Israel’s ophthalmologists are getting a boost from innovators developing solutions for eye diseases and eye health. 

“I think we can see how this industry has matured in Israel, both on the management side, and in the sense of understanding what to develop, and how to develop it,” says Dr. Barak Azmon, a pioneering entrepreneur in the country’s ophthalmology industry. 

Azmon is chair of the ophthalmology session at next week’s annual Biomed Conference in Tel Aviv, which showcases the latest developments in healthcare, and will be exhibiting some of these new ocular technologies.

Israel’s ophthalmologists are getting a boost from innovators developing solutions for eye diseases and eye health. (Courtesy Maksim Goncharenok/ Pexels)

“In Israel, there are around 70 startups in the ophthalmologic space. It’s probably more than in the Silicon Valley or any other region alone,” says Azmon.

“As we will show in this conference, we have a unique year where nine companies in the ophthalmology space have already launched new products or are expected to do so by the end of the year.”

NoCamels takes a look at some of the most innovative solutions in the field of eye health in Israel: 

Orasis: Eyedrops For Better Vision

Many people over the age of 45 who have always had 20/20 vision find themselves suddenly needing reading glasses as their eyes age – a chronic inconvenience whose long-term solution is an invasive medical procedure. 

But now new eyedrops developed by Orasis will be able to correct farsightedness (presbyopia) – albeit for a few hours. 

Orasis’ eye drops will enable people with farsightedness to see clearly without reading glasses for several hours at a time. (Courtesy Yaroslav Shuraev / Pexels)

“We aspire to make near vision clear again for people with presbyopia by empowering them with an unparalleled solution, an eye drop that will provide them with comfort and control of their near vision,” said Elad Kedar, CEO of Orasis. 

The eyedrop improves patients’ vision by constricting the pupil, resulting in a “pinhole effect” and increasing their depth of field and ability to focus on nearby objects. 

Presbyopia is a result of the natural aging process, and there are almost two billion people living with it globally. They experience blurred vision when performing daily tasks like reading a book, a restaurant menu or messages on a smartphone.

Existing treatment options for farsightedness include invasive treatments like LASIK eye surgery, pictured. (Courtesy Senior Airman Brian Ferguson/ Wikimedia Commons)

It cannot be prevented or reversed, and it continues to progress gradually. All existing treatment options are either inconvenient, like reading glasses and contact lenses, or invasive, like refractive surgery that changes the shape of your cornea and lens implants, which replace the lens in each eye with a synthetic one.

Orasis’ eye drops will be sold in the US by the end of the year. 

CorNeat Vision: Synthetic Sight 

Over two million people lose their vision every year due to a group of eye diseases known as corneal blindness.

The only effective treatment available is a cornea transplant – the clear, front part of the eye that absorbs light, which is later translated by the retina into the images that we see.

Problem is, there’s a shortage of cornea donors worldwide. In China, for example, there are five million patients with corneal blindness, but only 5,000 possible transplants a year. 

An animation showing CorNeat Vision’s synthetic lenses. (Courtesy)

Furthermore, artificial corneas are not effective for more than a few months as the immune system sees them as something foreign that needs to be dissolved or expelled. 

But startup CorNeat Vision says it has developed a synthetic cornea that can fully rehabilitate corneal blind patients and integrate into their eye tissue. 

The “skirt”, or rim of the lens, is made of a patented plastic that stimulates the cells to accept it and incorporate it into the eye tissue. 

“There’s no other material that seamlessly embeds itself with live human tissue for life,” says Almog Aley-Raz, CEO.

“When you implant anything, it triggers a foreign body response, and our immune system will work to degrade and eventually absorb it or, in case it is non-degradable, it will encapsulate it with a granuloma (a cluster of white blood cells and other tissue), isolating it from the body.”

The CorNeat KPro. Courtesy

It uses the electrospinning technique – an existing method of creating tiny polymers and metals – to fabricate a rim for an artificial lens, which until now has been seen as an engineering challenge. 

The CorNeat KPro is currently undergoing clinical trials, and is expected to be approved for marketing late in 2024.

