Alpha Omega, a revolutionary biomedical startup from Nazareth is valued at hundreds of millions of dollars and is writing a new and fascinating chapter in Israeli high tech history

When Reem and Imad Younis launched the technological system they developed, it filled the biomedical community with hope and excitement. The system’s great potential, which started a revolution in intracranial navigation during operations, immediately captivated many. Naturally, all the excitement and wonder raised several eyebrows: when a senior Israeli brain researcher sent an exclamatory email to his colleague overseas, sharing the news of the system, the colleague asked where the company’s offices are based, and thought the researcher was joking. 

The address was Maayan Mariam Square in Nazareth, a place that has long been considered a holy religious pilgrimage site for Christians, and differs drastically from the high tech hub in central Israel. The company’s idea was born in the home of young Arab engineer Imad Younis in 1993. Over the past few years, the company has become a leader in the field of surgical intracranial navigation, and has also created lab equipment for conducting brain research. The company owes its success to its founders Imad (60) and his spouse Reem (57) who opened Nazareth’s gates, turning the city into the capital of the Arab high tech industry in Israel, which today houses no less than 70 companies.

Due to these impressive achievements, Reem and Imad were awarded the 2018 Industry Leaders Medal, at a special ceremony that took place at the Israeli President’s Residence in Jerusalem. But despite their breakthrough success, Alpha Omega remains private, and is owned by family, preserving its intimate character. Currently, it only employs 120 people – 48% of them women compared to the average of 33% in Israeli high tech. “We’re a small company that’s playing in the big leagues,” Imad said during an interview with Calcalist. “Our customers are Medtronic, Boston Scientific, or Abbott Laboratories, so people have high expectations from us. Surgeons who use our system don’t mind how many employees we have, or whether we’re from Nazareth or New York.”

And the number of surgeons using Alpha Omega’s smart system is growing. It already operates in over 200 different hospitals around the world, and has been used in a large number of life-changing brain surgeries. 

What exactly does your system do?

“In most cases, treating neurological and psychiatric diseases is based on trial and error: the doctor tries a certain medication and examines what effect it has on the patient,” Imad explained. “It’s really difficult, because you need to play around with the dosage, which sometimes causes side effects.” In order to overcome this challenge, researchers developed the Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) process, a procedure that does not require medication in which a medical device – a neurostimulator complete with electrodes – is implanted in the brain and sends electrical impulses to specific areas of the brain. This stimulation could lessen worsening motor symptoms of neurological diseases like Parkinson’s disease or epilepsy.

Unlike a broken hand, however, which can be spotted from a mere X-ray, brain issues are far harder for doctors to diagnose, since they can’t see into the human brain. In order to do so, they must implant an electrode which can navigate the brain’s pathways, and that’s where Alpha Omega enters the picture. The company creates a separate electrode, which is inserted into the brain via a nail into the skull, and helps surgeons put together a “map” which helps point to the area that needs treatment. Alpha Omega’s technology is swift and precise, which is critical during such operations. “We simplify surgeries,” Imad specifies. “The surgeon can look at MRI images or CT scans, but deciphering neuron activity is tricky. The algorithm we developed analyzes neurotransmitters once the electrode penetrates the point of treatment, and our system builds a picture or an actual map. It enables the surgeon to find the best spot to implant the electrode.”

Once the system spots the problematic area, the surgeon can add additional electrodes (which are created by Medtronic, Boston Scientific, Abbott, and others) that remain inside the brain. A subcutaneous pacemaker, implanted later, activates the permanent electrode, which transmits nerve impulses instead of damaged nerve cells to treat the disease. “After implantation, our system gives neurologists and psychiatrists more options to treat patients: health professionals can try different medications or DBS – and send stronger or weaker pulses.”

The system starred in former Israeli government minister and Likud MK Michael (Miki) Eitan’s surgery, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s. Since his diagnosis four years ago, the 77-year old politician had become a shadow of his former self – no longer lively, slow-paced, bent over, and shaky. But the surgery brought him back to life, and on a segment broadcast on Israeli television last month, he was shown skipping at home, playing ping pong on the beach, and speaking with the same fluency and alertness which characterized his political career.

