Category: Innovation

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Valerann: The Smart Road Startup Is Now Being Implemented in Tel Aviv

Israel’s Smart Road startup Valerann, is now getting its first pilot in Tel Aviv which will see the Ayalon highway replace the standard road studs with smart sensors. These sensors will relay information in real-time on everything happening on the road.  This data will be used to detect risks and prevent accidents.  Road planners and engineers can use the information to better optimize intersections. The Smart Road System can be used to automate traffic control centers and its wireless sensory and IoT system supports connected and autonomous vehicles.

The Valerann team has been seeing lots of success since it first launched in August of 2016.  They have won numerous awards like Highways UK, the Intelligent Infrastructure Hub 2017 winner,  the Pitch 2017 Awards, and  was selected as one of six winning startups to join the Transurban Smart Highways Challenge & Innovation Lab.

Valerann – Channel 10 from Valerann on Vimeo.



Valerann is testing the system in two other pilots in UK and the US.  These pilots are meant to give the company real-time data to better enhance their algorithm.  If these are successful, expect these studs to be implemented in more areas as autonomous vehicle use begins to expand.

“It is clear to everyone that it would not be right for the autonomous car to work alone,” CEO Gabriel Jacobson said to TOI. “It must work with an ecosystem of technologies and entities and be part of a basket of solutions.”

With Mobile Eye making waves in the autonomous vehicular space and now Valerann, Israel is becoming a transporation tech giant.

 

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Israel’s New Drone Evacuates Wounded, Delivers Cargo In IDF Demonstration

Tactical Robotics (a subsidiary of Urban Aeronautics Ltd), based in Yavne. Israel, successfully performed a first “mission representative” demonstration for its lead customer, the Israel Defence Forces.  In the demonstration, which took place at the Israel Combat Rescue and Emergency Medicine conference in Megiddo the company presented Cormorant’s capability to be the first UAS system fielded for unmanned casualty evacuation missions.

According to the company’s press release:

“The demonstration showcased the drone taking off with a load of cargo, preforming a pre-planned flight to a specified point of delivery, offloading the cargo, and loading of a specialized, medical training manikin simulating a casualty which was then returned to the point of origin.

A monitor supplied by the IDF’s chief surgeon Trauma Branch (see Tactical Robotics’ May 2017 update) transmits vital information to the crews on the ground, in addition to a video camera for two-way communication with the patient. With the exception of the loading of the ‘casualty’ and off-loading of cargo, the entire simulated mission was performed autonomously.”



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Liat Sade-Sternberg: “The Israeli startup ecosystem is a very supportive and very welcoming environment.”

As part of my ongoing series of interviews with up and coming Israeli tech leader I had the opportunity to sit down with Liat Sade-Sternberg,  CEO and Fuse.it.

Hi Liat.  Thank you for speaking with us.

How has the road from early stage startup to a growth stage company been in the tech industry?

Everything as a startup is challenging. In order to stick around and create value for your company, you have to be creative and fast moving every step of the way. Once you can actually see there is an opportunity and changes in the market, you have to react very fast. The road from Fusic to fuse.it was an immediate reaction once we understood there was a better opportunity in our industry.

Due to Israel’s reputation in the hi-tech scene, do you feel extra pressure to succeed?

I don’t necessarily think there’s an extra pressure to succeed, but I think that the Israeli startup ecosystem is a very supportive and very welcoming environment. There are so many other startups and people in your shoes that it helps you gain the confidence to get it done. The pressure is common for most of the startups – getting funding, hiring the most suitable team members etc. The main differentiation in the Israeli ecosystem is when you market in the US and you have to be closer to your market.

How has being a female entrepreneur in the tech industry affected your success?

It’s hard to tell. When discussing fuse.it, I don’t speak about myself as a female leading a startup, I just lead the startup as anyone else would. The main difference I have encountered isn’t because I am a female, it’s because I am a mom. Getting drinks after work is not something that I’ll typically do with other entrepreneurs or investors because I am going home to my kids. I am more focused during my day and try to be very efficient on the job.

