Two groups were selected to establish new technology incubators in Israel in fields including Physical AI, robotics, human-machine interfaces, health and neurotechnology.
The groups are Augmenta Health Incubator and Intelligent Machine Labs-Foundry.
The move is particularly interesting because the planned model is not based solely on accepting entrepreneurs who already arrive with a startup and a developed idea.
The goal is to use a venture studio model: identify problems and technologies, connect research, experts and entrepreneurs, and establish new companies around them.
What is Physical AI?
Physical AI describes artificial intelligence systems operating in the physical world, not just inside a screen.
The field can include robots, autonomous machines, sensing systems, medical devices and systems receiving environmental information and responding to it.
Intelligent Machine Labs-Foundry is expected to focus on this field.
Augmenta Health Incubator is expected to focus on human-machine interfaces, health, neurotechnology, robotics, bioconvergence and dual-use technologies, among other areas.
Who participates?
According to the Israel Innovation Authority, the Augmenta group includes aMoon, Elbit Systems and Incubit, Ichilov Medical Center, Bar-Ilan University's BIRAD and Opimpact.
Both incubators are expected to begin operating within approximately half a year. Each group will receive a five-year franchise and a grant of up to 40 million shekels for management fees and establishing central laboratories serving the companies to be founded.
The Israel Innovation Authority notes that the incubators are expected to establish dozens of new deep-tech companies during the franchise period. In addition, its Startup Fund can participate in funding rounds for these companies, from Pre-Seed and Seed through Round A, with government participation of up to 23 million shekels per company.
Why the model is interesting
Establishing a deep-tech company differs from building a simple software product.
Laboratories, equipment, research, clinical trials, regulation and considerable time may be needed before there is a commercial product.
An incubator concentrating capital, infrastructure, medical or engineering knowledge and market access can reduce some early-stage barriers.
The goal is also to create a commercial path for technologies in universities, hospitals and laboratories that have not yet become companies.
What remains unknown
The Israel Innovation Authority published the program structure, group identities and funding framework, but the companies to be founded in the incubators are not yet known.
- Which initial projects will be selected
- How many companies each incubator will actually establish
- How intellectual property rights will be divided in each venture
- What the precise investment terms will be in each company
The program's real test will not be the number of incubators, but the companies and products they create.