Tech Talk:Israeli start-ups take Vegas

Large presence of Israeli companies to showcase their products at Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

By ARIEL SHAPIRA
THE CONSUMER Electronics Show in Las Vegas is where industry professionals meet every January to showcase their new products or to network during conference programs and forge impromptu connections at the show’s special events. (photo credit: Courtesy)
THE CONSUMER Electronics Show in Las Vegas is where industry professionals meet every January to showcase their new products or to network during conference programs and forge impromptu connections at the show’s special events.
(photo credit: Courtesy)
CES Las Vegas, the Consumer Electronics Show, is the world’s gathering place for all who thrive on the business of electronics and technology.
It’s where industry professionals meet every January to showcase their new products or to network during conference programs and forge impromptu connections at the show’s special events.
Last year’s CES had record-breaking attendance: More than 170,000 attendees from across the globe gathered at the show, which spread out over 204,387 square meters of exhibition space.
Here is a snapshot of a few select Israelis companies that will be promoting their technologies at CES 2016:
WonderVoice: Unlike other voice-interaction interfaces, Wonder- Voice works as your personalized voice assistant for social networking and messaging. It exclusively offers quality, hands-free interaction that is not confined to a limited number of apps defined by your OS provider.
WonderVoice includes intelligent interaction with favorite and fundamental apps, such as Facebook, Twitter, Spotify, Youtube, Glympse and Pocket, as well as services aiming to help drivers, such as detection of vacant parking space or sharing of location. It liberates the user to vocally connect with all content hands-free. No longer do users need to reach out for their device. Instead, their device reaches out to them whenever an interesting or relevant activity takes place within their apps.
WonderVoice demonstrates the unique technology of IoT developed by the company. The core technology is similar to the one running on the app, but it is more focused on the “things” used.
StikBox: Jerusalem-based StikBox recently launched a crowdfunding campaign that is making waves in the international media. It is a multipurpose smartphone case that has a builtin, secret selfie stick that can easily be pulled out or slid back in. The case can also be folded open to double as a kickstand.
StoreDot: StoreDot is a pioneer in nanotechnology that introduced a battery that is capable of charging your smartphone in 30 seconds and your electric car in five minutes. It will be showcasing its new and improved battery, MolecuLED, which is based on organic materials.
Infinity AR: While consumers wait impatiently for information regarding launch dates of Microsoft and Google mixed-reality products HoloLens and Magic Leap, Infinity AR is quickly developing an incredible augmented-reality product that comes with a much lighter price tag. Visitors to CES 2016 will be able to try on Infinity AR’s double-lens Lumus glasses and watch simulations of the human body or the solar system.
Innovid raises $27.5m.
For its fifth round of fund-raising, the NewSpring Capital Group has joined Innovid’s previous investors – Sequoia Capital, Genesis Partners, Cisco Ventures and T-Venture – in raising $27.5 million for Innovid.
Innovid has created a single-point platform where you can create, deliver and measure video campaigns from a single-point solution.
This round of funding follows Innovid’s annual growth of 420 percent.
The company has more than 220 giant customers, including leading worldwide advertisers such as Best Buy, Chrysler, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble and Walmart.
Innovid offers exclusive video-publishing services to more than 40% of the top 200 television advertisers in the US.
Haifa experiences economic revival
About 300 leaders in the fields of hi-tech, academia, business and health care in Haifa participated last week in a special forum led by MK Erel Margalit and Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav. The focus of the gathering was to brainstorm ways to turn Haifa into an international magnet for medical devices and semiconductors, thereby creating thousands of new jobs.
Following the opening of the successful cyber park in Beersheba, the Media Quarter in Jerusalem and the medicinal food center in the Galilee, Margalit and Yahav said they are excited to embark on this new project in Haifa.
“The State of Israel has been ignoring Haifa,” Margalit said. “Haifa should not need to look to Tel Aviv for success.
Haifa has the necessary tools and the right conditions to become an international hub for medical devices and semiconductors. The city’s ecosystem combines academia and hospitals on the one hand and hi-tech and defense industries on the other. This combination has created one of the strongest groups of human capital in the country.”
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Translated by Hannah Hochner.