Thank you for being part of the IsraelDev community.  Each month we bring you reviews of past and upcoming events, featured members, international development articles, opportunities to get involved and much more.  Feel free to contact us for any questions you have regarding the information below, or if you want to get involved!

PEARS PROGRAM NEWS & EVENTS

India-Israel Global Innovation Challenge

18 Israeli startups in the fields of Digital Health, Agriculture and Water will be travelling with the Pears Program to India as part of Prime Minister Netanyahu's visit in January.  The program, a joint initiative of the Israeli Innovation Authority and Invest India, will connect Israeli innovation with Indian corporates and investors and provide them with an extensive cross-border mentoring package to help the companies develop India-based pilots.  Winning companies will be announced in the coming days. We want to thank all the applicants and wish them good luck. 

Pears Challenge 2017 Demo Day

We would like to thank again everybody who attended our Pears Challenge 3rd Cohort Demo Day on November 14th. The Pears Challenge finalists presented their ideas to investors from both India and Israel and we were overwhelmed by the number of people from Israel and abroad who joined the event. We are very proud of the four teams who presented their ventures: 
1. Soapy
2. EfA - RevDx 

3. NASHI Diagnostics
4. Mosteq 

Pears Challenge fellow Yoel Ezra wins the Tech for Good

"Scaling Social Tech" pitch competition

Congragulations to our Pears Challenge 2017 fellow, Yoel Ezra, for his win in the Tech for Good's "Scaling Social-tech" Pitch competition. Yoel presented RevDx, a programmable point of care diagnostic for automated blood tests and infectious disease diagnostics, enabling the appropriate treatment at the right time. Yoel was not the only Pears Challenge fellow who presented in the event. Max Simonovsky from Soapy was also one of the four finalists.

UPCOMING EVENTS 

The Israel Innovation Authority together with US's Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and other Israeli governmental entities are joining forces to support technology pilots in Niger and West Africa. This program is a unique opportunity for Israeli companies with technologies in advanced stages of development, to partake in a program financed by the US foreign aid. Participants in this program will secure financing from both the Israel Innovation Authority and the MCC organization who invests in projects designed to improve infrastructure and quality of life in developing countries, mainly, Africa.

Learn more about the upcoming call for proposals at the Innovation Authority webinar, Wednesday, January 3rd, 2018 at 18:00. To sign up for the webinar, click here 

Africa Tech Summit Kigali supported by Rwandan Ministry for ICT provides unrivalled insight, networking and business opportunities for African and international tech leaders and investors who want to drive growth in Africa. The two day African tech event will explore the latest trends, connect 250+ key stakeholders from across the continent through keynotes, breakout sessions and networking events. 

When? Febuary 14th - 15th, 2018

Where? Kigali, Rwanda 

More info & registration here

OPPORTUNITIES 

Applications for MassChallenge Israel are now open! Don’t miss this incredible opportunity to take your startup global, working alongside startups from India, African countries, and elsewhere. As a MassChallenge startup, you will grow your business quickly through access to a global network of mentors, corporate partners, 1,200+ startups, free office space, and a chance to win a share of 500,000 NIS in no-equity cash awards. This year MassChallenge is offering an all-inclusive business trip for top startups to the U.S. Deadline for applications is February 4. Apply before January 16th, to get a 50% discount of your application fee (use the code "MCImpact25" to get an additional 25% discount).  More info here

Ideas for Action, a joint program of the World Bank and the Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research at the Wharton School, is a youth competition centered around financing sustainable development. Every year, students and young professionals from around the world participate to design ideas for financing and implementing the Sustainable Development Goals. Winners of the competition present their ideas during the IMF & World Bank Annual Meetings, receive support from a dedicated startup accelerator at the Wharton School, and benefit from unique networking opportunities with other young leaders as well as some of the most senior decision-makers in international development, academia, and the private sector.

More details here

ORGANIZATION SPOTLIGHT

RevDx (by EfA) is a portable, hand-held system for automated and highly accurate diagnosis of infectious diseases in off-grid, rural settings with no access to lab facilities. This technology is designed to tackle misdiagnosis of patients suffering from fever in rural areas which leads to improper treatment, antimicrobial and antimalarial resistance, high morbidity and mortality together with high economic burden. Most relevant to the rural areas of India, where more than 700 million people have very limited access to medical facilities, with a lack of physicians and only minimally trained health workers at the community level. RevDx also uses geo-location data to provide disease mapping for outbreak control and to support optimal intervention & surveillance by the health authorities and global aid organizations. During their Pears Challenge validation trip in October, they made contacts with potential partners in India to pilot their product in several states. EfA is currently working on its prototype to for a field pilot as well as rasining their seed funds.

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