The Tel Aviv University-backed accelerator, formed in partnership with the Israel Security Agency, has welcomed its first seven participants.

Seven Israel-based startups have joined the inaugural cohort of Xcelerator, the artificial intelligence (AI)-focused accelerator formed by Tel Aviv University (TAU) and the Israel Security Agency (ISA), Calcalist reported yesterday. TAU will participate through its early-stage VC fund, TAU Ventures, which launched with $20m from external investors in April 2018. Xcelerator was announced the following month and is tasked with driving deep technologies with the potential to support ISA’s operations, without necessarily focusing on homeland security or counterterrorism applications. The inaugural group for the four-month program includes startups working with artificial intelligence, natural language processing, data science and robotics technologies. Each company will receive a NIS50,000 ($13,700) grant from ISA according to Calcalist, though earlier reports had suggested the figure was $50,000. Xcelerator is headed by TAU Ventures’ managing partner, Nimrod Cohen, who is also a former venture partner at VC firm Plus Ventures and founder of online media hosting platform Cincopa. The participants in question include video editing suite developer CannyAI, automated software diagnostics developer AutoPlay AI and drone accessory maker Xtend. The list was completed by holographic avatar development platform Clone, consumer behaviour analytics software startup Talamoos, anti-misinformation tool developer Cyabra Strategy and document analysis technology creator Legal Automation.

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