Author: Techtime

Hi Auto in multimillion-dollar deal with US drive-thru restaurant chain Checkers & Rally’s

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American drive-thru restaurant chain Checkers & Rally’s is adopting the speech recognition developed by Israeli startup Hi Auto. The Tel Aviv-based company’s solution is the first of its kind for the restaurant industry. The solution enables restaurants to take orders from drivers through an artificial intelligence system that makes it possible for drivers to converse normally with a virtual assistant at the orders counter.

Checkers & Rally’s has about 900 branches across the US. It will install the solution in all the company-operated stores and in most of the franchised locations. Hi Auto uses a SaaS model and the deal will generate millions of dollars revenue for the company.

Two of the ten largest US fast-food chains are carrying out advanced pilots to test Hi Auto’s solution for automated voice ordering. The US fast food market is estimated at $300 billion, and restaurants with drive-thru lanes see up to 80% of their total business there.

The speech recognition technology that Hi Auto has developed enables drivers at the drive-thru lane to converse in natural language with Auto, a smart AI-based virtual assistant, which accepts the order, understands its contents, offers additions and upgrades (upsell) in a human voice, and sends the order to the kitchen. The system has a 95% accuracy rate. It understands complex menus, can understand the customer’s half-sentences, multiple detailed requests, and monitors changes in the order that the customer is making during the conversation.

The system effectively functions as an outstanding employee, who does not tire, always comes to work, is always polite, and does not forget to recommend upsells. The system not only helps address the labor shortage crisis in the US restaurant industry, which is losing hundreds of thousands of workers a month, but also improves the restaurant’s performance when compared to a human employee. For example, recordings of employees discovered that they only offer upsells for around 10% of orders, while the system does so for around 70% of orders. Because the cost structure of restaurants is mostly comprised of fixed costs, this change has an immediate effect on the bottom line.

Roy Baharav, CEO of Hi Auto, says, “Hi Auto is the first virtual assistant in the world that is being deployed at scale by Quick Service chains. The solution that we developed reduces the load and dependence on personnel by taking orders automatically and helps overcome the shortage of about 1.5 million workers in the US, which has adversely affected the industry in the past two years. In the future, the virtual assistant will improve all restaurant sales processes.”

Baharav adds, “Routine, low-paid work under pressure causes high turnover of workers and a constant race in hiring and training. In the current crisis, owners are unable to man restaurants with the minimum number of workers needed and have to close early or shut down completely. Chains are now dreaming of building restaurants that are based on a smaller number of employees who receive a higher salary and stay diligent over time, and we can help them make this dream come true.”

Hi Auto was founded in 2019 by Zohar Zisapel, who serves as its executive chairman and is an investor in the company, Roy Baharav, CEO, who served in IDF Unit 81 and worked at Google, and Eyal Shapira, CTO, a graduate of the IDF Talpiot program and Unit 81, and a serial entrepreneur. The company has raised $8 million since it was founded and is preparing for a Series A funding round in 2022. The company currently has 40 employees, most of whom are at its development center in Tel Aviv, and it plans to double its workforce in the coming year in order to meet its growth challenges.

IDF choose Coganta’s rough terrain simulator

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IDF, through the Department of Production and Procurement in the Ministry Of Defense, purchased Coganta’s simulator, which simulate terrain driving. IDF will use the simulator to validate and train autonomous driving algorithms, as part of the development of autonomous vehicles (AV) and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) for military usage.

 Coganta’s AV Off-road simulator is a new platform, intended for training and testing of autonomous vehicles driving in difficult terrain conditions on unpaved roads, to include military vehicles such as unmanned tools and remotely operated vehicles (ROV). The system simulates many scenarios, to include off-road driving on unpaved roads, narrow trails, steep slopes, muddy or sandy ground, as well as obstacles along the path such as rocks or vegetation, and driving in poor visibility conditions like darkness or limited view angles.   

