motorcycle fleet, and allows the fleet managers to monitor the activity of the riders in order to improve the risk management ability of the riders, and reduce accidents leading to lower direct and indirect costs for the fleet.

Shela

Customized women's health

The company develops advanced AI-based models for the early identification of risks and various health conditions among women throughout their lives, while looking at the pregnancy period as a window that allows a glimpse of the woman's metabolic health.

The company's technology uses clinical information along with a wide variety of biological markers, including the female microbiome (the population of bacteria that exists in our bodies), thereby also allowing for the personalization of preventive treatment for various complications.

Marktrix

Virtual marketing agency for small and medium businesses

The company is developing an AI and machine learning-based marketing platform that provides small and medium-sized businesses with advanced marketing capabilities. The virtual marketing agent developed by the company produces an action plan and forecast-based marketing content for each business in order to allow it to grow and succeed.

FertiliFit

Customized fertilization

FertiliFit uses big data and machine learning-based algorithms to personalize fertility treatments for women. By analyzing information on a broad medical background, the company aims to increase the success rates of fertility treatments and reduce the number of treatments required, thus reducing the emotional, physical and financial burden on the patients.

Alison AI

The secrets of viral videos

The company develops AI-based solutions for social media advertisers. The company enables its customers to understand the main factors for the success of videos posted on social media in order to continue producing successful content time and time again. In addition, the company's product compares the videos of the company's customers to the videos of the competitors and provides targeted recommendations according to different platforms, channels and operating systems.

Faireez

Task-based house cleaning service

Faireez is a platform that offers task-based cleaning services for homes by connecting cleaners with property management companies. The platform is based on data research and advanced algorithms and allows you to sign up for monthly subscriptions that include three to four weekly visits based on tasks rather than hours. The platform aims to rebrand the cleaning and maintenance industry similar to what Uber did for taxi drivers.

DOTS

Nitrate monitoring to improve agriculture

DOTS has developed an innovative technology for continuous monitoring of the nitrate levels in soil in real time, in order to allow farmers to make decisions about soil fertilization, while continuously using the opening conditions in the soil, with the aim of optimizing the use of fertilizers and, accordingly, reducing water pollution and greenhouse gas emissions resulting from excess fertilizers. The company's technology is based on sensors and advanced data analysis, and offers insights to farmers that will enable dynamic decision-making that will lead to a significant reduction in fertilization and much more efficient and green agriculture.

NOF - Natural Offset Farming

Cooling to extend plant life

NOF is a technology company that serves as an arm that connects the cooling needs of the farmer and the polluters committed to getting rid of the carbon dioxide they emit. The company uses carbon dioxide to provide advanced cooling solutions, while enriching the plants with carbon dioxide to increase yields. The patented cooling product provides energy efficient cooling of air, water or surfaces. The company focuses on various applications in precision agriculture and post-harvest or collection solutions for various crops.

Profisea Labs

Optimization of cloud costs in the organization

The company develops a cloud management platform that combines artificial intelligence to manage and optimize cloud costs in the organization, including the accessibility of all cloud resources through an interactive and tangible interface, executive reports and safety insights. The company guarantees savings of up to 75% in cloud costs.

MadeRight

Green packaging from mushrooms

MadeRight turns mushrooms into 21st century materials manufacturing plants. The company's first product is sustainable plastic capsules that integrate into the existing supply chain and packaging machines, and cost similarly. The company does this by fermenting fungi grown on organic industrial waste to create new biological materials that are mixed with fossil plastics and bio-plastics. The capsule provides a sustainable, human-safe solution and integrates seamlessly into the existing supply chain.

Super Spectra

Real-time medical diagnosis

The company develops a device for early diagnosis and disease monitoring in real time. The device relies on the identification of markers in the body fluids, without the need for an invasive procedure, and therefore the diagnosis is without the risks of radiation, infection and pain and it allows for frequent tests.

NoledgeLoss

Creating customer profiles

A SaaS platform that uses artificial intelligence to help businesses collect, organize and use knowledge generated by customer-facing employees. The company's AI-based features help businesses update the customer database with details such as comments on interactions, link them to the customer profile and analyze patterns and trends.

The company's solution provides an answer to the challenges that companies face in preserving information of customers and minimizing the negative impact of employee turnover.