Wednesday, June 2 – The second cohort of PlayBeyondBio 2021 is being launched . The collaborative initiative is being led by the British-Swedish pharma giant, AstraZeneca, the international VC fund JVP, the international consulting firm Accenture, and Margalit Startup City Community, in partnership with Amazon AWS and the Shaare Zedek Medical Center.
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Applications for this exclusive program will be accepted until June 18th, and at the end of the application process, up to 8 promising Israeli startups active in the field of digital health will be selected to participate.
The aim of the program is to identify companies that are developing technologies and tools to improve prediction and diagnosis of the diseases faced by the health systems of the new era. The initiative will focus on three central clinical areas which are amongst the leading causes of death around the world: oncology, heart disease and respiratory illnesses.
The selected startups that join the program will benefit from close mentorship by key senior experts , access to a global network of partners and health systems, as well as opportunities for pilots and investments. The goal is to create a fast-track for advancing participating companies’ ability to commercialize their product and implement it with the help of the program partners.
Israel is home to many companies that operate in the digital health space that have the wherewithal to produce solutions in the worlds of disease detection and prediction, including making diagnoses. The program’s partners will support the selected companies with a goal of accelerating and expanding their implementation and commercialization processes to help make their products accessible to health systems around the globe.
Erel Margalit, Founder and Chairman of JVP and Margalit Startup City says, “Erel Margalit, Founder and Chairman of JVP and Margalit Startup City says, “The future of the healthcare system is data-based medicine across all areas, from prediction and diagnosis of diseases through discovering new drugs and more effective treatments. This is a field with huge potential for advanced technologies that combine AI, machine learning, remote sensors, and image processing. This is a real revolution and Israeli innovation has the chance to be a leader in this new era, starting today.”
The current initiative continues the success of the PlayBeyondBio2020 program which was launched at the height of the COVID-19 crisis last year. Nine young startups, selected from approximately 100 applicants, participated in last year’s program. This unique program will provide substantial added value to the local ecosystem and to the global healthcare market.
Ohad Goldberg, Company President, AstraZeneca Israel says, “We understand today that it is not possible to disassociate medicinal treatment from other aspects of patient care. We appreciate the importance of breakthrough technological developments capable of providing patients with novel, effective solutions. Over the past few years, disease prediction and early diagnoses are increasing in importance owing to their ability to positively influence treatment prognoses. As such, at AstraZeneca in general, and at the company’s Israeli offices specifically, we’ve decided to invest in a multitude of efforts geared towards providing health systems with better tools.”
Through the use of technology, information systems and databases, it is possible today to make more accurate and earlier diagnosis of diseases, and even to detect risks of developing diseases. Leveraging rich data and advanced analytics, policy makers and health organizations will be able to proactively estimate how to manage specific populations, to develop prevention and early diagnosis models, and even to share data with individuals and communities, empowering them to make decisions.
Shimon Elkabetz, Accenture Israel, Country Managing Director:“ If the past year has proven anything, it’s the importance of nurturing and supporting ventures that combine medicine and technology, creating a brighter future for all of us. As a company that has taken as its mantle the values of innovation and technological progress, we are proud to collaborate with other international companies in the local ecosystem and to help new technologies push ahead. I have no doubt that this partnership, which puts Israeli entrepreneurs and the groundbreaking technologies created here at center stage, will serve as a fruitful launchpad for revolutionary medical solutions that will help patients in Israel and around the world, and will improve their quality of life.”
About AstraZeneca
AstraZeneca is a leading international pharmaceutical company, driven by innovation, that initiates and advances the research, development, and marketing of novel prescription drugs. The company is active in a number of core areas, including cancer, heart and blood vessels, metabolic and respiratory illnesses, areas in which the company has developed groundbreaking medications. The company operates in over 100 countries around the globe and in 2007 AstraZeneca Israel was established as the international company’s official representative in Israel. AstraZeneca was selected as the world’s most innovative drug company by the IDEA Pharma international index owing to the impressive scope of its future drug pipeline and pioneering clinical research. The company has a number of innovation centers and technological incubators around the world, including, amongst others, in China, Sweden and France. https://www.astrazeneca.com/.
About JVP
JVP was founded in 1993 by Dr. Erel Margalit, is an internationally renowned VC fund. JVP has raised $1.5 billion to date, and has been listed numerous times by Preqin, and other rankings, as one of the top-six consistently performing VC firms worldwide.
JVP has built over 150 companies, leveraging a broad network of partners and market expertise to help companies become global market leaders. Among the pioneering firms of the Israeli VC industry, JVP has been instrumental in building some of the world’s largest companies to emerge, facilitating numerous IPOs on NASDAQ, including CyberArk Software (NASDAQ: CYBR, $4.7 billion mkt. cap.), QLIK Technologies (NASDAQ: QLIK, then $4 billion mkt. cap.) and Cogent Communications (NASDAQ: CCOI, $3 billion mkt. cap.) as well as many large industry sales. JVP invests in early-stage start-ups and later-stage companies in the areas of artificial intelligence, big data, cyber-security, digital health, enterprise software, insuretech, fintech, and more. Over the past decade JVP has spearheaded the creation of international Centers of Excellence, including the AI and Media center in Jerusalem, the Cyber center in Beer Sheva, the Foodtech and Agritech center in the Galilee, the International Cyber and FinTech center in NYC, in partnership with NYC/EDC and the leading universities of the city. Recently JVP has decided to open a newly emerging center in the UAE that will be a new chapter for Israeli technologies to engage with the region. https://jvpvc.com
About Accenture
Accenture is a global professional services company with leading capabilities in digital, cloud and security. Combining unmatched experience and specialized skills across more than 40 industries, we offer Strategy and Consulting, Interactive, Technology and Operations services—all powered by the world’s largest network of Advanced Technology and Intelligent Operations centers. Our 537,000 people deliver on the promise of technology and human ingenuity every day, serving clients in more than 120 countries. We embrace the power of change to create value and shared success for our clients, people, shareholders, partners and communities. www.accenture.com
About Margalit Startup City Community
Dr. Erel Margalit, Founder and Chairman of Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP), one of the top six venture capital firms (VCs) worldwide. Recognized as one of the architects of the Start-up Nation, Dr. Margalit is a world-renowned business and social entrepreneur who developed a private public partnership (PPP) model to create tech-driven ecosystems in Jerusalem and Beer Sheva. Israel Initiative 2020 is a leading Israeli NGO (ii2020) was established by Dr. Erel Margalit in 2013, based on his socio-economic vision to advance higher quality employment within these regions. Recognizing the huge opportunity for growth, Margalit Startup City Community is working to bring the innovation revolution to these regions, reducing the gaps and promoting prosperity throughout society creating seven regions of excellence from north to south.
