Shengjing Group and JVP Announce the Winners of the Israel Semifinals of the Global Innovation Awards

JERUSALEM and BEIJING, July 1, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

DiACardio - Revolutionizing Heart Ultrasound, SecuriThings - Keeping IoT Safe, & Wayerz - Optimizing Bank Wires - Are Heading to Beijing to Compete for the $1 Million Grand Prize  

They Will Compete Against Startups from U.S., Europe, and China for Prizes Worth $1.5 Million, Gain Exposure from Investors Worldwide and Meet Chinese Tech Giants Like Alibaba, Baidu & Xiaomi

The three Israeli startups chosen to represent Israel at the finals of the Shengjing Global Innovation Awards 2015 in Beijing this August are Wayerz, DiaCardio, SecuriThings.

     (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150701/227600 )

The winners will compete against startups from the U.S., Europe and China for prizes worth $1.5M (without equity), the opportunity for investment from a special $25M fund established by the Shengjing Group especially for the competition, and exposure for their technological solutions from investors and leading companies from China and throughout the world.

The Beijing finals will be part of the Zhongguancun International Entrepreneur Festival. The finalists are expected to go on a road show which will include meetings with Chinese tech giants such as Alibaba, Baidu and Xiaomi. The road show will receive extensive coverage from CCTV, China's national TV network.

The Global Innovation Awards were established by leading Chinese management consulting firm Shengjing Group and are taking place in China, the U.S., Europe, Latin America and Israel. The Israel segment of the competition was led by internationally recognized VC firm JVP. JVP's local competition partners include global technology corporations with strong footholds in Israel such as EMC and Deutsche Telecom, leading Israeli academic institutions such as the Hebrew University's Technology Transfer Company Yissum and IDC Executive Education as well as international accounting firm PwC, the Herzog Fox & Neeman Law Firm (HFN) and media partners PR Newswire.

JVP launched the Israel stage of the competition in February to unprecedented interest. 180 Israeli startups entered the Israel stage of the global competition. Nine made it to the semifinal competition:

1.  SecuriThings is an IoT Security Platform, which easily integrates with IoT manufacturers and platforms to protect against illegal access to devices.

2.  DiACardio, a software company, revolutionizes the practice of "Echocardiography" (Ultrasound of the heart). The Company develops unique and innovative algorithms, which evaluate fast, accurately and automatically the function of the heart.

3.  Engie is a mobile app that connects to the car computer, tracks the car condition, diagnoses malfunctions and offers real-time bids from mechanics nearby.

4.  FabriXense introduces a novel approach for biomedical monitoring of a person incorporated into smart clothing.

5.  Genoox is a big data platform for analyzing and managing genetic data in the cloud.

6.  PayBox is a social payment network that simplifies the process of group payments.

7.  TinyTap is a social platform which empowers families, teachers and students to learn from each other by creating their own personalized learning apps and playing thousands of new ones shared daily by a worldwide community of educators and learners worldwide.

8.  TrenDemon is the leading content marketing automation and customer journey analytics platform.

9.  Wayerz provides an integrated platform that optimizes international wiring, correspondent inter-bank reporting, and reconciliation.

Startups in the competition came from the areas of Big Data & Data Science, Internet & Mobile, Enterprise Software, Cyber-security, Storage, FinTech, IoT - Internet of Things, Wearable Computing and Digital Health.

"The competition is part of a new strategic cooperation between JVP and Shengjing to promote investment in Israeli startups and to promote Israeli startups in the Chinese market," said JVP Managing Partner Kobi Rozengarten. "Israel creates leading companies in technological development and innovation, and that is exactly what the Chinese are looking for. The Israeli finalists come from areas in which Israel is considered a world leader. I wish them much luck and am sure they will make us proud."

"The Israeli market is of great interest to us," said Sherrie Wang, Senior Partner at Shengjing. "We have invested $50 million in Israel already and we are only beginning. This competition is very important for us because it connects us directly to the Israeli startup industry and brings the startups directly to China. The Awards offer the biggest prizes ever in a startup competition. Our global prize has grown, reaching $25 million. Many Chinese investors joined in on the initiative after hearing that Israeli startups would be coming to China. Opportunities for these Israelis in China are enormous and we will open doors for them."

Among the participants in the event in which the Israeli finalists were chosen: 

Mr. Han Jun, Science & Technology Counselor of Chinese Embassy to Israel. Jun emphasized that trade between Israel and China stands at $12 Billion and that China is Israel's largest trading partner in Asia. According to Jun, "In China, they are interested in investing a great deal of money and resources into the kind of innovation that Israel has been blessed with. The connection between China and Israel is a recipe for success."

