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LEAP Haifa, by PresenTense, will give 6 Arab led/co-led startups the opportunity to push their boundaries and breakthrough to the next stage.
OUR AIM IS SIMPLE: helping you secure your next round of investment
Hosted by Takwin Labs, Club LEAPeap is the place for CEOs to connect, share dilemmas, exchange opportunities, and mentally prepare for the next phase of their entrepreneurial journey.
As you conquer the world, our marketing and strategy experts will guide you in product validation, messaging and business model design.
An investor panel that will push you to the limit to get you ready for money-time & connect you with top legal and accounting advice.
Our tech crew will dive deep into what’s under the hood and connect you to the top experts in your field.
“Since our participation in the program, we won the 2017 mHealth Startup Competition and have launched a large pilot study in collaboration with a leading healthcare provider signed agreements with partners, and raised more funds.”
“It was great to work with the program managers who are still in touch with us and still try to assist us in any possible way. The accelerator provided us with access to great mentors and introductions to potential business partners. In addition, we had an opportunity to meet amazing founders from other startups.
“The Leap program proved extremely interesting and worthwhile. The information and courses during the program were relevant, the coordinator and teachers were friendly, helpful, and highly skilled. I would wholeheartedly recommend the Leap program to any late-stage startup or executive looking to brush up on existing skills or learn new capabilities.”
AgRobics recently won $1.8M in funding from the Bird Grant.
Leap Haifa gave us a quantum leap towards fulfilling our dream: to make a better life for millions of children around the world.
Leap handed us generously with a wide variety of tools that is taking our company to the next levels, it ranged from preparing us to pitch in front investors to connecting us with top notch advisors and collaborators.
The life of a startup is full of challenges, and statistically, most startups fail. We believe that Leap’s efforts are putting us on the brighter side of statistics, solving many of the acute challenges that we faced.
We are thankful for participating in Leap, and would warmly recommend it to any startup !
After winning several prizes from around the world, and closing a successful seed round of 2.5M$, we are in the midst of clinical trials in Kings college of London (in London and Birmingham) Hadassah medical center in Jerusalem.
LEAP Haifa, Round II starts on September 2018
With the second largest number of start-ups in the world after Silicon Valley, there is no doubt that Israel is well deserving of the moniker “The Start-Up Nation.” But our work can’t stop here. With so many diverse groups, it’s imperative that we make entrepreneurship accessible to all communities in order to improve the communities themselves and society at large.
PresenTense is leveraging the country’s high-tech entrepreneurial success and local value “to do good”- to empower individuals and communities across Israel to make a difference and create real social impact.
For over 10 years, PresenTense has been playing a pioneering role in The Start-Up Nation.
Through a series of accelerator and innovation programs, PresenTense is channeling entrepreneurship to improve society.
We launched the first social venture accelerator in Israel, the first accelerator for Arab tech entrepreneurs in Israel, the first accelerator for ultra-Orthodox women in Israel, and the first accelerator in the world for assistive technologies.
Our impact has included the launch of over 500 businesses, tech start-ups and social ventures, which are developing local economies through job growth, enriching community life through volunteer engagement, and solving core societal issues.
The Citi Foundation works to promote economic progress and improve the lives of people in low-income communities around the world. We invest in efforts that increase financial inclusion, catalyze job opportunities for youth, and reimagine approaches to building economically vibrant cities. The Citi Foundation’s “More than Philanthropy” approach leverages the enormous expertise of Citi and its people to fulfill our mission and drive thought leadership and innovation.
Pathway to Progress
Approximately 71 million youth globally are actively seeking meaningful employment. To effectively compete for economic opportunities and succeed in the 21st century economy, these young people will require a mix of education, employability, entrepreneurship, and leadership skills. The Citi Foundation is focused on programs that help young people to link education goals with leadership skills training, professional networks, and onramps to employment to increase the number of low-income youth, ages 16-25, who are able to get a job or start an income-generating business.
PresenTense
David Bar is the Program Manager. He has 14 years of experience in management, entrepreneurship and business development. David has a vast experience in developing a strategy, business development and penetration for new market & territories .
David is also the Founder and CEO of Bike Place – a startup which developing the first autonomous robot for bicycle parking and aim to promote green transportation and environmental improvement by the usage of bicycles in the urban space.
David holds a business administration and computer science degree.
PresenTense
Ariella is PresenTense’s VP Development & Operations at PresenTense.
She has 15 years of experience working in startups, VC’s and non-profits, in management, including finance, projects, human resources and senior management.
Ariella has vast understanding of strategic thinking, team leadership, organizational infrastructure building and partnership fostering.