“My father didn’t live to receive our treatment”

While the Younis couple is goal-oriented, they’re also a charismatic duo with a sparkle in their eyes. They’re also very loyal to their employees, with nearly a third of their senior management having accompanied Alpha Omega since its founding 28 years ago. They’re also very connected to their Christian Arab community, something that is hinted at from their company’s name. Alpha Omega denotes the first and last letter of the Greek alphabet, and together serve as a godlike symbol in Christianity, signifying the beginning and end of all. But when asked why they chose such a name, Reem provides a far more prosaic explanation. “When we started the company, we didn’t intend for it to be a startup, rather just another subcontractor in the high tech industry. We thought that companies would order our equipment or services, and we’d provide them everything from A to Z – from alpha to omega.”

When Reem is in the operating room next to a Parkinson’s patient, one can only imagine she must wonder what may have been had they developed their technology earlier. Her father, Wadia, developed Parkinson’s when she was a child, and was shuttled from place to place for treatment. In 1995, after three decades of coping with the disease, he passed away, which was “only two years after we founded the company,” she says sadly at the beginning of our conversation. “He didn’t last long enough to receive our treatment. That is the irony of life.”

However, her father did manage to raise a determined woman, who loves challenges, and who never desired to belong to the mainstream. At 18, Reem began pursuing a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering at the Technion Institute of Technology, and there she met her husband, another Christian Arab, who was a senior college student and electrical engineering major. 

The couple founded Alpha Omega when they were already parents to Dima, their eldest daughter, who today at 30, serves as Product Specialist and manages the company’s international marketing. Their other children also work for the company, including son, Jude, 25, as Business Development Associate and their youngest daughter, Nada, 18. In parallel, they also founded Alpha-Cad Ltd., a company that provides software solutions for engineering, which was later sold. To make an initial investment, they sold their family car and four gold coins that Imad received from his father in case of a “rainy day.”

At the beginning of their journey, the Younises cooperated with two of the leading figures in the DBS arena – doctor and brain researcher Prof. Hagai Bergman from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and French-Algerian brain surgeon Prof. Alim Louis Benabid, who is a fellow at the French Academy of Sciences. 

“In Bergman’s post-doctorate which he wrote in the late 80s, he found that Parkinson’s disease could be treated in monkeys, if a small portion of their brain – termed the subthalamic nucleus – was lesioned,” Imad says. “In 1994, Benabid conducted the first such operation on a human to treat essential tremors (the most common symptom in neurological tremor disorders), but his team faced a problem: their intracranial navigation was based on CT, MRI scans, and the like, which weren’t precise enough. In 1997, we reached out to them and offered use of our navigation system which is based on neurotransmitters.” In 1999, they sold their first system in Europe, and a year later entered the U.S. market. In 2002, the Younis couple relocated to the United States for two years with their three children to open the company’s American branch. 

But the company’s real turning point came two years ago: in 2019, only a year after it received its first external investment of $7 million (from the Chinese Guangzhou Sino-Israel Biotech Investment Fund earmarked for expanding the company’s operations in China), the American medical equipment company Medtronic dropped a bomb. It announced that it would be marketing Alpha Omega’s systems worldwide, and in one swift move knocked out all of the company’s market competitors, including its own. “Medtronic recognized our system’s technological and clinical advantages, and decided to abandon their own system and instead sell ours,” Imad revealed. “We are continuing to conduct our own marketing and sales, but they opened the entire world to us. That allowed us to think like leaders.”

And that thought encouraged them to spread the news of DBS around the world. “This treatment is included and covered in the standard healthcare package in Israel, the U.S., and Europe, but it only reaches 10% of the potential population it could help,” Imad says.

Actor and environmental activist contributes undisclosed amount as part of Israeli company’s recent $105m funding round

Actor and environmental activist Leonardo DiCaprio recently invested an undisclosed amount in Israeli alternative meat startup Aleph Farms, a maker of cultivated meat that grows steaks from modified cattle cells, according to an announcement on Wednesday

The investment was made as part of Aleph Farms’ $105 million Series B funding round in July.

The movie star also backed Netherlands-based alt-meat startup Mosa Meat, according to the announcement. The Dutch company unveiled the first cultured hamburger in 2013 and recently announced an $85 million funding round.

Aleph Farms, meanwhile, rolled out the first cultivated steak in 2018 and a cultivated ribeye cut earlier this year.

DiCaprio will be joining both startups as an advisor, according to the statement. The actor has long championed environmentalism with his eco-focused Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, giving out $100 million in grants for everything from lion recovery and mangrove restoration to the defense of indigenous rights and better access to affordable solar energy.