What was the moment in time when you began to believe in your startup? Like this is going to succeed.

From the very beginning. If you don’t believe in it from the start, you won’t be able to take it to the next level. It’s your job to convince brands and investors that your product will give them value. If you can’t see the value from the start – you will have a very hard time convincing others to see it too.

How did you come up with the idea for Fuse.it?

There were a few indications that led to the idea of fuse.it. We had the music experience from the past with Fusic, but as we remade the app – we saw a need for other content, such as entertainment and videos. It’s great to interact with music, but so many people don’t know how to sing and are happy to engage with other content. This gave us the idea to take the product that we already had and expand it into something bigger. Before we did that we had meetings with potential partners, demos that we shared with users and once we had the right indications we started to move.

Can you tell us about it?

The everyday user cannot create viral or unique UGC, only 1% of the users actively create new content, while the other 99% of the participants only lurk. The fuse.it app brings viral UGC creation abilities to the everyday user, using patented AR, audio and aftereffect technology with one-click experience for the end user.

fuse.it users can interact with a range of different 3D animated characters and personalities, to easily create unique, funny and quirky videos. With just one tap the characters come to life, enabling users to record themselves interacting with them in their own surroundings to create videos they can share with their friends. The fuse.it proprietary solution automatically utilizes single camera footage to project the augmented reality characters in the app.




Additionally, fuse.it allows people to become part of their favorite videos and pop culture, such as memes and breaking news clips, by letting users insert themselves directly into the action and dictate how scenes play out. Users can have ‘conversations’ with politicians and media personalities, sing and dance with celebrities, become part of famous memes and create their own viral news clips. fuse.it technology allows users to be blended into any video in real-time using smart camera input manipulation, from 3D transformation to color effects and more.

What are your future plans for Fuse.it?

Our main focus in the coming months is to grow and bring on board more partners.

Do you have advice for young entrepreneurs?

Listen to the feedback you get from users, potential investors and potential partners.

Do deep research on the market before you jump into the venture.

Meet with the people you’re targeting with your startup.

THEN start working on it. It’s easy for YOU to fall in love with your start up, the hard part is convincing others to as well.

Find good mentors and people with experience and involve them in your dream, it will save you a lot of time and mistakes.

TEAM – hire the smartest and most talented people to join your team.

Thanks so much Liat and best of luck.

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Gil Eyal: “I definitely feel a responsibility to represent Israel in a positive way”

I had the opportunity to sit down with Gil Eyal, CEO and CoFounder of HYPRBrands.  Gil is a successful CEO of a fast growing startup located in New York.  As a CEO with roots in Israel, it was fascinating interview from both a technology angle as well as learning how Israeli can fare in the American startup scene..

Thanks Gil for speaking with us.

Can you  tell me how the road from early stage startup to a growth stage company been in the tech industry?

Very challenging, but the challenges have changed. If early on the main challenge was to convince people that the world I’m describing will exist, today it’s all about the numbers.

Our vision was always different than most of the industries. We believe in a world where there are millions of influential individuals that are easily approached by anyone with a brand or agenda and can be utilized to get messages across to interested individuals. We believe humans are wired this way – we surround ourselves with people we trust and consult in them before deciding where to eat, what to drive and how much to spend.

This new world requires a large amount of technology – discovery, evaluation, outreach, measurement – all of these become non-trivial when you shift from a world of 5,000 celebrities to ten million influencers.

Due to Israel’s reputation in the hi-tech scene, do you feel extra pressure to succeed?

I think being Israeli has been a strong net positive. The Israeli community is extremely helpful and you develop thicker skin after working in an Israel environment for years. The pressure to succeed has to be internal or you can’t make it as a founder. There are too many tough moments – too many ideas that pop in your head and for a second look like they might be better than the one you’re working on because you’re currently stuck in a dip.

I definitely feel a responsibility to represent Israel in a positive way – especially in areas where stereotypically Israeli founders are expected to struggle. We pride ourselves on the culture at HYPR and on our relationship with our investors and customers.

