Featured Innovator :: Sight Diagnostics
Founded in 2011 and based in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, Sight Diagnostics (SightDx) has developed a device for faster, cheaper, fully automated blood diagnostics using advanced computer vision and machine learning technology. To date, the company has reportedly raised $25 million in three rounds.
Investors from Greater China include:
Go Capital
New Alliance Capital
ForMED (Taiwan)
The company’s first product, an automated Malaria diagnosis platform called Parasight addresses a total market estimated at $600 million per year and is currently sold and used in medical centers in India, Africa and Europe.
SightDx’s automated blood diagnostics technology is now being applied to a new platform which will fill a niche within the $20 billion complete blood count (CBC) market. The new product will be a point-of-care CBC platform, available for use in doctors’ offices and emergency medical centers around the world. Currently, 75% of clinics are unable to conduct CBC tests on-site and are legally required to send blood samples to certified labs. However, due to highly accurate clinical results and optimistic regulatory expert opinions, Sight Dx believes that their device will be the first to waive the certification requirement, making the solution the first CBC testing device available for any clinic.
Having signed a distribution agreement for the CBC platform in Africa, India and Europe, the company has also signed with an unnamed Chinese distributor which will secure regulatory clearance in China.
Beyond malaria and CBC, Sight Dx’s computer vision technology has the potential to unlock advanced diagnostic approaches to numerous additional diseases and provide more accurate and cheaper testing for patients.
Sources: SightDx, Startup Nation Central, OurCrowd
Featured Accelerator :: The Israel Global Accelerator Program
Last week saw the launch of the Israel Global Accelerator Program, backed by Israel’s Ministry of Economy and in partnership with Beijing co-working space Day Day Up and Chinese consulting firm Shengjing Group.
The Trade and Investment Mission at the Embassy of Israel in Beijing initiated the Accelerator, seeing a need to address specific hurdles that Israeli startups face when trying to enter the Chinese market. Oftentimes the challenges that startups face are either not addressed at all, or solutions are difficult to find in one place.
The Accelerator will select ten Israeli startups for a six-month session beginning mid-October. Head of the Trade and Investment Mission, Ophir Gore, stated, “The goal is to give the startups everything they need to enter the Chinese market.”
“Everything” includes (but is not limited to):
Assistance with nuances in the Chinese business culture and language, as well as other practical, every-day challenges;
Setting up a Chinese corporate entity, obtaining visas and work permits, other HR issues;
Finding and working with local accountants and local attorneys;
Business development and meeting potential business partners or investors;
China-specific operational and management consulting; and
Securing a work space housing Israeli startups already in China as well as Chinese startups.
Partners Day Day Up and Shengjing Group were chosen for their expertise and experience in working with Israeli companies, helping them enter the Chinese market and operate there.
What’s more, the Trade and Investment Mission, the Ministry of Economics and the partners will not seek financial interest from the Accelerator’s startups. The startups will receive all of this for free. The Trade and Investment Mission’s success indicators are not monetary; their only interest and goal is to get the startups into the Chinese market via Chinese partnerships and/or investment.
The Accelerator will send five startups to Beijing and five to Shenzhen. The selection process is underway and startups that are interested in China but not currently operating there are encouraged to apply. An application link will be available on chinadealsinfobase.com within the next couple of weeks.
Sources: Technode and Interview with Ophir Gore
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