Simulating terrain driving features complex challenges. Unlike public road, where the driving route is clear and regulated, in maneuvering in rough terrain the AV need to consistently estimate the possible route without rolling over or encountering an impassable obstacle. Shay Rootman, Director of Business Development at Coganta, explains to Techtime that the main challenge is simulating the physic of the rough terrain driving: “In the field, there are no predefined driving outlines. One of the major physical aspects that have to be taken into account in rough terrain driving is the friction generated between ground and road conditions and between the autonomous vehicle – whether it is muddy, sandy or bumpy ground. The vehicles have to get pretty good estimation of the road conditions in order to adjust the speed and the angle of its approach and whether the obstacle in front is passable”.

In recent years, using unmanned military vehicles became more and more common in military forces around the world. It is mainly used for reconnaissance missions, mine clearance and lanes opening in situations where human’s presence might be dangerous. For example, the US Army develops autonomous transport trucks that can move independently in a convoy.

In addition, Israeli defense companies are also investing in developing autonomous vehicles in the recent years. The Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) develops a variety of combat instruments such as autonomous robotic patrol for detecting and evacuating Improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and autonomous bulldozers for carrying out complex Combat Engineering missions in threatened areas. Elbit also started in recent years to develop unmanned vehicles to be used in routine security missions. In 2016, together with the IDF, the company has developed the “Border Keeper”, spanned along the Gaza Strip border and the border with Egypt.

“The military autonomous robotics area is boosting. When we started to work with the IDF and the Ministry of Defense, we noticed that simulators are required in AV world in the same way it required in the civil AV world”, says Rootman.

Coganta’s flagship product is a simulator system for training and testing autonomous vehicles. The simulator generates realistic imaging of complete cities – to include streets, trees, road obstacles, cars, human beings and more. It also generates information derived from various sensors such as cameras, infra-red systems and LiDAR. The system allows for generation of multiple scenarios and using it shortens the R&D and verification processes schedules and reduce the number of test drives. In recent years Coganta developed simulators for different types of AV’s such as agricultural tools, mining logistic tools and vehicles intended for rough terrain transportation.

Cybersixgill secures $35 Million in Series B Funding

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Cybersixgill announced today the company has raised  $35 million in Series B funding led by More Provident and Pension Funds and REV Venture Partners. Additional participating investors include CrowdStrike Falcon Fund, Elron Ventures, SonaeIM, and OurCrowd.

This latest investment brings the company’s total investment to $56 million. The company stated it will use the funds to build on customer momentum, continue innovation of Cybersixgill’s threat intelligence solutions, expand global footprint and grow sales and marketing. 

“We are extremely pleased to be working with world-renowned cybersecurity investors and tech leaders committed to fueling innovation and delivering the best cybersecurity solutions on the market,” said Sharon Wagner [pictured above], CEO of Cybersixgill. “As cybercrime rises faster and the velocity of ransomware attacks increases, the need for accurate and timely threat intelligence has never been greater. Through automation and machine learning, we have built the largest threat intelligence data lake that arms our customers with the earliest signals to stop attacks and secure their overall cybersecurity posture.”

According to Cybersixgill, the company has experienced accelerated growth, quadrupling its revenue and doubling its global footprint in the last three years. Cybersixgill’s solutions harness the power of automatic collection and extraction of threat intelligence sourced from social media, instant messaging, and clear, deep, and dark webs to create a threat and risk intelligence data backbone that provides the context needed for customers to implement preemptive security responses that stop breaches in their tracks.

“We are thrilled to be investing in the outstanding team at Cybersixgill. This financing round will enable them to further strengthen their leading threat intelligence solutions whilst aggressively expanding their customer base,” said Kevin Brown, Founder Partner, REV. 

Founded in 2014, Cybersixgill brings agility to cyber threat intelligence, with fully automatic threat intelligence solutions to help organizations proactively detect and protect against phishing, data leaks, fraud, malware, and vulnerability exploitation – enhancing cyber resilience and minimizing risk exposure in real-time. The company has hundreds of customers in North America, EMEA, and APAC, including global enterprises, financial institutions, MSSPs, government and law enforcement agencies. 

