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Mossad fund eyeing promising startups

On Tuesday, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, the Mossad, launched Libertad, a new fund that will invest in innovative startups.  

The Mossad has launched the Libertad fund, which will focus on research and development of cutting-edge technologies matching the agency’s needs.

Libertad is in contact with civilian startups that are asked to submit proposals concerning technology development in areas relevant to the Mossad’s work. The fund will choose five startups annually and invest up to NIS 2 million per venture. In some cases, larger amounts will be invested in different R&D ventures. The names of the concerned companies will be undisclosed, the fund announced in an interview with the Israeli financial daily Globes.

The Mossad is interested in breakthrough technologies in flexible robotics, navigability solutions, miniaturized systems, and silencing solutions in the air, land, and sea. Other areas of interest include: innovative technological solutions focusing on automated identification of personal characteristics, expanding the scope of operations or reducing their dimensions, as well as high-speed information encryption technologies defined as “unconventional and pioneering.”

An unnamed representative for the fund said in the same Globes interview that other fields of interest will be added continuously, as new needs emerge:”The Mossad faces difficult and dynamic challenges on a large number of fronts, and, at the present time, technology is one of its main growth engines, and constitutes a basis for intelligence and operational successes and achievements.”

In exchange for its financial assistance, the Mossad will receive licenses to use the developed technologies. The startups will enjoy commercial and business freedom of action with no development project restrictions.

A senior official from the Mossad’s technology department informed Globes that the Libertad fund will be headed by a team appointed within the intelligence agency. The team’s goal is to evaluate each submitted proposal and choose those projects that are compatible with the Mossad’s current and future needs.

By: Daniel Krygier, World Israel News