Author: Techtime

Quantum computing collaboration between Nvidia and the Israeli Classiq

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Nvidia Company revealed last week in its annual developer conference (GTC) a new collaboration with another Israeli Company, Classiq from Tel-Aviv, who provides a platform for creating quantum software algorithms. Within this cooperation, Classiq’s platform integrates with Nvidia’s quantum simulator. This integration will allow Classiq’s customers to run their quantum application on the simulator, perform stress-tests, debugging and optimization – without the need to use real quantum machine.

At this time Nvidia doesn’t develop quantum hardware, but it developed the cuQuantum simulator, which simulate quantum computer processing capabilities of dozens of qubits. This simulator is based in its operations on a supercomputer composed of hundreds of GTX A100 processors and Tensor Core GPUs. This simulator is capable of performing billions of parallel computations and simulates quantum computing processes such as superposition and entanglement. It provides the capability of running, on a classic machine, quantum algorithms and is used by researchers and developers in developing and verifying quantum applications.

In last December, Nvidia launched its Software Development Kit (SDK), based on the company’s Selene supercomputer which is capable of running (for particular type algorithms) simulations with a scale of thousands of qubits. Nvidia reported lately that it successfully ran the optimization problem MaxCut, which is considered impossible to solve using a classical computer, but only using a quantum computer. In order to solve the problem, Nvidia used 896 GPUs that simulated 1,688 qubits. 

Verify algorithms without any noise

In a conversation with Techtime says Amir Naveh, Classiq’s co-founder and Head of Algorithms that “this collaboration was born earlier in the simulator development phase. Our platform allows for the creation large-scale quantum circuits, which the customers may test directly through the simulator. The existing intermediate-scale quantum computers are still noisy, and this simulator is currently the only way a developer can test its algorithms in a cost effective, clean method”.

Classiq developing CAD solutions that will make it possible to write applications for quantum computers. Nir Minerbi, Classiq co-founder and CEO, told Techtime in an earlier interview: “The quantum revolution consists of two things: hardware and software. Nowadays it is almost impossible to develop applications for a quantum computer, since you have to program at the logic gate level. It’s like designing a chip at the transistor level. We build the tools that allow developing applications at a higher level of abstraction. The next layer in the quantum stack.”

Recently, Classiq launched its proprietary platform’s Beta version which allows, for the first time in the industry, to compose functional algorithms for Quantum computers. The company made the new platform available to several customers, and intends to expand the beta version access to several dozen customers in the next few months.

Percepto has received an approval for operating drones beyond line of sight

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Civil Aviation Authority of Israel (CAAI) has approved the remote operation of Percepto Company’s drones beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS). The approval means that companies using Percepto drones to monitor their facilities no longer need an observer to be present during their operation, and to use Percepto-trained System Operator designation. This approval was granted in order to perform monitoring missions at national water company Mekorot at its Eshkol site as well as at other locations.

This approval is added to a similar approval Percepto received from the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA), to operate drones beyond visual line of sight in refineries in Tyler, Texas and El Dorado, Arkansas. Similar approvals were granted to other Percepto’s customers, such as Florida Power and Light (FPL), Verizon’s drones company and various customers across Italy, Australia, Spain and Norway. This type of approvals,  individually granted by aviation authorities after validating safety aspects, are critical for the increasing usage of autonomous drones, since the need to keep an eye contact with the operator vastly limit the tasks that can be performed.

Operating drones Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) is made possible thanks to the Autonomous Inspection and Monitoring (AIM) system developed by Percepto. The AI-based system allows managing and operating a fleet of drones through single unified control platform. This fleet may include other manufacturers’ drones and even non-autonomous ones, assign tasks, collect and share information received from the drones and supply insights regarding the facility. Actually, this system provide the drone with independent capabilities or safely managing the route, planning return time for recharge,  photography and machine sight and also flying under severe weather and visibility conditions. The system is currently intended to be used for monitoring gas and oil pipelines, peripheral defense, solar farms maintenance, infrastructure sites and alike.     

Drone in a box

Percepto Co-founder and CEO Dor Abuhasira says that getting the approval from aviation authorities, who are known to be rigor, is an acknowledgment of his company’s autonomous system to perform accurate analysis of multi-situations and safely fly the drones, sometimes even safer than manned flight. “The ability to trust the system to carry out its job without a drone operator, but only with Percepto’s system operator, significantly minimize hazards, reduce downtime, boost efficiency, and lower operational costs”.   