In 2019, he joined billionaire investors and philanthropists to create a new nonprofit, Earth Alliance, charged with tackling climate change and the loss of biodiversity.

“One of the most impactful ways to combat the climate crisis is to transform our food system,” DiCaprio said in the statement released on Wednesday. “Mosa Meat and Aleph Farms offer new ways to satisfy the world’s demand for beef, while solving some of the most pressing issues of current industrial beef production. I’m very pleased to join them as an advisor and investor, as they prepare to introduce cultivated beef to consumers.”

Dr. Didier Toubia, co-founder and CEO of Aleph Farms said that “as a committed environmentalist, we welcome Leonardo DiCaprio to our advisory board and family of top-tier investors. Our team is committed to improving the sustainability of our global food systems and we’re thrilled to have Leo share in our vision.”

“With his passion for and dedication to climate action, we expect this collaboration will lead to great things together,” Toubia added in a video announcement.

“Food systems touch all people, and it will take all of us to make this change happen,” he said.

Toubia founded Aleph Farms in 2017 with Professor Shulamit Levenberg of the Biomedical Engineering Faculty at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, alongside Israeli food-tech incubator The Kitchen, a part of the Strauss Group.

To produce its meat, Aleph leverages the ability of animals to grow tissue muscle constantly and isolates the cells responsible. It then reproduces the optimal conditions for these cells to grow into tissue, basically growing meat outside the animal.

The tissue is grown in tanks that act as fermenters, similar to those in a brewery. There the cells are nurtured and shaped into a 3D structure that makes the meat.

Aleph Farms’ most recent investors include L Catterton, an American-French consumer-focused private equity firm with over $30 billion in equity capital, and DisruptAD, the venture capital arm of the Abu Dhabi holding company ADQ. The startup is also backed by a consortium of global food and meat companies, including Thai Union, BRF, and CJ CheilJedang.

The company has raised more than $110 million to date and has plans for a market launch in 2022. It signed an agreement earlier this year with Mitsubishi Corporation’s Food Industry Group to bring cultivated meat to the Japanese table.

The Israeli firm has also set up similar partnerships with other multinationals: The Swiss industrial group Migros and the United States-based food corporation Cargill have also invested in the startup.

Aleph Farms is a leading player in a growing Israeli food tech sector. The global cultivated meat industry could reach $25 billion by 2030, according to analyst estimates.

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Leonardo DiCaprio is investing in Israel’s Aleph Farms

The actor is joining Aleph and Dutch foodtech company Mosa Meat as an investor and adviser in the growing global movement to support sustainable technologies and transform the way meat is produced

Israel’s Aleph Farms and Dutch company Mosa Meat, two foodtech companies in the emerging field of cultivated meat, announced on Wednesday an investment from environmental activist and Academy Award actor, Leonardo DiCaprio. Both companies have demonstrated their ability to grow beef directly from animal cells, with the unveiling of the first cultivated hamburger by Dutch Mosa Meat in 2013 and the first cultivated steak and ribeye by Aleph Farms in 2018 and 2021. 

“One of the most impactful ways to combat the climate crisis is to transform our food system. Mosa Meat and Aleph Farms offer new ways to satisfy the world’s demand for beef, while solving some of the most pressing issues of current industrial beef production. I’m very pleased to join them as an adviser and investor as they prepare to introduce cultivated beef to consumers,” DiCaprio said.

With global meat consumption projected to grow between 40%-70% by 2050, cultivated meat offers a solution to reduce negative impacts of industrial beef production, which uses precious sources such as land, water, and also causes harm to animals, while being a leading cause of carbon and nitrogen emissions. Cultivated meat will enable diners to enjoy the qualities of the meat they love, while eliminating the need for cutting out meat altogether. Analysts have projected the cultivated meat market could reach $25 billion by 2030, as part of the broader protein transformation. 

According to an independent Life Cycle Analysis study, cultivated beef production is projected to reduce climate impact by 92%, air pollution by 93%, and use 95% less land and 78% less water when compared to industrial beef production. 

“As a committed environmentalist, we welcome DiCaprio to our advisory board and family of top tier investors. Our team is committed to improving the sustainability of our global food systems and we’re thrilled to have Leo share in our vision,” Didier Toubia, co-founder and CEO of Aleph Farms said. 