NovaSight: New Way of Testing

We are all familiar with the ubiquitous eye chart to test our vision, and while it may be effective for adults and adolescents, that isn’t the case for children. 

They often don’t cooperate or are simply incapable of taking the test because they’re too young. 

NovaSight has developed an eye exam that tracks the position and gaze of the eye to assess their vision.

All the patient needs to do is watch a video on a tablet that is mounted with an inconspicuous eye tracker called the EyeSwift.

Children are often incapable of taking a traditional eye exam because they’re too young. (Courtesy National Library of Medicine – History of Medicine / Wikimedia Commons)

The video shows dots that are constantly moving across the screen, and its resolution gradually reduces over time, becoming more and more foggy. 

The company’s algorithms then determine the patient’s level of eyesight once their eyes can no longer follow the target. Its creators say it is simple, accurate and more accessible for both children and adults than traditional eye exams. 

“We see when the kid or the adult is not able to track this moving target anymore, just by looking at their eyes,” says Ran Yam, CEO of NovaSight. “We know exactly what their threshold vision is without asking them anything, and without them saying anything.” 

Until now, eye tracking has mostly been used for gaming or in expensive medical devices such as those used for people living with ALS (an incurable disease of the nervous system) and not in eye care. 

NovaSight will be releasing its treatment for lazy eye, which is also powered by the EyeSwift, later this year. (Courtesy)

“The technology became more affordable over time, so we took that opportunity in order to integrate it into medical devices for vision care,” Yam explains. 

The EyeSwift also offers a variety of vision tests, including for color blindness, reading performance, stereoacuity (a person’s ability to detect differences in distance) and more. The same technology also powers the company’s treatment for lazy eye. 

NovaSight is this month launching a commercial pilot with Opticana, one of Israel’s leading optical chains. 

Notal Vision: Speedy Home Diagnosis

Worsening eyesight is an unfortunate part of aging. For 200 million people worldwide, it comes in the form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a treatable but recurring disease where the central part of a person’s vision becomes blurred or distorted over a period of days or weeks. 

If the condition worsens, the person may struggle to see anything in the center of their field of vision, and a lack of regular oversight by a physician could mean that their eyesight has irreparably deteriorated. 

A simulation that shows what a grocery store aisle looks like to someone with age-related macular degeneration. (Courtesy National Eye Institute, NIH / Wikimedia Commons)

Notal Vision provides these patients with a daily home monitoring device using artificial intelligence that within three minutes identifies the onset or reactivation of AMD, thereby offering better, faster and more personalized care. 

“The patient puts their head into a viewer where they watch stimuli, and use a computer mouse to click on a location where they spot distortions,” explains Dr. Kester Nahen, CEO of Notal Vision.

“After our AI algorithm analyzes the data, their physician is notified through our monitoring center that provides the service, and a decision can be made to bring the patient into the office for further imaging.” 

A patient using the HomeOCT device, which will be available in the US later this year. (Courtesy)

Notal Vision says a study showed that 81 percent of patients whose AMD progressed and were using their ForeseeHome device maintained 20/40 (or better) vision, compared to only 32 percent of patients whose diagnosis was at a routine eye exam or a medical consultation triggered by symptoms.

The company’s new device, the Home OCT system, will help physicians monitor the symptoms and progression of patients with wet AMD, a more serious form of the disease, and offer personalized treatment. It is expected to be in use in the United States by the end of the year. 

The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology is teaming up with Toronto University on the use of artificial intelligence in the field of medicine. 

The collaboration sees the faculty and students from Technion’s Artificial Intelligence Hub (Tech.AI) and the Canadian university’s Center for AI in Medicine (T-CAIREM) teaming up to develop working practices for “the medicine of the future,” based on commonly shared challenges.

The new partnership was inaugurated this week in a joint tree-day workshop in Ein Gedi in southern Israel, which was attended by dozens of scientists and research students from the two schools. On the agenda were existing capabilities in the field of AI medicine, avenues for growth, advancing education on the subject and joint projects. 

The partnership was welcomed by the two institutions. 