Abuhasira estimates that the Israeli approval will lead to other approvals across the globe. “Drones’ independent operation will become a fundamental component in our activity”.  Percepto was founded in 2014 by CEO Dor Abuhasira, Raviv Raz, Aviv Avitan and Sagi Blonder. The company estimates that currently the company is one of the ten leading autonomous drones companies in the field of sites monitoring.  The drones are operational at hundreds of industrial and infrastructure sites across the USA, Australia, Israel and more.

The company has also developed an autonomous drones family, installed in a box (Drone-in-a-box). This drone operates autonomously based on scheduled missions or on-demand triggers, for routine tasks and emergency response, without human intervention.  It also equipped with Percepto’s payload and includes thermal and 4K camera and communication module for direct communication with the robot and realtime video streaming using LCE cellular network.

Percepto, who raised $72.5 million since its foundation, employs more than 170 employees, and it currently increasing its manpower in the Modi’in R&D center at various roles and departments, including development, cloud, software, algorithmic, electronics and AI.

Autotalks Doubles Backlog to $200 Million

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Autotalks, a provider of V2X (Vehicle-to-Everything) communication solutions, announced that it has doubled its backlog orders in 2021 to $200 million. During 2021, Autotalks has doubled the number of its automotive OEMs clients to six, after winning contracts to provide its V2X chipsets to three additional top auto manufacturers – one in Europe, one in Japan, and one in China. The company has been supplying its V2X chipsets for global infrastructure and smart city projects and has secured contracts for future large projects.

The V2X market in which Autotalks is operating is growing rapidly. Virtually all RFIs (Requests for Information) or RFQs (Requests for Quotes) of Telematics Control Units (TCUs) in 2021 required the installation of V2X devices. Alternatively, some OEMs are adding dedicated standalone V2X Electronic Control Units (ECUs). This trend was partly driven by the perpetrations toward the inclusion of V2X in the safety performance assessment program EuroNCAP in Europe and the similar Chinese program C-NCAP.

“There are good reasons why 2021 was a very good year for us,” said Hagai Zyss, CEO of Autotalks. “Autotalks offers the world’s only dual mode V2X chipset solution, which suits both the DSRC protocol that is used in Europe, and the C-V2X protocol that is used in the US and China. We offer flexible architecture, backed up by an innovative roadmap which matches the requirements of OEMs. On top of that, our V2X system is isolated in a way that provides the highest possible security and safety.”

Zyss continued: “Looking forward towards 2022, we expect additional major wins of top OEMs. Simultaneously, we aim to use our V2X-based micro-mobility platform, ZooZ, in order to expand safety for vulnerable road users such as cyclists and e-scooter riders.”

FlyOne to market 25 personal Air’s eVTOL vehicles

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First commercial agreement for Air, developer of personal eVTOL (electrical vertical take-off and landing aircraft). The Israeli company, located in Pardes-Hanna, announced its partnership with Australia’s FlyOne, local supplier of electrical aircrafts which also operates Skycademy – an academy for pilots using personal electrical aircraft, such as the one developed by Air.

As part of this agreement, FlyOne will begin to market a fleet of about 25 personal AIR ONE vehicles, and will also provide training, certification, maintenance and service. According to Air, the partnership is estimated at $4 million, where each AIR ONE vehicles is valued at $150,000. FlyOne offers a 12-week training which grants the student with a local license allowing it to fly two-seater aircraft during day hours.   

Air was founded in 2017 by Chen Rozen, serial entrepreneur in the field of unmanned aircrafts, which used to formerly work for Elbit. Another co-founder joining him later are Netanel Goldberg and Rani Plaut. The company has developed an all electrical two-seater aircraft, , intended for short flights and leisure. AIR ONE is equipped with a 60kWh Lithium battery, fully charged within an hour. The vehicle is capable of flying for a range of 110 miles (177 km) on a single charge at speeds up to 155 miles per hour (250 km).  It comes with foldable wings, which makes it easy to store, and it allows owners to take off and land on any flat surface.

The core of the flight control system is based on the Fly by Intent software developed by Air. This software performs complex control and navigation functions, so the usage is not limited to highly skilled or professional pilots only (the license type is similar to the sport one, which requires a 15-20 training hours). Another safety features include an AI based monitoring system, which performs comprehensive inspections to the vehicle and replaces complex maintenance and operational activities, in order to provide maximum safety for less professional users, too. According to the company, AIR ONE is based on technologies and techniques adopted from the aviation and automotive industries, and is planned to be used as a fun, safe and daily vehicles, meeting all aviation standards.

