Ignite by Coller page

18/09/2026

Shana Tova from Ignite 🍎🍯

Wishing our lovely Ignite community a year of health, joy, bold ideas and the courage to build them. See you at our first event of the New Year. Stay curious 🌟

שנה טובה ומתוקה 💛

16/08/2026

That's a wrap on an incredible year. Founder talks, workshops, and panels. Here's a recap of everything that went on:

➢ November: Opening night with Tal Kollender and Alon Yariv
➢ January: Finance and law evening at Herzog Fox & Neeman
➢ January: A sales and business development workshop with Hadar Tal
➢ April: Product-market fit with Roy Zur
➢ May: Riki Levisman on the agentic shift
➢ May: Ignite Now, two days of sessions for the Coller Startup Competition semifinalists
➢ June: Personal branding panel with Ana Lipnik Levy, Shay Thieberg, and Rodrigo Gonzales
➢ July: From Lab to Business, a biotech panel with the George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, led by Ilanit Kabessa with Prof. Dan Peer, Maya Ashkenazi Otmazgin, and Dr. Assaf Horowitz, plus pitches from Coller Competition winners Diana Gataulin and Shirley Shahar

It was a great year of putting on events and meeting so many of you along the way. We hope you got something out of it, whether that was an idea, a connection, or just a good night out with people building the same kind of thing you are.

Thank you to our supporters Discount Tech, Herzog Fox & Neeman, Carol and Alan Silberstein, Tel Aviv University - Coller School of Management, Sofaer Global MBA at Tel Aviv University, and Coller Institute of Venture at Tel Aviv University, and to our mentors Orli Arbel, Doron Simhi, Erez Gavish, and Eyal Benjamin.

And the biggest thank you to the Ignite team, Vanessa Roy, Juliette Bergwerk, Ibraheem Ganayim, Adam Nusinovich, Adriel Friedler, Gil Shua, Mor Bar, Odaya Buta-Scott, Lareen Hino, Mikhail Khoroshkin, Dr. Janina Lehmann, Liron Matalon, Solomon Margolin, and Shaked Sade. What a year to build with you.

If you're not in our WhatsApp community yet, now's the time: https://chat.whatsapp.com/EW4diqDZtxtFS9UcYunAXF

See you next year. 👀

15/07/2026

From lab to business, in one packed room. 🧬

Last night, Ignite by Coller hosted "From Lab to Business: The Realities of Biotech Entrepreneurship," an honest look at what it actually takes to turn science into a company. Full house, sharp conversation, and a Q&A that kept going past the scheduled end.

The night opened with a TED-style talk from Ilanit Kabessa before moving into the panel.

Huge thank you to everyone who took the stage:

➢ Ilanit Kabessa, Managing Partner at URIKA Partners
➢ Prof. Dan Peer, VP R&D at Tel Aviv University
➢ Maya Ashkenazi Otmazgin, Founder & CEO of MAOLAC
➢ Dr. Assaf Horowitz, CEO & Co-Founder of BrainVivo
➢ Shirley Shahar, CEO of Ever:Red and General Partner at Desertech Ventures
➢ Diana Gataulin, Co-Founder & CEO of Virobix

A special mention that Shirley and Diana joined us straight off their wins at last week's Coller Startup Competition, Animal-Free Tech and Deep Tech respectively. Fresh off the win and already back sharing what they've learned.

From therapeutics to diagnostics to bioactive nutrition, the room got the real version of the founder journey. The messy parts, the long road, and why it's worth it anyway.

This event was a collaboration with The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences at Tel Aviv University.

Thank you to our supporters Herzog Fox & Neeman, Discount Tech, and Carol and Alan Silberstein, and to our mentors Orli Arbel, Doron Simhi, Erez Gavish, and Eyal Benjamin for making nights like this possible.

And the biggest thank you to the Ignite team, Vanessa Roy, Juliette Bergwerk, Ibraheem Ganayim, Adam Nusinovich, Adriel Friedler, Gil Shua, Mor Bar, Odaya Buta-Scott, Lareen Hino, Mikhail Khoroshkin, Dr. Janina Lehmann, Liron Matalon, Solomon Margolin, and Shaked Sade, for pulling it off.

More coming soon. 👀

13/07/2026

Surprise addition to tomorrow night. 🧬

Two more speakers just joined "From Lab to Business," and both of them just proved they can do exactly what this event is about.

➢ Shirley Shahar, CEO of Ever:Red, this year's Animal-Free Tech winner. She's also a General Partner at Desertech Ventures, backing agri-food and climate startups built for the world's driest places, so she brings the founder's view and the investor's view in the same person.

➢ Diana Gataulin, Co-Founder & CEO of Virobix, this year's Deep Tech winner. Virobix spun out of research at the Weizmann Institute of Science and is building targeted viral delivery for next-generation cancer therapies. She'll walk through the founder's journey, lab to company, in five minutes.

They join Ilanit Kabessa, Prof. Dan Peer, Maya Ashkenazi Otmazgin, and Dr. Assaf Horowitz for a night about what it actually takes to turn science into a company. Now with two people who just did it, fresh off the win.

This one's a collaboration with The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences at Tel Aviv University.