“The Temerty Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research and Education in Medicine (T-CAIREM) of the University of Toronto is very excited to work with the excellent clinicians and researchers from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology on this highly collaborative and interdisciplinary initiative,” said Prof. Muhammad Mamdani, director of T-CAIREM. 

“Our goal is to advance innovative research in AI in medicine that will serve as the foundation for transforming medicine and delivering the best possible care for the patients we serve.”

Prof. Shai Shen-Orr of the Technion said: “We are laying down another broad foundation for the Tech.AI.BioMed activity that promotes the use of AI in medicine. We are certain that this collaboration will add depth and richness to our toolbox for creating new responses that will shape the medicine of the future.”

The President and Faculty of the Technion together with our Honorary President, Chairman, Trustees and Staff of Technion

UK, deeply mourn the passing of Sir Michael Heller.

A Guardian and Hon Doctor of the Technion, Sir Michael was Co-Chairman of Technion UK for over 20 years and was always ready to lead, guide and advise.

The Sir Michael and Lady Morven Heller Charitable Trust is passionate in strengthening the State of Israel through the education of Technion students and supporting Technion research and technology that benefits people all over the world.

Sir Michael and Lady Morven were exemplary in attending the Technion’s annual International Board of Governor’s Meeting in Haifa and took particular delight in visiting and regularly upgrading their major projects, including the Simon and Nettie Heller Student Dormitory and Computer Centre, and the Sir Michael and Lady Morven Heller Theatre.

Our deepest and sincerest condolences are extended to Morven, John, Andrew and Nicola.

The increased demand for sustainable energy sources prompted research groups to focus on battery research in order to store large-scale grid energy in a manageable and reliable manner. In addition, the rising demand of the electric vehicle industry, which mainly relies on current Li-ion battery technology, is expected to strain the current lithium production and divert it from more widespread use as portable consumer electronics. Currently, no technology has proven to be competitive enough to displace Li-ion Batteries.

Now, a team of researchers from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology has developed a proof-of-concept for a novel rechargeable silicon (Si) battery, as well as its design and architecture that enables Si to be reversibly discharged and charged.

The research was led by Professor Yair Ein-Eli of the Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering. The team proved via systematic experimental works of the graduate student Alon Epstein and theoretical studies of Dr. Igor Baskin that silicon is dissolved during the battery discharge process, and elemental silicon is deposited upon charging. Several discharge-charge cycles were achieved, utilizing heavy doped n-type Si wafer anodes and specially designed hybrid-based ionic liquid electrolytes, tailored with halides (Bromine and Iodine), functioning as conversion cathodes.

This breakthrough could pave the way towards the enrichment of the battery technologies available in the energy storage market, with the technology potentially easing stress on the ever-growing market and serving the increasing demand for rechargeable batteries.

Silicon, as the second most abundant element on earth’s crust, was left relatively unexplored despite a high energy density of 8.4 kWh kg-1 on par with metallic Li 11.2 kWh kg-1. Silicon possesses stable surface passivation and low conductivity (dependent on the doping levels). Until now, no established rechargeable cell chemistry comprising elemental Si as an active anode has been reported outside LIB alloying anode.

In the past decade, several publications reported the incorporation of active silicon anodes in primary, non-rechargeable air-battery designs. Thus despite its high abundance and ease of production, the possibility of using Si as an active multivalent rechargeable anode was never explored until the team’s recent breakthrough.

A team of researchers from the Technion–Israel Institute of Technology has developed a proof-of-concept for a novel rechargeable silicon (Si) battery, as well as its design and architecture that enables Si to be reversibly discharged and charged.

Led by Professor Yair Ein-Eli of the Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering, the team proved via systematic experimental works of the graduate student, Alon Epstein and theoretical studies of Dr. Igor Baskin, that Si is dissolved during the battery discharge process, and upon charging, elemental Si is deposited. Several discharge-charge cycles were achieved, utilizing heavy doped n-type Si wafer anodes and specially designed hybrid based ionic liquid electrolytes, tailored with halides (Bromine and Iodine), functioning as conversion cathodes.