NGT Healthcare II Fund Raised $92 Million

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above: Zohar Gendler, Managing Partner & CEO NGT HealthCare II

NGT HealthCare II Impact Fund from Nazareth, Israel, announced the raising of a new fund, with commitments of approximately $92M. The funds are intended for investments in breakthrough medical technologies and in the promotion of entrepreneurship from the Arab society. NGT HealthCare II Incubators program also won a $30 million from the Innovation Authority to furthrr support its portfolio companies.

Today NGT supports 25 early-stage startup companies, and in 16 “year zero” projects (pre-incubator, academic projects) in biotechnology, bio-convergence, and medical devices. Portfolio Companies will also receive access to the offices and laboratories at the Fund’s facility in Nazareth, business services , support in pre-clinical and clinical trials and access to strategic partners.

Among the investors in NGT HealthCare II Fund: T3, the commercialization arm of the Technion, and Hadassit, the technology transfer company of Hadassah Jerusalem, Arkin Holdings, Jacobs Investment Company LLC, Consensus Business Group and Arbelon holdings, Dr. Salvador Pascual, Abu Ayash brothers, Federmann Enterprises, Shehade medical services, Imad and Reem and IBI investment house.

The Fund holds a 1,100 square meter facility in Nazareth including laboratories and 3 clean rooms. Zohar Gendler, Managing Partner & CEO NGT HealthCare II, said: “We will continue to build innovative life science companies, commercialize technologies from universities and hospitals, and encourage entrepreneurs from the Arab society.”

Webiz launched AI-driven platform for recruiting developers from Armenia and Georgia

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Webiz, which has located and trained hundreds of developers in Armenia and Georgia in recent years, has launched a designated AI-driven platform for Israeli companies to efficiently search suitable quality candidates for development positions through advanced filtering algorithms and matching mechanisms.

The new platform, www.webiz.com, carries out AI-based matching of the characteristics, skills, and preferences of Webiz’s talents with the requirements of the companies. Every developer fills out a detailed personal profile that includes his or her professional certification, experience, skills, preferred expertise areas, salary expectations, preferred work model (full time, part time, hourly, etc.). The companies also open an account and apply the AI-based filter mechanisms, which show them suitable candidates with a high degree of accuracy. The suitable candidates will be invited to video interviews on the platform, that enables continuous communications between the candidates and the companies, including the submission of documents, questionnaires, and so forth.

Webiz developed a practical training program for high-tech professions on the basis of an Israeli syllabus. In collaboration with the Business and Technology University in Tbilisi, Georgia, outstanding students take a six-month course in various disciplines: programming in a range of languages, including React, Node js, Devops QA and UI/UX followed by certification tests.

Webiz operates in a five-story building in Tbilisi. To date, the company has recruited and trained more than 200 developers, who have joined 25 Israeli companies, including Kaltura and 888 Holdings. The company plans to recruit 200 more developers in 2022 and 1,000 in the coming years. Webiz recently expanded its operations to Armenia, where it is recruiting and training hundreds of developers using the model that it has applied in Georgia.

Eyal Bar Oz, co-founder and CEO of Webiz, says, “Manual processes of searching, filtering, and recruiting candidates take too long, are not accurate enough, and do not suit the dynamic pace of the high-tech industry. The new portal will shorten these processes by about 80%, and in effect even more, because precise matching will prevent recruitment processes might not be realized. These capabilities are especially important for companies that are searching for workers in distant countries, where they are unfamiliar with the community of developers.”

Bar Oz adds, “At this stage, 500 developers, who we have certified, have already registered on the portal, and the number will grow rapidly in the coming months. We are building more models that will enable total human resources management that we provide, including output tracking tools, internal communications with feedback, salary and benefits, vacations, birthdays, and more. They will offer an additional layer of quality management, involvement, and employee retention.”

