JERUSALEM and BEIJING, June 21,
2016 /PRNewswire/ --
Startups to Gain Exposure from Investors throughout the World
and Meet Chinese Tech Giants. Israel Segment of Competition Led by
Israeli VC Fund JVP in Cooperation with Chinese Management
Consulting Firm Shengjing Group.
The three Israeli startups chosen to represent Israel at the finals of the Shengjing
Global Innovation Awards 2016 in Beijing this August are
genetic-therapy-for-cancer-developer Boomerang, mobile
speech therapy startup NiNiSpeech and creator of autonomous
navigation system for drones, AerialGuard.
(Photo:
http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160621/381793 )
(Photo:
http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160621/381794 )
(Photo:
http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160621/381798 )
The winners will compete against startups from the U.S.,
Europe and China for prizes worth $1.5M (prize money, without equity), the
opportunity for investment from a special fund of $25M established by the Shengjing Group for the
competition finalists and exposure of their technological solutions
to investors and leading companies from China and throughout the world. The finalists
are expected to go on a road show which will include meetings with
Chinese tech giants, as well as extensive coverage from Chinese
media.
The Global Innovation Awards were established by leading Chinese
management consulting firm Shengjing Group and are taking place in
China, the U.S., Europe, Latin
America and Israel.
The Israel segment of the
competition is led by internationally recognized VC firm Jerusalem
Venture Partners (JVP). Local competition partners include global
technology corporations with strong footholds in Israel and other leading Israeli firms
including EMC, Microsoft, Poalim Hi-Tech, Ernst &Young Israel,
HFN, Nautilus by Aol and PR Newswire.
The Israel segment of the
competition was launched in March this year. 140 Israeli startups
entered the Israel segment of the
global competition from a wide variety of fields. The three winners
were selected from the eight companies chosen for the semifinal
competition by judges from amongst the leaders of the Israeli
hi-tech ecosystem.
This year, a wide variety of startups participated in the
competition from a number of different sectors, including FinTech,
Pharma, Medical Devices, Healthcare IT, Enterprise Software,
Internet, Media, IoT and more.
Israeli startup DiACardio, which is
revolutionizing heart ultrasound, was named the winner of the 1st
annual Global Innovation Awards during last year's finals in
Beijing.
"We put a lot of emphasis on choosing companies with solid
global potential which understand market trends on a worldwide
basis," said Yoav Tzruya, JVP Partner. "There is a lot of deep
technology in the Global Innovation Awards competition this year
and this is a true testament to the Israeli tech ecosystem."
"This year, we are pleased to see that there are a wide variety
of companies in the competition, including those with specific
applicability to the Chinese market," said Sherrie Wang, Senior Partner, Shengjing.
"DiACardio already has its first Chinese customer. We have already
invested over $60 million in
Israel."
Also participating were: Xueling Cao, Director at Shengjing;
Kobi Rozengarten, Raffi Kesten and Gadi
Tirosh, Managing Partners at JVP; Fiona Darmon, Partner & COO at JVP;
Hanan Haviv, Partner at HFN;
Yoram Teitz, Managing Partner
at EY; and Rakefet Sudri, Head of Sales at PR Newswire
Israel. Participating judges included: Steven Katz, Principal Investor at EMC
Ventures; Amir Pinchas, Head
of Operations & Portfolio at Microsoft Accelerator;
Ari Aslan, Partner at EY;
Yossi Vinitski, Head of High
Tech at Bank Hapoalim; Merav
Rotem-Naaman, Head of Nautilus by Aol; Ronen
Hausirer, Partner, Technology Licensing Group of the Hi-Tech
Department at HFN; Yoav
Kantor, Key Account Manager at PR Newswire Israel.
The Three Finalists that Will Represent Israel in the Beijing
Finals:
Boomerang is developing a genetic device for cancer
therapy based on a concept of a logic AND gate: the activation of
our CRISPR-based system is dependent on the existence of two
cancer-specific markers inside the cell, promising an extremely
specific treatment. Using advanced gene editing tools, our system
is able to effectively eliminate cancer cells by activating suicide
genes. Moreover, our system can be potentially designed according
to the genetics of each patient's tumor, paving the way to
personalized medicine.
NiNiSpeech revolutionizes speech therapy using unique
mobile technologies. Speech therapy is a $30B annual industry, still acting in traditional
manual fashion, resulting in very poor outcome - 84% relapse rate
in stuttering therapy. NiNiSpeech offers the first of its kind
digital solution that boosts the therapist's and patients'
experience, maximizes outcome, and reduces costs. The NiNiSpeech
system is used in top clinics around the world and is endorsed by
key opinion leaders. NiNiSpeech has won prestigious awards in the
USA, Europe and China for its novel disruptive products.
Aerial Guard is a software company that develops advanced
autonomous navigation systems for unmanned vehicles. We target the
civilian drone industry and help drone manufacturers to automate
their drones by providing them with autonomous capabilities such as
sense and avoid and intelligent navigation in compliance with the
drone mission.
About ShengJing Group - ShengJing Group is the largest
and leading innovation service platform in China and devoted to setting up a global
innovative ecosystem. The company has provided innovative business
training to 20,000 Chinese entrepreneurs and invested almost
$1 billion FoFs and direct
investments in 2015. It is devoted to investing in and setting up
the networks and platforms of top global investment institutions.
In 2014 alone, ShengJing, Jiacheng FOF Platform has invested in
over 15 brand investment institutions and incubators with the
investment scale of nearly RMB 2
billion yuan. In 2015, Shengjing invested almost
$1 billion include FoFs and direct
investments in China, USA and Israel.
(http://www.shengjing360.com/channels/186.html)
About Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP) - Jerusalem
Venture Partners ("JVP") is a prominent global venture capital fund
based out of the JVP Media Quarter in Jerusalem and the JVP Cyber Labs in
Beer Sheva. Established in 1993 as
part of the renowned Yozma program, JVP has raised over
$1 billion to date and was ranked by
Preqin as one of the top-ten consistently performing VC firms
worldwide based on IRR and net returns. JVP has built over 120
companies, leveraging a broad network of partners and market
expertise to help them to become global market leaders. JVP has
enjoyed 29 notable exists - 12 IPOs and 17 M&As - the most
recent being NASDAQ-listed CyberArk (NASDAQ: CYBR) and the recent
acquisition of Altair Semiconductors by the Sony Corporation. JVP
is renowned for not only creating companies from seed and driving
them through to exit by leveraging the team's strong technical and
operational expertise, but also for the numerous financial
transactions fund management led in several companies to further
increase the group's stake and substantially increase the upside
and exit value for the fund's investors. (http://www.jvpvc.com)
Contact:
Pnina Ben-Ami
Senior Director of Marketing, JVP
pnina@jvpvc.com
SOURCE Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP)