Phil Telio and the Montreal-based International Startup Festival recently crowned their second Elevator World Tour winner in eleven months with a handsome $100,000 seed investment. This time the tour chose Tel Aviv, Israel’s Azrieli Center towers as it’s latest destination.
Israel21C.org reported the story today.
100 Israeli startups rode the elevator 49 floors up and pitched their vision to a pair of investors, much like early 2013’s inaugural event in Toronto. Then Toronto-based Mejuri emerged victorious, a startup that connects jewelry lovers with jewelry designers using an online crowd sourcing portal.
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This time thought it was Ariel Beery who claimed the prize in Tel Aviv, cofounder of MobileOCT, makers of a smartphone add-on device that helps doctors in developing countries diagnose cervical cancer early. Beery told Israel21C that the award will allow the company to accurately identify cervical cancer at early stages, saving “hundreds of thousands of women dying unnecessary deaths each year.”
Along with pitching two angel investors in a cramped elevator, every startup also had to reel off their vision with camera operators and journalists aboard.
Beery previously led PresenTense, an NGO that helps emerging Jewish leaders create startups in Israel or in Diaspora Jewish communities, before founding MobileOCT with Dr. David Levitz.
“After having worked as hard as we have, it is incredibly gratifying to receive this recognition from some of the key players in the investment community,” Beery told the blog.
International Startup Festival’s Telio added that the team was “extremely impressed by all of the startups that entered the competition, especially MobileOCT and those that were short listed.
The judging panel included Jamie O’Hara, director of Grise Global Group, Howard Stotland, founder of STS Systems and Roy Oron, general partner in Israel-based Plus Ventures. They also selected several other startups who made the shortlist, including included Bablic, Dove-e, Fitfully, Oggii, Passion Ant, Push Pic, Take and Make and Inpris.
Telio previously told BetaKit that future cities for the Elevator World Tour will likely be Rio de Janeiro, New York, Barcelona, Paris, Berlin, Dubai and Santiago.
Photo from Israel21C.org