The top 25: Yaron Daniely, chief executive, Yissum
Yissum, the tech transfer office (TTO) of Hebrew University, appointed Yaron Daniely as its chief executive this year.
Yissum has secured more than 9,300 patents for 2,600 inventions since launching in 1964. The TTO has spun out 110 companies and currently generates $2bn in revenue each year from commercialised Hebrew University technologies but has only recently set up venture funding for them.
Diversified conglomerate Reliance Industries last year agreed to invest $25m in the Jerusalem Innovation Incubator (JII), an early-stage program also backed by Yissum and run by venture capital firm Jerusalem Global Ventures.
“JVP is proud to launch our new JVP Labs in Jerusalem together with our partners Motorola Solutions, Reliance and the Hebrew University,” said Haim Kopans, head of JVP Labs, Jerusalem. “Over the past years, every dollar invested by the office of the chief scientist in JVP incubator startups resulted in $11.50 invested by the private sector in these companies. Our new strategic partnership will continue to create these kinds of enormous opportunities for the Israeli startup community and strengthen Jerusalem’s standing as one of the world’s leading hubs of technology, with JVP and the Hebrew University at its core.”
JII forms part of the National Innovation Authority, Israel’s incubator initiative, and is expected to support approximately 50 startups. Applications for the first cohort will be accepted in the second half of the year.
Yissum, the tech transfer company of Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has also formed a food and agtech accelerator called HUGrow to advance technologies based on research from the university.
HUGrow will be supported by Hebrew University’s agtech-focused seed fund AgrInnovation, its entrepreneurship centre, HUStart, and the Robert Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment.
The initial cohort of eight startups will take part in three months of entrepreneurial training with lecturers, mentors and business leaders, spending another six months developing their businesses.
The initiative is HUStart’s third company building program, adding to a pre-accelerator scheme and an industry-agnostic accelerator that acts as its flagship.
Daniely said: “A proof of concept transforms early-stage technologies into great investment targets for incubators.
“HUGrow will leverage the unparalleled experience, expertise and infrastructure of Hebrew University to transition these technologies into fundable assets.”
It was the first big initiative since Daniely stepped down as CEO at cognitive therapeutics developer Alcobra on May 31, but then became the company’s chairman. Daniely said: “It has been an honour to lead Alcobra over the past seven years. I am proud of what we have accomplished, and believe the company has made significant progress over the past few months to advance potential value creation.”
Howard Rosen, outgoing chairman at Alcobra, added: “Dr Daniely has been a driven and passionate leader for the company and we thank him for years as service as CEO and wish him all the best as CEO of Yissum.”
His resume includes stints at other Israel-based pharmaceuticals developers, including as director at Bioblast from 2012 to 2014, and as chief executive of Nanocyte Medical between 2007 and 2010.