Can you tell us a bit about HYPR? How did the idea come to you?

As a marketer at heart, I’m a data fanatic. Over the years, I’ve gotten used to having access to more and more sophisticated audience demographic data and targeting solutions. Then I found myself in a talent buying role for a startup named Mobli, which was an early player in the photo and video sharing space in 2010.




I ended up doing deals with several hundred big name celebrities and social media stars. No one called them influencers back then, and there wasn’t much I could find about their audiences. I just knew they had a lot of followers and expected them to drive their fans to Mobli by using the product.

The truth is I should have known we would only have partial success because I knew nothing about the audience. I would never buy ad space in a magazine without knowing who reads it. Why would I be blinded by a vanity metric like the number of followers without knowing who they are, whether they’re active and whether they’d have any interest in my product?

I knew I wouldn’t be the only one with this problem. As influencer marketing was becoming mainstream I knew people would be looking for the same kind of data they see in other areas of marketing. The idea for HYPR came from wanting to apply traditional marketing fundamentals to an industry that had no data. HYPR’s audience demographic data is sourced through partnerships with some of the largest social networks in the World, coupled with groundbreaking technology that treats influencer profiles the same way Google treats websites. HYPR uses a combination of image recognition, voice transcription and natural language processing to combine with first party disclosed data from over four billion different accounts, to create the most accurate and timely analysis of the influencer world.

What’s is it like being an Israeli hi-tech leader outside of Israel?

As someone who grew up partially in the US and partially in Israel, I feel at home in both places. It has been amazing seeing how the New York tech scene has grown, and how Israeli startups have begun to make their mark, with more than 400 Israeli startups in NYC alone. I try to be accessible to young founders – especially ones that plan on moving to NYC, with advice and introductions.

People tend to lump things in groups. Everything I do reflects on Israel and on Israelis and that’s always something I’m aware of.

What has been the most challenging aspect of finding success in the hi-tech scene been?

For me it has definitely been the psychological aspect of running a company. It’s a very lonely role even if the people around you want to be supportive. Making decisions without all the information is a daily task and not for the faint of heart. The ups and downs of startup life were not meant for normal human consumption and it takes a long time to get used to them.

Thanks so much Gil and best of luck.

 

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Markets in Turmoil – Can Cryptocurrencies Save the US from the Debt Bomb?

It is always amusing to hear people dismissively claim that Bitcoin is a ‘bubble’ or that it isn’t backed by anything. What most tend to overlook is that the ‘real bubble’ exists with all fiat currencies, which are all backed by nothing. As of this writing, the total cryptocurrency market cap is approximately $300 billion (down from last month’s high of around $800 billion). When compared to the global money supply and global debt markets, the cryptocurrency space is miniscule. As I’ve said a few months ago, the current system of central banking will end and the only remaining question is what will replace it.

There is no better example of a fiat currency bubble than the US dollar. While the tax cut just signed into law has provided immediate benefits to the US economy, few have attempted to address the enormous national debt burden.




Here are some basic facts on the US fiscal condition:

Historically, the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates to prevent inflation. For example, during the prior ‘tightening cycle’ (2004-2006), the fed funds rate was increased by 400 basis points (~1% – ~5%). Today, the current fed funds rate is 1.5%. A recent CNBC report forecast a 2.24% fed funds rate at the end of 2018, up about a quarter point from the prior survey. The Federal Reserve can in no way deviate from these projected increases. If it did, interest payments on newly issued debt and on maturing debt would skyrocket which would further exacerbate the national debt problem. Massive reductions in government expenditures to reduce the deficit would lead to societal chaos. Discounting some windfall capital recovery (not likely even from this executive order), the only way the US Treasury can realistically continue to pay interest on this massive debt is by keeping rates near historic lows with small yearly increases. Optimistically, low interest rates would enable the US to grow its way out of its debt. Perhaps, that is why the President has maintained such a close relationship with major banks (reversing his campaign promise). In December, the Trump administration waived punishmentfor these banks over prior crimes.