This breakthrough could pave the way towards an enrichment of the battery technologies available on the energy storage “super-market” technology, providing an ease on the ever-growing market and demand for rechargeable batteries.

Developments leading to this breakthrough

The increased demand for sustainable energy sources prompted the scientific community to focus on battery research capable of storing large scale grid energy in a manageable and reliable manner. Moreover, the rising demand of the EV industry, which mainly relies on current Li-ion batteries (LIBs) technology is expected to strain current Li production and divert it from more widespread use as portable consumer electronics. Currently, no technology has proven to be competitive enough to displace LIBs. Metals and elements capable of delivering multi-electrons during their oxidation process have been the focus of the research community for a long time due to their associated high specific energy densities.

Magnesium, calcium, aluminum and zinc received much attention as potential anode materials with varied levels of progress; yet none has managed to revolutionize the energy storage industry beyond LIBs, as all of these systems suffer from poor kinetic performance to lack of cell stability, and therefore, much is left to be explored. Silicon (Si), as the second most abundant element on earth’s crust (after oxygen) was left relatively unexplored despite a high energy density of 8.4 kWh kg-1 on par with metallic Li 11.2 kWh kg-1; Si possesses a stable surface passivation, low conductivity (dependent on the doping levels) and until now no established rechargeable cell chemistry comprising elemental Si as an active anode has been reported, outside LIB alloying anode.

In the past decade several publications (initiated originally in 2009 by Prof. Ein-Eli) reported the incorporation of active Si anodes in primary, non-rechargeable air-battery designs. Thus, despite its high abundance and ease of production, the possibility of using Si as an active multivalent rechargeable anode was never explored, until the team’s recent breakthrough.

The Formula Student competition in Europe this summer is a platform for new technological developments.  

The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology Formula racecar team unveiled the first-ever autonomous electric vehicle in the team’s history since 2012.

They designed and built it for the Formula Student International Design Competition in Europe next month.

The Technion team placed first at the Formula Student competition in the Czech Republic in 2019, and first place in the first Formula Student Race held in Israel last year. This team also holds the title for the lightest car in the history of the European competition (132 kg).

Team leader Muans Omari, a master’s student in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, explained that the car world is shifting to electric and autonomous vehicles, and the Formula Student competitions have embraced this trend.

Nevertheless, the transition from an internal combustion engine to an electric propulsion system “took a lot of work and learning,” Omari added.

The Formula Technion team’s autonomous electric vehicle (A-EV) is no longer red and black as in past years, but blue, white and gray to symbolize electric propulsion.

The Formula Student competition is a platform for new technological developments. Each team’s performance is rated on a combination of engineering challenges plus driving skills demonstrated on the track.

The goal of the project is to enable students to acquire practical knowledge in planning as well as manufacturing vehicles.

“We are considered a good team,” Omari said. “We’re not as good as the German teams that are being supported by the largest car manufacturers and their engineers, but we already proved ourselves.”

Technion, Israel’s Institute of Technology is the oldest university in the country and one of the leading universities in the world.  

Its Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering is a unique department where expertise from many disciplines comes together.

Israel is a global centre of food and agri-tech, producing remarkable innovations, and attracting astonishing levels of investment.

But, like anywhere else in the world, there are problems; food waste, overfishing, unsustainable practices, feeding a growing population. Israel is facing all of the above and the issues are taxing its brightest minds.

The Food Matters Live Podcast has looked at innovation in Israel before, but in this episode we are going to get a unique insight into one of the world’s leading research centres.

The Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering is led by Professor Marcelle Machluf, a remarkable woman who was named Lady Globe Magazine’s ‘Woman of the Year’ in 2018.

Her work has been included in the Israel Ministry of Science and Technology’s list of ‘Israel’s 60 Most Impactful Developments’.

During this episode of the Food Matters Live Podcast, we learn about the new Carasso FoodTech Innovation Center being built at Technion.

It has an R&D centre, packaging laboratory, kitchens, tasting, and evaluation units.

Professor Machluf says: “It’s not enough to just sit in the classroom. Our students need the right equipment to develop their ideas and they need to be prepared for whatever the future holds.”