Sidelong the current agreement, 60 people already booked  an AIR ONE vehicle using the company’s website. In order to do that, they required to pay a deposit of $1,000. For almost two years, Air is working with the American FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) and is expected to sign a G1 certification soon, as part of the vehicle’s certification process, and also started with the same process in Australia. The company estimates the process in front of the Australian authorities will be much simpler than the American one.

Square Peg Expands activity in Israel, appoints Yonatan Sela as Partner

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International VC Square Peg is expanding its operations in Israel and appoints Yonatan Sela as a Partner. Yonatan will manage the fund’s investment activities in Israel together with Philippe Schwartz. Square Peg invests primarily in Australia, SouthEast Asia and Israel. The firm manages $1.2 billion across several funds, and is currently raising a new fund that is expected to be at least $500m in size. Square Peg’s portfolio includes two of the world’s most prominent unicorns in recent years, Canva and Stripe, and many others, including Airwallex, Finaccel and Fiverr.

Square Peg has been growing its operations in Israel in recent years and has invested $250 million in Israeli startups, including freelance marketplace Fiverr, weather technology platform Tomorrow.io, healthcare AI software Aidoc, IoT security provider Sternum, and AI infrastructure platform Deci. The fund typically invests in Israeli companies in Seed and A rounds, and recently invested in Exodigo and Retrain, as well as other investments it hasn’t yet announced. Square Peg has so far returned $550 million to investors.

Philippe Schwartz: “The depth and diversity of the Israeli ecosystem is rare by any standard, and that’s why we are expanding our activities here. A new generation of large, world changing companies have been created in Israel in recent years, and it’s a great privilege for us to be active partners in their journey and support their creation. All of us at Square Peg Israel spent most of our careers on the other side of the table as operators and founders – this is truly what we love to do. As we expand our investing activity in Israel and work to empower our founders, we are looking to add more investors to our team.”

Yonatan is an entrepreneur and investor with expertise in crypto, fintech, and consumer internet (B2C). He co-founded Props, a crypto protocol intended to bring user ownership to consumer apps that has amassed 12 million users. Prior to that, he was the CBO of YouNow, a pioneer in mobile live streaming. With more than 50 million downloads, the app has paid out tens of millions of dollars to content creators through its virtual economy. Yonatan was previously a founding team member and the VP marketing at B2B video platform Tvinci, which was acquired by Kaltura. During his time in New York, Yonatan worked as an investor at Venrock where he began investing in fintech, crypto and media, and as a consultant at the Boston Consulting Group.

Yonatan Sela: “While increasingly we see outstanding founders working on crypto and B2C ventures, many funds in Israel have been avoiding investing in these areas, especially when it comes to crypto. For me, these are verticals I am particularly passionate about having built and invested in them in the past. Naturally, I’ve made two of my first investments in Square Peg in these areas, and I’m thrilled to be a part of a fund where these domains are considered important. I hope that we can contribute to nurturing the next generation of category leading ventures in these categories.”

[Pictured above: Yonatan Sela. Credit: SquarePeg]

Aliya 2.0, doing it right

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By Leehee Gerti, VP Marketing at CodeValue

A melting pot. A land of refuge, the only homeland for people of Jewish heritage. That is what modern-day Israel IS. It’s been 30 years since the last big wave of “Aliya” (immigration to Israel) when over 1 million people from the former USSR made their new home here in the land of milk and honey. Education, science, creativity, and innovation have been the cornerstone of the new founded land straight form its inception, that is true enough, but what that wave of Aliya brought with it is a different culture that sanctifies hard work, uncompromising compliance with goals, and deep exploration.

The merger between the two, the method versus ad-hoc, the planning versus “it’ll be okay”, these have made Israel a global high-tech super-power and one of the strongest economies in the world.   

The war in Eastern Europe presents us with a new challenge, a potential pool of tens of thousands of people entitled to immigration under the “Law of Return”. A genetic and cultural repository similar to that of the immigrants of the 1990s. If we are smart enough to prepare properly, embrace, understand the difficulties and provide a quality integration infrastructure – the potential benefits are massive.

