The 10ᵗʰ International Symposium on Cyber Security, Cryptology and Machine Learning (CSCML)
Our Vision
We are following the vision of the Council for Higher Education in Israel (MALAG) in their goal for creating industrial incubation centers in the Israeli universities.
The need for the creation of a faculty start-up pre-accelerator emerged from the first lecture of Prof. Jeffrey Ullman of Stanford University, that he gave at BGU (when the Computer Science Department became independent, back in 2000).
Prof. Ullman delivered his belief that research in computer science should lead to industrial realization, in particular as part of a start-up founded by faculty members. Given the current establishment of the Hi-Tech park eco-system, with VC Jerusalem Venture Partners, Incubit Technology Venture, Innovation BaseCamp, arriving to support and finance start-ups, it seemed just the time to create a pre-seed accelerator for faculty members at the Benhamou Incubation Center situated in the Alon Hi-Tech building previously occupied by Deutsche Telekom and IBM.
The activity of the pre-seed accelerator will start with a selection of the most promising technologies and motivated faculty members, who will have access to the offices on the 5th floor with business/accounting/office/seminar/meeting-room for an extendable period of a few months and up to one year, enabling them to develop and improve their technologies and receive funding from VCs.
Our Mission
The BGU-Negev Hi-Tech Faculty Startup Accelerator (BGU-NHSA) was formed as a hub for faculty members interested in developing and focusing on startups with the help of their students. BGU-NHSA provides the opportunity to develop breakthrough inventions and receive all the support, assistance and help they need. It combines the consulting know-how of traditional accelerators with the vast resources of its research university.
We also offer unique mentorship by successful industry leaders to create a powerful environment for startups, allowing them to find capital, launch and grow.
About Us
The BGU-Negev High-Tech Faculty Startup Accelerator focuses on supporting faculty members and graduate students in establishing startups in computing disciplines.
The accelerator is located in the Benhamou Incubation Center, Alon Building for HiTech, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
Supporting faculty members in new business and industrial aspects is a mission that universities may benefit from, as Stanford benefits from the existence of the Silicon Valley
in its proximity.
In fact, universities can establish the best seed accelerators, as the business aspects can be covered by advisors from management schools and by volunteers who seek to work with professors and their new startups.
Moreover, there is no need for significant financial support in the pre-seed stage, as faculty and graduate students are employed by the university and continue their full research and teaching activities.
The accelerator supports startup activities by exposing the startups to relevant experienced advisors, potential investors, and industrial customers. The accelerator will
organize conferences, seminars, lectures and meetings to create an entrepreneurship atmosphere. The accelerator will also co-locate startups together in a prime location on the campus.
Pre-seed investors of several $10k per-startup are welcome. About ten startups will reside in the accelerator. Investors will be participating in the selection and track the evolvement of supported startups.
The fund will mainly support students/engineers in creating software, developing marketing, and patent expenses.
Each startup will have up to one year residency for creating attraction for seed investment.
Investors are planned to have first refusal rights in the seed stage. In addition, investors are planned to receive several multiplication of their investment in round A of the startup.
Details of investment terms will be finalized with the university.
Who we are?
Prof. Shlomi Dolev – Executive Director
Hagai Ortner – Entrepreneurship Advisor
Simcha Mahler - Manager of Operations
- Eric Benhamou – Benhamou Global Ventures
- Prof. Raz Jelinek - Vice President and Dean of Research & Development, BGU
- Dr. Yonah Alexandre Bronstein, ASTAV Inc.
- Ethel Chait Stein, Ethel Chait Stein, LLM (Magna Cum Laude)
- Netta Cohen - BGN
- Dana Gavish-Fridman - BGU
- Roman Gold - JSCapital
- Dr. Harry J. Saal – Retrotope Inc.
- Hagai Ortner, Magna BSP
- Yuval Shachar - Team8
- Yoav Tzruya - JVP
- Prof. Jeffrey D. Ullman – Stanford University
For more information about our advisors
The BGU-NHSA office is on the Benhamou Incubation Center on the top floor of the Alon Building for Hi-Tech, formerly occupied by Deutsche Telekom and IBM.
The office consists of designated workspaces, open workspaces, a conference room, a community kitchen, and a hardware room.
The BGU-NHSA offers the guidance of numerous mentors and advisors from the industry who will be continuously invited by Prof. Shlomi Dolev, the head of the accelerator. Among the invitees are Dr. Yonah Alexandre Bronstein, Dr. Ethel Chait Stein, Hagai Ortner, and more. We are constantly working to add more professionals from different areas to ensure the exposure to every topic in the industry. The advisors and mentors offer legal, financial, and technical insights.
Venture capital firms, such as BGV, JVP, Team8, JSCapital and more take part in the advisory board.
In addition to professionals, many of the faculty and researchers in hi-tech related departments excel from not only a technical and academic point of view, but have substantial experience and insight into the startup ecosystem, either as founders or advisors to a number of startup teams. This group of preeminent individuals provides teams with an additional interdisciplinary platform of support.
Who are you?
Resident teams have a Lead Advisor (faculty member or entrepreneur), go through the 6-month program, attend all required events, are generally present at NHSA, and are fully engaged members of the NHSA community. They have a dedicated work space and will present their stratups during the 6-month period to companies from relevant industries and VCs.
Hot-Desking teams are startups (faculty members or entrepreneur) at various stages. They may be interested in a shorter stay, and/or already have funding and want to engage with the NHSA community. They are invited to work in the open areas and to attend all workshops and events. Graduates of the resident program are also invited to hot-desk for 6 months post-graduation, if space is available. Hot desk teams who are fundraising can present at present their stratups during the 6-month period to companies from relevant industries and VCs.