Listen to the full episode to hear her views on the importance of building relationships to drive innovation, learn more about the work being done at Technion, and how the institute is going about developing a centre for ideas that haven’t yet been born.

Professor Marcelle Machluf, Dean of the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, Technion

Professor Marcelle Machluf is renowned for her cutting-edge cancer and drug delivery research, and her work in tissue regeneration.

She is head of the Technion’s graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Biotechnology, a member of the Affiliate Engineering Faculty of the Technion Integrated Cancer Center, and former deputy executive vice president for research for the Technion’s Pre-Clinical Research Authority. She also works closely with the Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute.

Professor Machluf is developing a targeted drug delivery system using modified stem cells called Nano-Ghosts to home in on tumours, unleashing its therapeutic load at the cancer site.

She is also developing scaffolding for tissue engineering of the pancreas, heart, and blood vessels, and developing carriers for cell delivery with applications for treating diabetes and more.

She has a laboratory at Nanyang Technological University of Singapore, where she is working on a leading tissue regenerative project.

Professor Machluf has authored book chapters and more than 80 peer-reviewed journal papers in leading journals. Her work has been cited more than 2,800 times. She has six national patents and two approved international patents in the fields of drug delivery and tissue engineering.

She is the recipient of many honours including the Alon Award for excellence in science, the Gutwirth Award for achievements in gene therapy, the Hershel Rich Technion Innovation Award, and the Juludan Research Prize for outstanding research.

If thinking you’re sick can make you feel sick, is there a way to train your brain — and your body — to reverse that process and restore you to health?

That’s the central question that Tamar Koren, an MD-PhD candidate at the Technion–Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa focused on psychosomatic illness, is researching.

Professor Shai Shen-Orr, head of the school’s Systems Immunology & Precision Medicine Laboratory, is mapping how the immune system ages as people age — to the point of being able to calculate the age of someone’s immune system based on cellular data.

Professor Ron Kimmel, founder of the Geometric Image Processing Lab in the Technion’s Henry and Marilyn Taub Faculty of Computer Science, is using artificial intelligence and machine learning to train computers to analyze biopsy images of human tissue in order to determine not only whether a tissue is cancerous, but also what type of mutation it is and how much it has metastasized.

All three projects are examples of the kind of research being cultivated under the Technion’s new Human Health Initiative (THHI) — a recently announced effort to bring together teaching hospitals, different Technion departments and commercial companies to focus on solving specific health-related challenges. 

“This initiative addresses world challenges that require multidisciplinary solutions,” said Shen-Orr, who is also the cofounder of CytoReason, a pharmaceutical artificial intelligence company. “We’re moving from research based on departments and faculties to being goal oriented. In addressing problems of human health, it doesn’t matter where people sit. They need to work together.”

The THHI is focused on six areas: staff and student engagement, new undergraduate and graduate educational programs, recruitment of top-notch researchers, funding, shared office and lab space for “essential meeting of minds,” and acquisition of cutting-edge lab equipment and other research infrastructure.

The new initiative dovetails with other Technion projects with outside partners, such as the university’s Bridge to Next-Generation Medicine program with Cincinnati Children’s Medical Center. That project aims to revolutionize pediatric medicine by combining the Technion’s technological prowess, including world-renowned expertise in computational science and artificial intelligence, with doctors and scientists focused on understanding and treating childhood diseases.

“The Technion believes that the time is ripe for taking the next quantum leap: addressing human health in a comprehensive, institute-wide manner,” Technion President Uri Sivan said. “The THHI represents a major intellectual and cultural undertaking in this direction. No other university in the country, and only a handful around the world, are positioned so well to take this leap.”

The idea behind the THHI is to pull people out of their comfort zones and create collaborations across units and disciplines. 

“Rather than telling our investigators what they should be doing, the best way is bringing them together, and the magic is guaranteed to happen,” said Noam Ziv, who is spearheading the THHI project. 

Ziv said the Technion’s prime advantage is that it’s one of the world’s few technical universities that also has a medical school.   