Aleph Farms grows beef steaks, from non-genetically engineered cells isolated from a living cow, without harming animals and with a significantly reduced impact to the environment. The company is supported by The Kitchen Hub of the Strauss Group, and Professor Shulamit Levenberg from the Biomedical Engineering Faculty at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. Some of its investors include L. Catterton, DisruptAD (ADQ), BRF, Thai Union and Cargill.

Mosa Meat is a global food technology company pioneering a cleaner, kinder way of making real beef. Headquartered in Maastricht, the Netherlands, Mosa Meat is a privately-held company backed by Blue Horizon, M Ventures, Bell Food Group, Nutreco, Mitsubishi Corporation and others.

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DiCaprio invests in Israeli cultivated meat co Aleph Farms

The Rehovot-based company has cultivated the world’s first slaughter-free ribeye steak, using 3D bio-printing technology.

Israeli cultivated meat company Aleph Farms has announced that the actor Leonardo DiCaprio has invested in the company and will join its advisory board. DiCaprio is also investing in Dutch cultivated meat company Mosa Meat.

DiCaprio said, “One of the most impactful ways to combat the climate crisis is to transform our food system. Mosa Meat and Aleph Farms offer new ways to satisfy the world’s demand for beef, while solving some of the most pressing issues of current industrial beef production. I’m very pleased to join them as an advisor and investor, as they prepare to introduce cultivated beef to consumers.”

DiCaprio invested in Rehovot-based Aleph Farms as part of its $105 million financing round completed in July. The amount of the investment has not been disclosed.

Aleph Farms cofounder and CEO Didier Toubia said, “As a committed environmentalist, we welcome Leonardo DiCaprio to our advisory board and family of top tier investors. Our team is committed to improving the sustainability of our global food systems and we’re thrilled to have Leo share in our vision.”

Aleph Farms was founded by Israeli food company Strauss Group together with Prof. Shulamit Levenberg of the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology and Toubia and has cultivated the world’s first slaughter-free ribeye steak, using 3D bio-printing technology and natural building blocks of meat – real cow cells, without genetic engineering.

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Leonardo DiCaprio Invests In Israeli Cultivated Meat Startup Aleph Farms

Academy Award-winning actor and environmental activist Leonardo DiCaprio recently invested an undisclosed amount in Israeli startup Aleph Farms, a cultured meat startup that has created slaughter-free steak and ribeye from cattle cells. His investment was part of the company’s $105 million Series B funding round in July, according to an announcement. released on Wednesday.

He also invested in Dutch alternative meat startup Mosa Meat, Aleph Farms and Mosa Meat said in the statement. The Netherlands-based company is known for unveiling the first cultured hamburger in 2013.

Aleph Farms is also known for unveiling the “world’s first” cultivated steak in 2018 and a cultivated ribeye steak earlier this year.

“One of the most impactful ways to combat the climate crisis is to transform our food system,” DiCaprio said in the announcement, “Mosa Meat and Aleph Farms offer new ways to satisfy the world’s demand for beef, while solving some of the most pressing issues of current industrial beef production. I’m very pleased to join them as an advisor and investor, as they prepare to introduce cultivated beef to consumers.”

DiCaprio has a long association with environmental activism and social responsibility, which started early on in his career. In 1998, at the age of just 24, the Oscar-winning actor established the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation (LDF) with the purpose of raising awareness about environmental issues threatening the health of the planet and to date, has awarded more than $80 million in grants, funding over 200 projects in 50 countries.

In addition, the philanthropist also serves on the board of several environmental protection organizations including the World Wildlife Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council, International Fund for Animal Welfare, Pristine Seas and Oceans 5. He is also an advisor on The Solutions Project, an organization dedicated to scaling up the adoption of clean, renewable energy.

He also has a history of investing in Israeli eco-friendly projects, including a green hotel at the Herzliya marina, as well as promoting the development of – at the time – in January 2017, the world’s tallest solar thermal tower created by Megalim at the Ashalim solar complex in the Negev.

Aleph Farms has consistently made the news over the last several years as it attempts to disrupt the traditional meat market with its cultured, slaughter-free meat. It grows beef steaks, from non-genetically engineered cells isolated from a living cow, without harming animals and with a significantly reduced impact to the environment.

The company was co-founded in 2017 by Didier Toubia, The Kitchen Hub of the Strauss Group, and Professor Shulamit Levenberg from the Biomedical Engineering Faculty at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.

In January, the company announced an agreement with Japanese multinational Mitsubishi Corporation’s Food Industry Group to bring cultivated meat to Japan, followed by a deal to operate in Brazil.