As part of her role at PresenTense, Ariella has founded and directed accelerators and innovation programs, and consulted hundreds of entrepreneurs.
Vintage Investment Partners
Ameer is an Associate at Vintage Investment Partners, an Israel-based venture firm focused on secondary, fund of funds and late-stage technology investments in Israel, Europe and the US, with $1.5 billion under management. Before joining Vintage, Ameer held positions at EY and BDO Consulting Group. Ameer holds a BA in Accounting and Economics and an MBA, both from Tel-Aviv University, and is a Certified Public Accountant in Israel.
2bAngels
Arale Cohen, leads 2B-Angels investments and strategy. Mr. Cohen also held various executive Marketing and Business Development positions in MSN-Microsoft Israel, POLAR Investments Group & Dai Telecom. Prior to forming 2B-Angels, Arale founded Hunter Executive Placement LTD, a firm which specializes in recruiting C-level executives for the high-tech industry.
Citi
Haytham Gannam is a Relationship Associate in the Corporate Banking Team in Citi Israel, covering relationships with Citi’s multinational corporate clients.
Haytham joined Citi 3 years ago. Prior to this, Haytham worked for 4 years in various positions in local Israeli banks.
Haytham has a B.A. in Business Administration from Ben Gurion University, and is currently studying for an MBA at Tel- Aviv University”
AfterDox
Irit is the managing partner at AfterDox Angel Fund. Prior to AfterDox, Irit held senior positions for 3 decades in Israeli hi-tech firms, including Amdocs. Irit has been a member of the Steeting committee of nazTech and NaserahTech, and is active in a number of accelerators as a mentor – including Kamatech that supports Haredi entrepreneurs and the Hive supporting Olim entrepreneurs.
Takwin Labs
Managing Partner of Takwin Labs, a VC fund focused on seed investment in companies of Arab entrepreneurs. Formerly the Senior Adviser to the Minister of Finance; VP Business Affairs AOL; Managing Partner of Argoquest Holdings; CEO Playscape (MoMinis). Elected Board Member of the Israeli High Tech Association (IATI); Graduate of Physics and Law, Tel-Aviv University.
Pitching & story telling expert
Since 2010, Lior Shoham sole’s purpose is to empower people and organizations. Lior provides workshops, consulting and coaching in storytelling, pitching, public speaking, strategic messaging, influence and networking, so that his customers can “move the needle” and achieve better, tangible, professional results. In the past 8 years he worked with many different customers in more than 20 countries, including Google, Facebook, Barclays Bank Accelerator, Citi Bank Innovation Labs, Check Point, Poalim Capital Markets, Cellcom, Gett, Merck, Sanofi, Abbvie, Sheeba hospital, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, WIZO, The Hebrew University, IDC Herzliya, Hadassah Australia, AIPAC and more.
In addition to facilitating workshops, he coaches senior executives, entrepreneurs, NPO leaders, salespeople, doctors, researchers, and technical staff towards conferences, board meetings, road shows, media appearances, presenting in TEDx events and more.
VLX Ventures
Nadav serves as CTO at VLX Ventures as well as Data Science lecturer and consultant. He holds vast and diversified experience as a technology expert and researcher in both industry and academia, bringing years of experience in building, managing, and nurturing technology driven companies and startups, in the information technology, industrial and life science industries.
Nadav holds both a PhD and a BSc magna cum laude in Bioinformatics.
Mellanox Capital
Nimrod is VP of Corporate Development overseeing M&A and Mellanox Capital and has more than 14 years of professional operational and investing experience in the technology industry. Mellanox acquisitions through that period have been both of public and private companies. Nimrod leads Mellanox Technologies investments and acquisitions world-wide. Prior to establishing Mellanox Capital he served at various Business and R&D management positions at Mellanox Technologies. He helps Mellanox Capital portfolio companies to create real value, and harnesses resources of Mellanox Technologies as a true partner for these companies.
Citi
Tomer Zitelny is an investment banking associate at Citi Israel. Prior to joining Citi in 2014, Tomer was an investment banking analyst at RBC Capital Markets in New York, where he covered the technology sector, including software, IT services, and financial technology companies.
Tomer holds a B.A. in Financial Economics from Columbia University.
PELED STRATEGIC CONSULTING
Yair Peled is a Strategic Consultant, Lecturer and Mentor to Entrepreneurs on the subjects of Marketing, Business Strategy, Sales and Operation.
Yair mentors entrepreneurs in 9 acceleration program (at last count), and has assisted more than 200 entrepreneurs so far.
Before turning independent, Yair held senior positions in Telecom, Software and Electronics firms in Israel and has worked with people from 26 countries.
Yair has been involved in different roles in some few thousands of international deals totaling near $1B.
