Major Funds Diving into Web 3.0

Battery, Vertex and ProSeed invest in Data Essence

Data Essence receives close to $1M Investment from funds through Technion Seed (the Technion incubator); Data Essence develops technology for acquiring and analyzing internet-based information from a wide variety of sources

Battery Ventures, Vertex and ProSeed are entering the Web 3.0 market through a close to $1M seed investment in Data Essence. The investment was made through the joint seed investment program of those funds, Technion Seed (the Technion incubator) of which they are co-owners. Following the investment, the company recruited a highly qualified staff and has stepped up the technological development of its innovative technology.

Data Essence is based in Technion Seed’s offices, located at the MATAM High-Tech Park at the southern entrance to Haifa. The company develops advanced information and research tools. Based on semantic technologies, the purpose of those tools is to gather and present information to professional users.

“Data Essence corresponds perfectly with our strategy of investing in unique technologies that appeal to huge markets,” says Avi Domoshevizki, a partner in the US-based Battery Ventures fund. “The combination of a considerable seed investment from leading funds, and the on-going professional guidance by the incubator’s team, are keys to the successful creation of an exceptional company.” Domoshevizki stresses that Data Essence and other companies in which Technion Seed and its VC owners invest, immediately become portfolio companies of those funds, thus paving a company’s way to follow-on, large-scale investments.

“Data Essence is operating in one of the world’s hottest markets today,” says Technion Seed CEO Moshe Katzenelson. “The information market does not presently offer sufficient tools for the optimal utilization of information sources by professional users. Data Essence supplies these users with advanced tools for uncovering information from a wide variety of sources, mapping that information and providing the ability to exhaustively utilize that data to gain a competitive edge in one’s field.” Katzenelson also points out that the semantic mapping of data (often referred to as “Web 3.0”) is indicated as one of the Internet’s major fields of development over the next few years.

Data Essence was established by Yaron Karasik and Amnon Mishor – veterans of the IDF’s intelligence corps technology unit. While serving in military intelligence, the two entrepreneurs, who are both Tel Aviv University graduates, gained much experience in applying advanced information technologies for the benefit of intelligence data consumers. Later, they also served as consultants in the field of sophisticated information gathering for a number of major commercial clients in Israel and abroad.

How does the system work?

Data Essence develops semantic technology that enables the uncovering, mapping and structured representation of various relationships between elements and occurrences in a specified realm of content. Using this map, smart information services can be developed that are currently unavailable, which supply relevant and unique information for the professional user. In addition, semantic mapping transforms access to information into an intuitive process – similar to the manner in which people think and analyze their own active realms of content (as opposed to current plain key-word-based solutions).

About Technion Seed

Technion Seed is a seed-stage investment firm, owned jointly by four top-tier Venture Capital funds – Vertex Venture Capital, Battery Ventures (US-based), SCP-Vitalife and ProSeed – and the Technion Research & Development Foundation. Through Technion Seed, these funds invest in high market potential technological ideas and ventures, that are still at an early stage and with very high uncertainty. The investment in such ventures – initially up to about $1,000,000 – is made both directly by the funds and indirectly through Technion Seed. The purpose of the initial investment is to enable the entrepreneurs to prove the viability of their idea. Success in the initial phase will then lead to a large round of financing by the funds, for continued growth of the venture. Technion Seed and its owners invest in a wide variety of areas, including communications, IT, internet, medical devices, renewable energy, new materials and more.