Israeli Start-Up Wins the 2022 Atlas Award

For the sixth time, the annual Atlas Awards celebrated Israeli start-ups that created a new technology, idea or product of exceptional value in Israel and worldwide. The Atlas Awards are held by the Ayn Rand Center in partnership with TheMarker Labels, the Prometheus Foundation, Start-Up Nation Central and other sponsors. The awards ceremony, which took place at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange Conference Center on November 14th, was attended by leaders of Israel’s renowned high-tech and start-up ecosystem.

Every year, the Award is bestowed on an outstanding Israeli start-up that has developed a novel technology in one of five sectors. This time the categories were: Healthcare and Life Sciences, FoodTech, Supply Chain Management, Energy Development and Quantum Computing and Cybersecurity. Approximately 130 start-ups took part in the competition and their achievements were reviewed by the competition’s Steering Committee, chaired by the entrepreneur Moshe Kovarsky. The 16 companies that reached the final level gave presentations to the Steering Committee prior to the selection of the winner.

Nucleai, a promising start-up that competed in the Healthcare and Life Sciences category, was selected as the winner of the Atlas Award for 2022. Founded in 2018 by four entrepreneurs, Nucleai is a pioneer in AI-powered spatial biology. The company received the Atlas Award in recognition of its groundbreaking biomarker discovery technology which leverages real-world pathology datasets to better understand cancer biology. Its innovative platform is expected to make a significant impact on the ability to improve oncological patient care by enhancing drug development and supporting treatment decisions.

Top names addressed the gathering

“These awards seek to raise public awareness of productivity, pioneering and prosperity,” said journalist Laura Cellier of Bloomberg, i24 news and France 24, when introducing the event.

The master of ceremonies was Ido Solomon, a well-known journalist from Channel 12 News and Laura Cellier of i24NEWS. The first part of the evening featured a series of short talks by prominent figures from Israel and around the world. The keynote speaker was Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales, who treated the audience to stories about his personal entrepreneurial journey, including anecdotes about the early days of Wikipedia and the ambitious concept behind the initiative.

“Wikipedia’s vision is to provide free access to knowledge to every single person on the planet,” Wales explained. Although he and his colleagues eventually succeeded in creating an enormous global network, there were many “bumps along the way” and the challenge was how to survive them. Since the Atlas Awards are inspired by Ayn Rand’s ideology of objectivism, Wales dwelled on his affinity to Rand’s three cardinal values – Reason, Purpose, and Self-Esteem – and the corresponding virtues of Rationality, Productiveness, and Pride. In his words, facts matter and one should embrace a long-term vision and moral ambitiousness.

Dov Moran, the celebrated serial entrepreneur and current CEO of Grove Ventures, spoke about the challenges and opportunities of being an entrepreneur in today’s world. “We’re in a crisis but that’s actually a wild opportunity, especially for entrepreneurs. For Israelis, entrepreneurship is a much more prominent part of our DNA than it is in other countries around the world,” he told the audience. He also shared his thoughts about the acceleration of technology and the fact that we are in a cycle that consists of developing new core technologies that enable the development of applications, which then require more new core technologies.

Yasmin Lukatz, who is a VC investor and CEO of ICON, a non-profit Silicon Valley-based community that supports Israeli start-ups, elaborated about her experience as a woman in the high-tech world. Well known to the Israeli public thanks to her regular appearance on the local version of the TV show “Shark Tank,” Lukatz said that women often stop her on the street to tell her that she has inspired them, and admits that, “We try to have as much female representation as possible, but it is still not enough.”

Lukatz also revealed that she is more cautious about her investment decisions than she used to be: “When evaluating companies, I look for responsible growth. I check who the other investors are, who are the entrepreneurs, what is their background?” Moreover, she said that she no longer believes Israeli entrepreneurs must move to Silicon Valley in order for their start-ups to succeed in the U.S. market. “I used to tell everyone they must move to the U.S. Today, people work remotely. You still need to be there a lot, but you don’t necessarily have to move anymore.”

Eytan Eshel, Executive VP CTO at Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), spoke about the necessity and challenges of innovation in the defense industry. “IAI is flourishing. The current crisis is an opportunity for us,” he said. “But we need to be the best. Our clients don’t choose us because of Zionism.”

Celebrating the winners

The talks were followed by the presentation of the awards. This part of the event was introduced by Laura Cellier and Jimmy Wales. Lior Akavia, Co-Founder & CEO at Seebo – which was acquired by Augury, the start-up that won the Atlas Award last year – addressed the audience before Nucleai’s founders were invited on stage to receive the prestigious award. The prize was a bronze sculpture of the mythological Atlas carrying the world on his shoulders, valued at $100,000, a tribute to Ayn Rand's book “Atlas Shrugged.”

In addition to Nucleai, which was declared the overall winner, prizes were also awarded to start-ups in the other four categories. Addionics, which developed next-generation batteries for electric vehicles, received the award in the Energy Development category. The start-up Findings won in the Supply Chain Management category for its unique management and monitoring system. Watergen was the FoodTech winner for its groundbreaking system that produces high-quality drinking water from the humidity in the air; and Ermetic received the prize in the Quantum Computing and Cybersecurity category for developing a holistic solution for the problem of data security in public clouds.

“The Atlas Prize focuses attention on the important values in our lives, and the enablers of these values – thought, independence, initiative and creativity,” explained Boaz Arad, Director of the Ayn Rand Center Israel. “This year, we are also launching the "Atlas Juniors" educational program under the guidance of Mrs. Elina Lustov, which will pass on these values to the young generation in Israel’s periphery and will connect them with the entrepreneurs who are leading Israel to prosperity.”

Ayn Rand wrote: “Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own vision.” The inspirational Atlas Awards event, which salutes Rand’s philosophy, celebrated the many outstanding Israeli start-ups that have achieved success by embracing their visions of a better future.

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