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FROM VISION TO VALIDATION
Spark is a 5-day program in Tel Aviv for inception-stage founders, built to move from vision to validation. Backed by the ICON community, founders get direct access to SV101 alumni, seasoned operators, and Silicon Valley investors and corporates.
It’s about validating with the right people from day one, sharpening your story through a US perspective, and building a strong team foundation for growth.
Meet The #1 Batch
Atom
Vertical: Al-Infra
Atom enables GPU overbooking at scale by virtualizing and orchestrating GPU resources.
Omri Fainaro
(CEO)
Omri is a former vulnerability researcher from Unit 49 with award winning security findings across complex systems.
His work includes discovering vulnerabilities in GPUs and widely used AI infrastructure, such as vLLM, giving him deep hands on familiarity with the full AI software and hardware stack. He has led and contributed to large scale G2G projects with the Ministry of Defense and today focuses on turning deep low level technology into practical systems that deliver real customer value.
David Engstler
(CTO)
David Engstler (CTO) A veteran of Unit 81, David is an expert vulnerability researcher with years of experience identifying critical flaws in complex architectures.
He previously served as an officer leading 40-person research teams and was honored with the Aman Creativity Award for his technical innovation. David’s specialized knowledge of niche chipsets and low-level systems gives him a formidable edge in architecting secure, large-scale environments from the silicon up.
Ron Kozokin
(CPO)
Ron served in Unit 81 as an engineer working on complex systems and deep technical challenges. He held customer facing roles in highly technical environments, working directly with customers while leading product and engineering efforts.
Ron brings hands on experience spanning board and low level design through software and cloud systems, enabling him to translate deep end to end technology into clear scalable products.
Expect2
Vertical: Developer Tools
Expect2 is building the agentic testing layer for the AI era, enabling companies to deliver code to production without sacrificing quality.
Shani Kotler
(CEO)
Shani is a product and AI leader with a strong track record of building and scaling technology products.
Meir Amsellem
(CTO)
Meir is a founder and CTO with experience building products from zero to production.
His background spans engineering leadership, architecture design, and hands-on development.
HeroCon
Vertical: ConTech
HeroCon develops an AI-powered validation engine for 3D construction models, eliminating permitting delays and costly rework with multiple use cases across the US market
Alon Peretz
(CEO)
Alon is an entrepreneur driven by curiosity, creativity, and building impactful technology.
He brings an energetic, hands-on approach to company building. His interests span technology, music, and outdoor pursuits- spent the last 7 years building domain expertise in the ConTech space - with emphasis on Implementation of innovation.
Elad Zicherman
(Founder)
Elad is a technologist with over a decade of experience in high-tech.
He has worked across engineering and product roles, building and scaling complex systems. Elad focuses on turning ideas into reliable, production-ready solutions.
Yuval Shmuel
(CAI)
Yuval brings nearly a decade of experience across AI/ML, infrastructure, and R&D management.
He previously held senior roles at SolarEdge and holds an advanced degree in AI/ML. Yuval leads the product vision, AI agent design, and construction-specific intelligence across the platform.
Nox Security
Vertical: Cyber Security: AI & ML in Security
Nox Security actively prevents a complete AI agent takeover
Aram Peles-Chen
(CEO)
Aram is a former intelligence unit officer and early-stage founder based in Tel Aviv.
He brings experience in security, leadership, and product management. Aram is driven by building meaningful security solutions from the ground up.
Ilai Goldschmidt
(CTO)
Ilai is a former intelligence unit officer, and brings a strong technical background with both leading and hands-on experience building security-focused systems.
He specializes in solving complex technical problems and designing scalable technologies. Ilai brings a grounded, execution-focused mindset.
Perfect Security Labs
Vertical: Cyber Security: Cyber Security: Threat Intelligence, Human Factors, AI & ML in Security
Perfect brings advanced AI and behavior modeling to address the AI era insider threat, protecting organizations from risks posed by both humans and the growing adoption of AI agents.
Ido Heth
(CEO)
Ido grew up in northern Israel and is a classical musician in profession, He brings years in cyber experience, most of it from 8200, combining leadership, entrepreneurship, and building early-stage companies.
Ido focuses on creating impactful technology with real-world value.
Ronen Betser
(CTO)
Ronen brings a strong technical and academic background in mathematics and engineering.
Combining that with 5 years in unit 81, He has worked on complex systems across research and engineering roles. His focus is on building cutting edge AI systems.
Tropiflo
Vertical: AI/ML
Tropiflo is developing a platform for optimization of internal AI models within companies.
Jonathan Gdalevich
(CEO)
Jonathan has a background in electrical engineering and physics, with experience across advanced technology and defense environments. He brings a systems-level perspective to company building.
Jonathan focuses on developing advanced technologies that operate at scale.
Psagot Alumnus, Served as team lead at Matzov counter intelligence forces, founded the Psagot entrepreneurship Course and community.
Oz Kilim
(CTO)
Oz brings deep technical expertise with a strong research background. He has experience in advanced systems development and technical leadership. His focus is on building robust, high-performance technologies. BSc and MSc from Oxford, PhD in ML and Physics, Postdoctoral at Harvard.
Longtime friends and IAF R&D unit veterans, they’ve worked on multiple projects together, developed hundreads of models, receiving various awards and honors.
Upware
Vertical: Enterprise AI
Upware is the integration platform for the Agentic era. Upware helps enterprises turn operational workflows across complex systems into process-compliant automations within their AI framework.
Tomer Suarez
(CEO)
Tomer is a 2nd time founder based in Tel Aviv. He brings hands-on experience building and leading startups, previously as the founder/CEO of Interai (50 employees, Fortune 500 clients). Ex-Talpiot, Ministry of Defense.
Walktru.ai
Vertical: FinTech
Walktru automates financial controls, starting with SOX compliance, to reduce risk and manual work.
Dor Ad
(CEO)
Dor previously served as CEO of a bootstrapped company for seven years.
He brings strong execution discipline and leadership experience. Dor also serves as a helicopter pilot in reserve service.
Ravid Cohen
(CTO)
Ravid brings deep technical expertise in systems design and engineering leadership.
He has led engineering teams in complex, high-impact environments. His focus is on building scalable, production-ready systems. Ravid also serves as a helicopter pilot in reserve service.
Pini Nisnevitch
(CAIO)
Pini specializes in AI, systems design, and applied research.
He brings experience translating advanced AI capabilities into practical, real-world solutions. His work focuses on making AI operational and impactful.
Eve-X
Vertical: Cyber Security: Security Operations
Eve-X builds agentic deep forensics for insider risk, providing behavioral visibility and high-confidence signals across autonomous AI agents operating inside organizations.
Miriam Nizri
(CEO)
Miriam brings over a decade of experience in cybersecurity, including leadership roles at SentinelOne.
She has led teams and built products in fast-paced, high-growth environments, working across both technical and business domains. Miriam is passionate about building strong teams and solving meaningful security problems.
Aviv Erez
(CTO)
Aviv has 15 years of experience building large-scale data and security systems.
He has led engineering teams developing complex, high-performance infrastructures. His focus is on designing robust architectures that scale reliably in production environments.