When the 1990’s immigrants entered the Israeli labor market, their labor productivity fell. This is because they – as with any immigrant – suffered from the “Kuznets effect”. Simon Kuznets, a well-known Jewish economist from Harvard and one of the first to calculate the GNP, found that when immigrants arrive in a new country, their earning capacity drops by 50% to 70%, and it takes them 20 years to return to earning level that is appropriate to their level of education. 

We do not have that time nor privilege.

In the last year or so, we’ve been experiencing a massive workforce shortage in the Israeli high-tech industry. It is estimated that there are anywhere between 10,000 to 25,000 open development positions waiting to be filled. 

Many companies have put a lot of effort into narrowing the gaps between what is required and what is available. At my company CodeValue, for example, we conducted several Techboost rounds in which we identified and recruited people with potential and love of tech’ but lacking sufficient experience – and trained them in modern technologies to suit current market requirements. 

Such initiatives need to be replicated and adapted in order to accommodate the potential immigrants from Ukraine and Russia. High-tech companies and other prominent employers need to join hands with government organizations and NGOs whose goal is to promote immigration and integration. Let us map out the needs of the immigrants, their abilities, and professional aspirations and at the same time establish a unified system that will incorporate specific jobs and open positions that may suit the immigrants’ professional interests, language, and culture. We need to shorten processes, streamline procedures, and get going… fast.

History presents us with a unique opportunity. Rare coincidence complied of global epidemic aftershock – which has pushed forward the digital transformation revolution, A country that has put its trust in the high-tech industry, and a well-educated, hard-working workforce looking for a new home to thrive in. 

AI-Startup Run:ai Raises $75M in Series C Round

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Run:ai announced that it has raised $75M in Series C round led by Tiger Global Management and Insight Partners, who led the previous Series B round. The round includes the participation of additional existing investors, TLV Partners and SCapital VC, bringing the total funding raised to date to $118M.

According to Run:ai, the company has grown sharply, with a 9x increase in Annual Recurring Revenue in the last year, while the company’s staff more than tripled over the same period. The company plans to use the investment to further grow its global teams and will also be considering strategic acquisitions as it develops and enhances the company’s Atlas software platform.

Omri Geller, Run:ai CEO and co-founder, said, “It may sound dramatic, but AI is really the next phase of humanity’s development. When we founded Run:ai, our vision was to build the de- facto foundational layer for running any AI workload. Our growth has been phenomenal, and this investment is a vote of confidence in our path. Run:ai is enabling organizations to orchestrate all stages of their AI work at scale, so companies can begin their AI journey and innovate faster.”

Research firm IDC predicts global AI spending in 2022 will reach $433bn, nearly a 20% annual increase. However, AI infrastructure is complex to manage and scale. Companies see low hardware utilization, scheduling clashes and a delayed pace of innovation — if they can build functioning AI infrastructure at all.

Run:ai’s Atlas platform provides a ‘Foundation for AI Clouds’, whether on premises, across public clouds, or at the edge, allowing organizations to have their AI resources on a single, unified platform that supports AI at all stages of development, from building and training models to running inference in production. Customers include Fortune 500 companies as well as cutting-edge AI startups from multiple verticals like finance, automotive, healthcare, and gaming, as well as leading academic AI research centers.

“We do for AI hardware what VMware and virtualization did for traditional computing — more efficiency, simpler management, greater user productivity. Traditional CPU computing has a rich software stack with many development tools for running applications at scale. AI, however, runs on dedicated hardware accelerators such as GPUs which have few tools to help with their implementation and scaling. With Run:ai Atlas, we’ve built a cloud-native software layer that abstracts AI hardware away from data scientists and ML engineers, letting Ops and IT simplify the delivery of compute resources for any AI workload and any AI project.” said Ronen Dar, Run:ai CTO and co-founder.

“As enterprises in every industry reimagine themselves to become learning systems powered by AI and human talent, there has been a global surge in demand for AI hardware chipsets such as GPUs,” said Lonne Jaffe, Managing Director at Insight Partners. “As the Forrester Wave AI Infrastructure report recently highlighted, Run:ai creates extraordinary value by bringing advanced virtualization and orchestration capabilities to AI chipsets, making training and inference systems run both much faster and more cost-effectively. Because of explosive demand since 2020, Run:ai has almost quadrupled its customer base, and we couldn’t be more excited to double down on our partnership with Omri and the incredible Run:AI team as they lean into their momentum and Scale Up.”