Seoul City deployed Autotalks’ V2X systems in public buses

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Autotalks, a provider of V2X (Vehicle-to-Everything) communication solutions, announced the completion of its role in the Seoul City C-ITS flagship deployment is part of the South Korean capital’s plan to establish a unique V2X and ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance System) test platform supporting Autonomous Driving Level 4.

With the V2X systems installed across its bus fleet and infrastructure, Seoul City can now offer its citizens an advanced public transport system able to intelligently alert drivers of pedestrian collision, school, and silver zones, as well as road and weather conditions warnings, among other alerts.

The V2X system, which is based on Autotalks’ chipset, was deployed in nearly 2,000 buses operating in Sangam Digital Media City (DMC) and along Seoul City’s expressways. The project was spearheaded and jointly funded by Seoul City and the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport (MOLIT).

With thousands of systems deployed, the project in Seoul is one of the most extensive of any modern city, showing Korea’s commitment to take mobility in public transportation to the next level.

“Autotalks applauds Seoul City and MOLIT for advancing their vision of a smart and safe city,” said Ram Shallom, VP Business Development and Marketing in APAC at Autotalks. “By taking a bold move towards developing a modern city and placing their confidence in an innovative V2X OBU system, the city is setting the standard for others to follow. This move by Seoul City will be seen as a game-changer for those cities and regions still grappling with technology decisions, allowing their indecision to hamper the future of mobility.”

The deployment in Seoul City is part of the growing momentum of Autotalks in the Asia Pacific region. In November, Foxconn Interconnect Technology (FIT), a subsidiary of Foxconn (Hon Hai Technology Group), the world’s largest electronics manufacturer, and Autotalks, announced that FIT invested $10 million in Autotalks, following a strategic collaboration agreement between the two companies.

Cybord raised $4M to avoid Counterfeit Parts

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Above: SIPLACE Pick and Place head with built-incamera. Cybord SMT acquire these images for advanced analysis

Keeping damaged, counterfeit and recycled parts out of the production lines is a tedious and in many cases unsuccessful mission. Cybord from Herzliya, Israel, brings a game changer product, Cybord SMT, to avoid this problem and provide quality assurance for the electronic manufacturing industry. This week the company announced a $4M Seed investment led by IL Ventures, a VC fund focused on transformational technologies for legacy industries, with co-investment by the Israel Innovation Authority.

The company delivers advanced AI and Big-Data software that inspects, qualifies, and tracks every component and every electronic board. Cybord SMT acquires component images from a built-in camera, already installed on the SMT pick and place machines. It learn and analyze every component using AI and a component knowledgebase on the cloud, and provide the manufacturer a full report covering 100% of the components.

Cybord SMT validates authenticity (top), identifies defects (middle) and reduces the cyberattack vector by detecting reprogrammed components (bottom)
Cybord SMT validates the authenticity of each part (top), identifies defects (middle) and reduces the cyberattack vector by detecting reprogrammed components (bottom)

“Today, in the midst of the global supply chain crisis, electronic manufacturers struggle to meet ever-growing customer demand while keeping quality a top priority. The need to acquire components in the free market and not only from well-established suppliers increases manufacturers’ exposure and vulnerability to significant quality issues. These issues can have direct, sudden, and costly effects on their ability to produce quality products,” said Zeev Efrat, CEO at Cybord.

“Our proven technology allows leading industry players to implement the Zero-Trust approach. As the global shortage in electronic components becomes chronic, this becomes a competitive edge which helps our customers generate more revenues, lower their costs, and increase their profitability,” added Dr. Eyal Weiss, Cybord’s founder, and CTO.

“Cybord’s proprietary technology is already deployed, serving FLEX and other global industry leaders at several manufacturing sites globally. The company has made remarkable technological and commercial achievements to date. By now, Cybord scanned over 1.2 billion components while supporting high production volumes with value delivered every day,” said Elad Frenkel, Managing Partner at IL Ventures. “We are confident this genuinely disruptive AI technology will change the entire industry, solving a multi-billion-dollar pain of the electronics industry.”