Michal Sela Startup Academy ends third cohort with 7 new startups battling domestic abuse
Michal Sela Startup Academy ends third cohort with 7 new startups battling domestic abuse
The Michal Sela Forum is working in collaboration with Google for Startups with the goal of helping 100 startups by 2030
Last week saw the end of a program from the Michal Sela Forum, in collaboration with Google for Startups, that helps develop startups specifically founded to prevent violence against women in Bethin. The program, called Michal Sela Startup Academy, saw its third cohort end with seven new startups joining the team of the Michal Sela Forum. The association aims to build an entire ecosystem of more than 100 startups to prevent femicide by 2030.
Over the last three months, the teams from the Michal Sela Startup Academy program met weekly at the Google Tel Aviv Campus. The program indeed lectures, workshops, meetings with Google executives, and video production for each venture.
"After my sister was murdered, I tried to find answers to the questions: ‘Was it possible to save her? Was it possible to predict the murder?’ Today's event is a culmination of a journey in which I received a clear answer: In a rare combination of forces together with Google and the summit of the Israeli hi-tech industry - it is possible to prevent women from being murdered in their homes and save their lives,” said Lili Ben Ami, Founder and CEO of the Michal Sela Forum. “Michal could have been saved. May the revolution be remembered."
The program ended with an event attended by Ben Ami alongside the Minister of Welfare and Social Security, Ya’akov Margi, and the CEO of Google Israel, Barak Regev. Also present were the director of public policy at Google Noa Elephant Lefler, the director of Google for Startups Israel Yuval Passov, investors, and the Michal Sela Forum alumni community.
“Google's ongoing collaboration with the Michal Sela Forum is an expression of the importance we attach to the fight against violence towards women,” added Noa Elephant Loffler, Director of Public Policy and Government Relations at Google Israel. “We believe that technological innovation can provide significant solutions and help prevent violence towards women. The cooperation between the private sector, the government, and associations is key to creating change and we hope for continued fruitful cooperation in this area.”
The latest cohort is made up of the following companies:
- Hidey - which is a B2B solution allowing certain apps to stay hidden while still providing the device owner full access to their services.
- Lopo - which is a network of sensors that can identify threats without their consent or cooperation, helping notify the women or alert emergency dispatches.
- Ruthi - which is a reservation system to help women stay in hotels for a short period of time while offered consultations from domestic violence experts.
- Snitch - which provides ‘phone snooping’ technology helping record what was seen by someone who is using someone else’s device without their consent.
- The Safe - which is a hidden app that acts as a secure digital diary for those suffering from gaslighting to document things that are happening around them.
- Timeout - which is a tool for people who are already in treatment to address their violent behavior specifically oriented for therapists to adapt treatments in a modular way.
- Viosense - which connects to messaging apps and searches for aggressive communication by constructing anonymous databases of messaging patterns to provide insights on dialogues.
Now that the program has ended, the entire cohort will join a follow-up program designed for alumni of the Michal Sela Forum programs, called Michal Sela RoofTop. Here, entrepreneurs will receive workspaces, personal mentoring programs, consulting hours with experts, and group networking meetings with senior executives.