Last Friday, the 10-year Treasury yield surged to 2.845 percent, the highest since January 2014. Yields closed lower on Monday as the historic selloff in stocks sparked demand for low risk debt. Conversely, some have attributed the major drop in the stock market to long term concerns over bond yields. Since 2009, the Federal Reserve has engaged in massive money printing (i.e. QE1, QE2, etc.) to ‘stimulate the economy’. If this were sound monetary policy, Venezuela and Zimbabwe would be beacons of economic success (which they are not). The US is the beneficiary of the US dollar’s role as the world’s reserve currency. Multiple iterations of QE (money printing) have enabled the Federal Reserve to purchase treasuries and effectively keep interest rates low while capital has flowed into assets such as real estate. A future ‘black swan’ event (like the Chinese selling off their US treasury holdings or a bank run) may occur when bond yields rise suddenly. In that case there must be yet another iteration of QE.

So, we have established two points:

  1. The US can only gradually raise the fed funds rate over the next three years.
  2. The US must print money to remain solvent in case of rising bond yields.

Fundamentally, printing money to pay your expenses should be considered a credit event (default). There are times where a devaluation of a nation’s currency is necessary. One of the most egregious examples of this was in 1933 when President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 6102 which required all in the US to exchange their gold for $20.67 per ounce. Over the next year, the president then raised the official gold price to $35 per ounce, effectively cutting 40% off the US dollar. There has been global discussion (primarily from China) of the US dollar’s demise as the world’s reserve currency. In the past, precious metals were the sole alternative to fiat currencies. Now, cryptocurrencies have emerged as a possible alternative. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu even stated in December that banks will eventually disappear due to blockchain technology.

Cryptocurrencies have exhibited massive volatility losing 30% of its combined value over the past 24 hours and 60% over the past month. Lately, there has been a slew of negative news in the cryptocurrency space. This past weekend, most major US credit card issuers including Bank of America, JP Morgan and Citigroup banned the use of their cards to buy Bitcoin or other digital currencies. Prepared testimony for Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) chairmen was released yesterday and suggest that the US government could slap further regulations on cryptocurrencies in the near future.




Still, the unprecedented rise in cryptocurrency prices (part of the ongoing global currency reset) has enabled an effective stealth devaluation of the US dollar. There has also been evidence of positive benefits to Japan’s economy from cryptocurrencies. Nomura analysts estimate a wealth effect from unrealized gains on Bitcoin trading by Japanese investors and a potential boost to real GDP growth to Japan’s economy of about .3%.

One of the characteristics required for a cryptocurrency to be defined as money is to act as a medium of exchange. There have been all sorts of rumors that major Internet and traditional retailers will start accepting cryptocurrencies as payment in the US (they already do in Japan). Recently, Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz said he believes digital currency will catch on with consumers, though not necessarily Bitcoin. While there is plenty of speculative and unsupported euphoria, any chief executive of a public retail firm has a fiduciary duty to their shareholders to investigate the acceptance of other types of payment methods. As of a week ago, interest remained strong as over 1 million people joined a waitlist to register for cryptocurrency trading with Robinhood.

For a great perspective on the practical use of cryptocurrencies, I highly recommend watching Mike Maloney’s video on the crypto revolution. Note that there are other amazing technologies like holochain and hashgraph that may compliment or even compete with blockchain platforms. For those concerned about a future ban on cryptocurrencies, please watch this video from Andreas Antonopoulos (well-known speaker on bitcoin). An outright ban on cryptocurrencies in the US is highly unlikely. It would be a mistake to think the US government will accept some kind of market crash just to prevent a rise in cryptocurrency prices.  In addition to any economic ‘wealth effect’, the US economy can benefit from the efficiencies in industries that use blockchain technologies. One of those areas is social media where censorship issues with Facebook can be avoided. Steemit, a social media platform with virtual currency rewards that runs over the Steem blockchain, is an alternative that has garnered attention recently.

Published in News with Chai