Intel Corporation today announced a program to advance open innovation
and accelerate early-stage startup companies in Israel targeting key
industry inflection points, including artificial intelligence (AI),
autonomous systems and other data-centric technologies and business
models.
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From Left: Tzahi (Zack) Weisfeld, general manager and managing director of Ignite; Avner Goren, Intel vice president in the Architecture, Graphics and Software Group; Bob Swan, Intel chief executive officer; and Yaniv Garty, general manager of Intel Israel; gather for a photo after the announcement of Intel’s Ignite program on Sunday, June 16, 2019, in Tel Aviv, Israel. Ignite will leverage Intel’s global market access and business and technology leadership to provide early stage startups unique advantages on their paths to disrupt the future. The Ignite program will begin operations in Israel this year, with plans to scale to additional countries over time (Credit: Ezra Levi)
Based in Tel Aviv, the program called Ignite will leverage Intel’s
global market access and business and technology leadership to provide
early-stage startups with unique advantages on their paths to disrupt
the future. Following a rigorous selection process, Intel will host 10
to 15 top pre-seed to seed startups through a 20-week program where they
will receive hands-on mentorship from Intel and industry experts in a
variety of product, business, management and technical areas. Intel is
committed to accelerate their growth and scale their ideas for greater
impact.
“Intel has always worked in concert with open ecosystems to scale new
technologies so they can be transformational for our customers, business
and society. This process is fueled by the innovation and passion of the
startup community,” said Intel CEO Bob Swan. “Israel has the deep skill
base in AI, autonomous systems and the underlying technologies critical
to these inflections that make it a natural choice to launch our Ignite
program.”
The Ignite program will begin operations in Israel this year, with plans
to scale to additional countries over time. Diversity will be an
important guiding principle of Ignite, with startups established, owned
and run by different representatives of Israel’s diversified social mix.
Intel has no plans to seek equity in or rights to intellectual property
from these companies.
Tzahi (Zack) Weisfeld, former global head of Microsoft for Startups,
will serve as general manager and managing director of Ignite, reporting
to Yaniv Garty, general manager of Intel Israel. Weisfeld will be
assisted by Avner Goren, Intel vice president in the Architecture,
Graphics and Software Group, who will connect the Ignite program to the
technical community inside Intel.
Of the Ignite program, Garty said: “As Israel’s largest high-tech
company, we want to support the major technological changes emerging
across our startup community. Ignite is an important step in this
direction, focused on our efforts to transform the world through working
on innovations in AI, autonomous, cyber and next-generation computing.
With our advances in these areas, Intel is positioned to help companies
charge forward. I’m confident that Intel’s unique expertise in hardware,
software and manufacturing will help the startups grow and succeed. The
fact that Intel is a large corporation with over 100,000 employees
worldwide and very substantial Israeli presence (12,000 employees
including subsidiary Mobileye) will greatly help the companies taking
part in this program.”
About Intel
Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), a leader in the semiconductor industry, is shaping
the data-centric future with computing and communications technology
that is the foundation of the world’s innovations. The company’s
engineering expertise is helping address the world’s greatest challenges
as well as helping secure, power and connect billions of devices and the
infrastructure of the smart, connected world – from the cloud to the
network to the edge and everything in between. Find more information
about Intel at newsroom.intel.com
and intel.com.
Intel and the Intel logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the
United States and other countries.
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