TechFestNW showcases cutting-edge Israeli solutions
Summary
The annual global gathering of innovators, entrepreneurs, tech companies and investors, held virtually this year from its base in Portland, Oregon, was cosponsored by ISRAEL21c. Abrahams interviewed Nimrod May, chief commercial officer of Sonarax, which transmits data over soundwaves for touch-free access, payments, authentication, location-based services, marketing and indoor positioning; Elya Tagar, VP business development for Diagnostic Robotics, and Meni Shikhman, VP business development and partnerships at TytoCare, whose home kit enables remote medical exams. Bombet Minch noted that Israeli startups had never been able to participate in the event’s PitchfestNW pitch competition due to the great distance and expense of travel. They included 3DOptix (a cloud-based optical simulation tool), 6Degrees (a wearable band allowing hands-free, motion-based control for rehabilitation and physical therapy of hand injuries); Agora (investment management software), Alephbot (real-time AI-powered guidance to optimize medical care), On-Sight (medical AI navigation software for cardiac imaging), Relate (designing and coding platform for fast, live team collaboration), Shield34 (an AI-based testing solution for Selenium coders), SpecterX (data management for cloud-driven enterprises), The Seventh Dimension (real-time cash management ecosystem) and VoiceFront (enabling online customers to use voice for their entire shopping experience). Although the winner among the 60 startup competitors was local – Portland-based sustainable 3D-printed shoe manufacturer HILOS — founder Elias Stahl moved to Israel in 2012 and served in the army for three years.