📅 When: Tomorrow, July 14, 2026 // 18:00 to 20:30
📍 Where: Sherman Building, Life Sciences room 002, Tel Aviv University
🗣️ Language: English
🎟️ Cost: Free, register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/from-lab-to-business-the-realities-of-biotech-entrepreneurship-new-date-tickets-1991888257398
📋 Agenda: Arrival & mingling, opening remarks, TED-style talk, panel, Q&A, closing

Last chance to grab a spot. See you in the room. 👇

Proudly supported by our partners: Discount Tech, Herzog Fox & Neeman, Carol and Alan Silberstein, Tel Aviv University - Coller School of Management, Sofaer Global MBA at Tel Aviv University, and Coller Institute of Venture at Tel Aviv University.

13/07/2026

Tomorrow night. Last call. 🧬

"From Lab to Business: The Realities of Biotech Entrepreneurship" goes down July 14 at Tel Aviv University, the honest version of what it takes to turn science into a company.

If you've been meaning to sign up, do it now.

Who's on stage:

➢ Ilanit Kabessa, Managing Partner at URIKA Partners (opening talk + moderator)
➢ Prof. Dan Peer, VP R&D at Tel Aviv University
➢ Maya Ashkenazi Otmazgin, Founder & CEO of MAOLAC
➢ Dr. Assaf Horowitz, CEO & Co-Founder of BrainVivo

Four people who've actually walked the path from lab to market, no sugarcoating.

A collaboration with The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences at Tel Aviv University.

📅 When: July 14, 2026 // 18:00 to 20:30
📍 Where: Sherman Building, Life Sciences room 002, Tel Aviv University
🗣️ Language: English
🎟️ Cost: Free, register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/from-lab-to-business-the-realities-of-biotech-entrepreneurship-new-date-tickets-1991888257398
📋 Agenda: Arrival & mingling, opening remarks, TED-style talk, panel, Q&A, closing

Last chance to tag a friend and bring them along. 👇

Proudly supported by our partners: Discount Tech, Herzog Fox & Neeman, Carol and Alan Silberstein, Tel Aviv University - Coller School of Management, Sofaer Global MBA at Tel Aviv University, and Coller Institute of Venture at Tel Aviv University.

The event will be held in ENGLISH. The event is FREE - but registration is required.

10/07/2026

10 years of the Coller Startup Competition, and the finals delivered. 🎉

We were there as part of the exhibition, and what a night to be in the room for. Months of applications, mentoring, and rehearsals came down to nine finalists, an evening of sharp pitches, and three well-earned wins.

Congratulations to this year's winners:

➢ Deep Tech: VIROBIX, for targeted viral therapies aimed at treating solid tumors more precisely
➢ Climate Tech: Okimata, reinventing ceramic manufacturing with a process that cuts energy, emissions, and cost
➢ Animal-Free Tech: Ever:Red, a plant-based alternative to insect-derived carmine pigment using engineered duckweed

Every finalist brought bold thinking and real ambition to the stage. This is exactly the kind of night that reminds you why the ecosystem here is special.

Huge congrats to the winners, every finalist team, and the Coller Institute of Venture crew for pulling off an unforgettable 10th anniversary.

Proud to have been in the room. Here's to the next ten. 🎉

09/07/2026

Rounding out the panel, a founder building at the edge of neuroscience. 🧠

On July 14, Dr. Assaf Horowitz joins the "From Lab to Business" panel at Ignite by Coller.

Assaf is CEO & Co-Founder of BrainVivo, where he's working to turn deep neuroscience into real-world technology. He's building in one of the hardest corners of biotech, where the science is genuinely novel, the path to market is anything but obvious, and you've got to hold the research and the business in your head at the same time.

What he brings to the panel:

➢ What it takes to commercialize science that's genuinely cutting-edge
➢ How to build a company when your core tech is still proving itself
➢ The realities of fundraising and team-building around frontier science
➢ Lessons from running a deep-tech venture day to day

This one's a collaboration with The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences at Tel Aviv University, research world meets founder world, same room.

📅 When: July 14, 2026 // 18:00 to 20:30
📍 Where: Sherman Building, Life Sciences room 002, Tel Aviv University
🗣️ Language: English
🎟️ Cost: Free, register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/from-lab-to-business-the-realities-of-biotech-entrepreneurship-new-date-tickets-1991888257398
📋 Agenda: Arrival & mingling, opening remarks, TED-style talk, panel, Q&A, closing

Tag someone fascinated by brain. 👇

Proudly supported by our partners: Discount Tech, Herzog Fox & Neeman, Carol and Alan Silberstein, Tel Aviv University - Coller School of Management, Sofaer Global MBA at Tel Aviv University, and Coller Institute of Venture at Tel Aviv University.

07/07/2026

Tomorrow. This is the one it's all been building toward. 🏆

The finals of the 10th annual Coller Startup Competition happen tomorrow, and after months of applications, mentoring, and judging, nine startups are ready to take the stage.

Here's the night:

➢ Startup exhibition and networking
➢ Live finalist pitches
➢ Winner announcement and celebration

Come meet the founders, see what they're building across Deep Tech, Climate Tech, and Animal-Free Tech, and be in the room when the 2026 winners are announced. Ignite by Coller will be there as part of the exhibition, so come find us and say hi.

📅 When: Tomorrow, Wednesday, July 8, 2026 // 17:30 to 21:30
📍 Where: Coller School of Management, Tel Aviv University
🎟️ Cost: Free, register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/finals-the-10th-coller-startup-competition-tickets-1990762175256?aff=oddtdtcreator

Founder, investor, student, or just curious about what's next? This is the one to be at.

Experience the excitement live! Watch the finalists pitch their ventures for a chance to win $400,000 in investment awards