UnBox Ventures

Unleashing Innovation

Thanks to UnBox’s problem-centric approach to creating companies, a Bar-Ilan business PhD and network-science researcher are helping American operating rooms use their resources more efficiently. Coming soon to a hospital near you.

Starting Something

“Lots of aspiring entrepreneurs come to me with ideas,” says Ariel Sella, founder and managing director of UnBox Ventures, Bar-Ilan’s studio for venture creation. “I tell them, ‘Never mind ideas, come to me with a problem worth solving. Then we’ve got something to talk about.’”

Thanks to Sella’s novel process for turning great research into companies—including offering researchers and their co-founders majority holdings, intellectual-property waivers, pre-seed funding, and expert guidance—UnBox, which is a now a partnership of Bar-Ilan and Mivtach Shamir Holdings, has helped solve many problems indeed. “By encouraging researchers to focus on problems first, then guiding them on a step-by-step journey of venture creation, we’re advancing applied research, broadening the Startup Nation’s deep-tech sector, and taking on seemingly intractable challenges to make the world a better place,’” Sella says.

Opmed co-founders (from left to right) Prof. Baruch Barzel, chief scientist; Dr. Mor Brokman Meltzer, CEO; and Avi Paz, CTO.

““We’re interested in people more than in patents. We strive to help each aspiring entrepreneur, including our researchers, find and develop the leader within him or her, in whom investors will trust.”

 

—Ariel Sella, Managing Director, UnBox Ventures

This was precisely the process that led to the founding of Opmed.ai, startup that helps hospitals maximize their efficiency and resilience, beginning with the optimal use of their operating rooms. Currently in implementation in 15 American hospitals—with plans to expand to dozens more in the coming year—Opmed.ai began with a conversation between Sella and Dr. Mor Brokman Meltzer, then a doctoral student in business administration.

 

“Mor approached UnBox with the goal of creating a startup that would utilize her expertise in optimizing complex work-process networks,” Sella explains. “I proposed focusing on the problem of delays in operating rooms, which costs hospitals hundreds of millions each year. I then suggested that she bring in Bar-Ilan’s renowned network-science researcher Prof. Baruch Barzel as co-founder and chief scientist.” Brokman Meltzer completed her team by recruiting Avi Paz, a high-tech veteran who previously held senior positions at PayPal and Microsoft Health AI, to serve as co-founder and CTO. After completing the process of business modeling, market validation, and seed and investment rounds, Brokman Meltzer went on to create a strong advisory board, which includes an executive vice president at Geisinger Health System and the director of surgical services at Northwestern Medicine.

 

Four years, 15 employees and $15 million in funding later, Opmed.ai is proof of UnBox’s concept for unleashing Bar-Ilan research into the world. It’s also enabling surgeons to treat more patients, which is, Sella concludes, “what Bar-Ilan research is really all about.”

Changemaking Companies

Other UnBox companies tackling the world’s biggest problems:

NanoCarry
Through a proprietary, bioengineered, and fully adjustable nanoparticle platform, NanoCarry overcomes the blood-brain barrier to successfully deliver therapeutics directly to the brain.

DriftSense
Utilizing a unique AI-based platform, DriftSense provides farmers with an optimized spraying-execution plan for better crop yields and cost-effectiveness at scale.

Pentaomix
Using hyperspectral imaging, Pentaomix allows pathologists to visualize all the markers required to diagnose cancer on a single slide—quickly, simply, and affordably.

Shela
Through a multi-disciplinary, AI-based platform that integrates clinical and biological data, Shela predicts and prevents women’s health complications and offers personalized health-management plans.

Malanta
An early-stage startup at the forefront of the alternative-meat industry, Malanta is developing a platform for the smart production of whole meat cuts on an industrial scale, thus paving the way for a more sustainable global food supply.

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Finding Gold

UnBox aims to create a community of 100 startup-minded PhDs in the next four years through its Eureka! entrepreneurship program, launched in 2023. Featuring a foundational course, skills workshops, and individual coaching, Eureka! helps doctoral students—the first cohort of which numbers 25—turn their research into the basis for a deep-tech company. Additional UnBox programs for encouraging research-based entrepreneurship include the UnBox Residency Fellowships, which offer a one-year stipend, expert coaching, and office space at the UnBox Launchpad to entrepreneurial postdoctoral students, and Boost Stipends to PhD students who seek technological readiness to enter the UnBox Launchpad.