QD-SOL (Facebook)
The top two winners of the 2023 Aviram Foundation startup competition were the Israeli firms. QD-SOL, an Israeli startup that develops technology to produce green quantum hydrogen in order to help fight climate change, took first place and fellow Israeli startup Carbon Blue, which develops technology that can remove excess CO2 from oceans, came in second. Meanwhile, L1ght, an Israeli startup that offered technology to identify and analyze harmful online content, has failed and is shutting down after it failed to find a buyer. The firm already told the company’s 22 employees that they were being let go.
Co-founded in 2018 by Ron Porat and Zohar Levkovitz, L1ght’s AI was intended to help social platforms, gaming operators and other large-scale online communities increase user value with real-time safety, while dramatically reducing human moderation OpEx. The company raised $15 million in a Seed round of funding co-led by Mangrove Capital Partners and Tribeca Venture Partnersheld in February 2020.
L1ght explained the shutdown saying, “The company developed advanced technology to identify toxic content on the internet. The company negotiated for a long time to be acquired by an American public company. The process was not completed at the last minute due to the economic slowdown in the market which also affected the buying company. The company sold its intellectual property and closed down. The management and the board of directors thank all the employees for their tremendous investment and achievements in this important task.”
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As for the awards, The Aviram Family Foundation and the magazine Forbes launched the annual competition “Aviram Awards — Tech for Humanity” in order to spotlight ground-breaking Middle Eastern and North African startups developing innovative solutions to today’s most pressing social and environmental challenges. The awards were announced in a ceremony held in Marrakesh, Morocco, that was attended by many dignitaries including former U.S. President Bill Clinton.
Founded in 2021, QD-SOL boasts that the firm is at the leading edge of green hydrogen technology with a process that meets the sustainability and affordability needs of the future. After years of research, this breakthrough technology, says the company, is poised to revolutionize the industry. By 2032, our ground-breaking process will encompass 2% of the global green hydrogen market
Founded in 2022, Carbon Blue says the company’s mission is to provide humanity with the technological means to create a sustainable world. The company says that its technology can clean the oceans of humanity’s emissions that have saturated and acidified the world’s oceans, making it harder for them to absorb and regulate global CO2 levels.
First prize was $500,000 and second prize was $100,000.
The two Israeli startups won out over 780 other competing entrepreneurs and companies that came from Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Jordan.
Bill Clinton commented, “In an era when most people focus on the differences between us and not on the commonality, the Aviram Awards competition finds the common denominator between entrepreneurs and their motivation to action. The business sector must constantly ask if what it is doing is good for society, and continue to try to create an impact in a variety of areas, such as climate and education.”
The Aviram Family Foundation Awards is the first competition of its kind aimed at young and promising entrepreneurs in the MENA region who work to change the day-to-day reality and improve the lives of the world population through business, innovation, and technology.