Knesset Member Dr. Erel Margalit, Founder of JVP and Chairman of the Israel-China Parliamentary Friendship Group. Margalit said: "This past year represented the peak of Israel-China relations, in which the Governments of China and Israel signed agreements in trade and scientific and technological development between the two countries, with a strong emphasis on the world of hi-tech. Now is the time to realize the vision of both governments, via the private sector and the entrepreneurs themselves. I believe that next year will see enormous development in the significance of China to Israel, both economically and politically."

Also participating were: Xueling Cao, Director at Shengjing, Raffi Kesten and Gadi Tirosh, Managing Partners at JVP; JVP Partners Yoav Tzruya, Fiona Darmon, Uri Adoni, and  Nimrod Kozlovski; Dr. Orna Berry, Corporate VP at EMC; Guy Horowitz, Vice President Business Development & Managing Director Deutsche Telekom BD & Venturing LTD,  Tamir Huberman, VP, Head of Business Development Computer Science & Director of IT, Yissum; Eitan Glazer, Partner, Energy & Cleantech Leader PwC Israel; Attn. Ronen Hausirer, Partner, HFN Law Firm; and Dr. Yossi Maaravi, Adelson School of Entrepreneurship at IDC Herzliya.

The Three Finalists that Will Represent Israel in the Beijing Finals: 

1.  SecuriThings is an IoT Security Platform, which easily integrates with IoT manufacturers and platforms to protect against illegal access to devices. SecuriThings mitigates attacks by seamlessly assessing IoT activities in real time, while providing manufacturers and service providers a holistic view of threats across identities and devices. http://www.securithings.com

2.  DiaCardio, a Software company, revolutionizes the practice of "Echocardiography" (Ultrasound of the heart). The Company develops unique and innovative algorithms, which evaluate fast, accurately and automatically the function of the heart. DiaCardio's software can be easily integrated into any Echocardiographic device. The software is FDA cleared and CE approved and initial sales have been obtained. http://www.diacardio.com

3.  Wayerz provides an integrated platform that optimizes international wiring, correspondent inter-bank reporting, and reconciliation. Our multi-solution platform focuses on improvement of productivity and automation of bank-to-bank systems, transactions and interfaces; increasing the real-time control and transparency of FI relationships.By tracking global wiring schedules and statistics in real time, our technology enables banks and their corporate clients to choose the optimum route for every wire - based on wiring cost, wiring time, restrictions, and additional considerations. http://www.wayerz.com

About ShengJing Group - ShengJing Group is devoted to setting up a global innovative ecosystem. The company provides growth-type enterprises with comprehensive, professional and systematic high-end training and consulting, serving as a leading integrated intellectual service platform in China. To date, the ShengJing Group has released dozens of high-end original training programs such as The Power of Capital and The Power of Business Model, successfully driving thousands of SME's to innovate with the concept of "practice, pragmatism and effect". Over the past 12 months, ShengJingJiacheng FOF Platform has invested in over 30 tier-1 investment institutions and incubators accumulating to over RMB 2 billion yuan, including noteworthy groups such as Legend Capital, Fortune VC, Tsinghua Holdings M&A Fund, Yonghua Investment, Oriental Fortune Capital, China Renaissance Partners, Meridian Capital, Hanergy Investment, Share Capital, DFJ DragonFund China; Draper Dragon and F50 Fund of the US; JVP, CPI and Vintage of Israel. Over the coming two years, ShengJingJiacheng FOF intends to increase its global investments to RMB 10 billion yuan, covering China, USA and Israel, the three countries most active in entrepreneurship in the world. Investments include VC Funds, M&A funds and targeted funds of listed companies, covering the whole value chain ranging from early stage, growth stage, merger and acquisition through to targeted placement of listed companies.

About Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP) - Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP) is a leading Israeli venture capital firm dedicated to building world-class technology companies. Founded in 1993 as part of the Yozma program by MK Dr. Erel Margalit, JVP has been ranked one of the top-10 consistently performing VC funds worldwide by Preqin.  With over $1 billion raised to date, the fund has invested in over 120 companies and has been instrumental in leading 28 of the largest exits out of Israel, including the recent IPO of leading cyber-security forerunner CyberArk and the acquisition of JVP Cyber Labs company CyActive by global payments company PayPal. With deep strategic collaborations with global technology leaders and accumulated expertise in identifying, building and growing global technology leaders, JVP invests in companies in the areas of cyber-security and big data, storage and enterprise software and media technologies. Leveraging its two state-sponsored technology incubators - the Jerusalem-based JVP Media Labs focusing on media and storage technologies as well as the Beer-Sheva-based JVP Cyber Labs focusing on cyber-security and big data, JVP creates companies from seed, while expanding on its experience in the later stages to identify opportunities to further drive companies to maturity and ultimately exits. (http://www.jvpvc.com)

Contact: Pnina Ben Ami, Senior Director of Marketing, JVP, [email protected] , +972-50-621-4186

SOURCE Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP)