Haifa-based ThermoMind was announced as the Next-Gen Women Entrepreneurship Award winner at the Jerusalem Post Women Leaders Summit on Wednesday evening. The award, which was sponsored by The Luzzatto Group and the Jerusalem Post, was presented to Dr. Larisa Adamyan, ThermoMind co-founder, at the conclusion of the event, which was held in Tel Aviv at Habait Hayarok.
The Next-Gen Women Entrepreneurship Award supports and empowers women entrepreneurs by giving them a prominent platform to tell Israel and the world about the companies they are trying to build.
Tamar Uriel-Beeri, managing editor of jpost.com, and co-moderator for the event, introduced the award competition and noted that women entrepreneurs are highly underrepresented and underfunded. “We want to showcase them and help give them a better start.”
Five women high-tech entrepreneurs presented their company’s technology at the event, including Adamyan, ThermoMind co-founder, whose company is developing next-generation modalities for early-stage breast cancer detection; Esther Altura, co-founder and CEO of DrizzleX, which provides a water-metering solution that enables water conservation in residential buildings without individual apartment meters; Dr. Tali Cohen Solal, CEO and co-founder of Genetika +, which has developed new methods to assist patients in finding the most suitable antidepressant medications, providing better outcomes and fewer side-effects; Carmit Lev Solash, CEO and co-founder of IntoSleep, developers of AI-based solution for insomnia, consisting of a smartphone application, a wireless finger sensor and a ceiling projector; and Leah Mandler, marketing vice-president of DirecTrain Systems, whose dynamic coupling technology enables safe connection and disconnection of trains on-the-run, thereby increasing rail capacity and service efficiency.
Each representative was given five minutes to pitch their company on stage, and explain the need for their product, its funding, how it works and its future market potential. The panel of judges, which included Dr. Esther Luzzatto, CEO of The Luzzatto Group, Hila Ovil-Brenner, founder of Yazamiyot and Anat Kenan, Executive Vice President of Global HR for Alma Lasers, selected ThermoMind as the winner.
ThermoMind, which was founded in April 2022, utilizes dynamic thermal imaging and advanced data analysis to detect metabolic and vascular changes caused by cancer. The company’s solution consists of two main components – an innovative screening device and an AI-based diagnostic platform. The screening device scans the entire chest and armpit area using thermal sensors that are positioned near the patient that scan from all angles without any physical contact or repositioning of the patient, and the diagnostics platform analyzes the thermal screening data and patient variables using advanced algorithms to detect metabolic abnormalities and asymmetry, which indicate malignancy.
Adamyan explained that standard mammography causes ionizing radiation, patient discomfort and has greatly limited accuracy when applied to young women or women with dense breasts. In contrast, she said, ThermoMind’s scanning and technology-driven solution is risk-free, comfortable for the patient, and works equally well with women in all age groups and breast densities.
In August 2022, the company received an 11.6 million Euro grant from the European Commission for a clinical study in 12 clinical sites, and this June, it will initiate tests of its screening technology on 28,000 patients at medical centers in Israel, Europe and the United States. The company expects to bring its product to the market within five years.
Adv. Tamar Luzzatto, Head of Business Development, Marketing and Innovation at The Luzzatto Group, sponsors of the Next-Gen Women Entrepreneurship Award, said, “Being that 80% of The Luzzatto Group’s management is composed of women, and we have a female CEO, we are regularly engaged in promoting female entrepreneurship in the worlds of innovation, entrepreneurship and intellectual property.
This competition, which is already in its second year, aims to put female entrepreneurs at the beginning of their journey on stage and encourage them to present and promote themselves. Though women make up 50% of the population, just 16.5% of inventors are women. This is an intolerable waste of quality human resources, and our goal is to reduce the gap. We are delighted to see that the percentage of presenters at the Summit increases every year, and hopefully, the number of women inventors will also increase. Though we still have a long way to go before we reach parity, there are many reasons to remain optimistic, such as the tremendous response to this evening.”