“I don’t think you have to convince anybody that human health is a huge challenge,” Ziv said. “Our population is expanding, average age is increasing and the number of challenges associated with human health seems to be growing all the time. The coronavirus is a prime example of how things that affect one part of the world quickly affect other parts.”

During the height of the pandemic, for instance, Technion data scientists raced to improve the efficiency of PCR tests using algorithms. Biologists worked to create rapid testing kits that wouldn’t need sophisticated machines to yield quick results. Still others aimed to devised a sticker, which when placed on a mask, neutralizes viruses on contact.

The THHI extends to researching mind/body interactions. 

To prove their hypothesis about psychosomatic illness, Koren and her team induced colitis in lab mice and waited for them to recover. Researchers then artificially stimulated the neurons in the brain that had become active during the bout of colitis. Inflammation re-emerged in the exact same location even though there was no infection. Likewise, suppressing memory neurons reduced the inflammation in mice who were sick with colitis.

“If, for example, you receive a text message from your friend that he has COVID and you just saw him last night, you immediately start to envision that you’re also sick. And you start to manifest physical presentations of a very similar disease: your throat itches, you start coughing, you feel weaker,” Koren said. “Studies have shown that stress or emotional triggers can initiate disease, or sometimes exacerbate a disease that’s already been diagnosed.”

Koren’s research represents a joint effort among neurosurgeons, neurologists and immunologists — the kind of collaboration THHI seeks to cultivate and which is different from traditional approaches to research.

“These kinds of collaborations have already started to develop,” Koren said. “The fact that it’s both basic science and clinical research is a novelty.”

Eventually, Koren said, her team’s work could lead to a variety of new therapies for diseases that currently have no cure, in the form of magnetic stimulation or other non-invasive therapies for patients with rheumatic arthritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis and other disorders.

“What we’re suggesting is not drugs, which also have adverse effects,” she said, “but regulation of brain activity that can alleviate their symptoms and improve their quality of life.”

Wireless V2X technology developed in Israel alerts motorists and two-wheel vehicle riders to each other’s presence.

An affordable device that alerts cyclists and scooter riders to the danger of unseen motorists could prevent many accidents globally, says Israel-based Autotalks.

The company uses V2X (vehicle-to-everything) technology to connect two-wheelers with other road users and warn them of each other’s presence.

The device, called ZooZ 2, gives a visual warning to two-wheel riders if a vehicle is approaching an intersection and could hit them. It also alerts them to drivers indicating a right turn who may be in their blind spot, and cars that jump a red light.

Drivers who have the device are likewise alerted to the two-wheeler. ZooZ 2 uses wireless technology so it can reliably detect two-wheelers even if the line of sight is obstructed.

The company says three quarters of bike and scooter accidents are caused by drivers failing to notice the two-wheeler – and it’s almost always the two-wheeler that comes off worse.

“Autotalks regards all road accidents as preventable, and those accidents involving bikes and scooters deserve special attention,” said founder and CTO Onn Haran.

“We’re committed to making our new micromobility safety device available immediately in order to save the lives of two-wheeler riders around the globe.”

Cyclists and scooter riders fit the device to their handlebars at a cost of $50 to $100 or it can come integrated on high-end models. ZooZ 2 currently communicates only with the 10% of cars that are V2X-enabled, but the technology is to be included in most new vehicles launched in 2025/26.

The first version of the ZooZ micromobility device was launched in September 2021. Autotalks says the updated version is undergoing validation tests by four manufacturers of bikes or their components, and by two vehicle manufacturers.

Autotalks showcased the ZooZ 2 device last week at the Velo-City Conference, the world cycling summit, in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

The plug-and-play device uses software provided by US-based V2X specialist Commsignia and has been tested successfully by the European consortium Project SECUR (Safety Enhancement through Connected Users on the Road).

Autotalks has already produced similar technology for motorcycles and says the first motorcycle manufacturer will incorporate it into mass-produced models in Europe in 2024.

Software scans picture and identifies best-match beauty products for customers

The power of AI now allows you to instantly see how you’d look wearing the makeup of your favorite celebrity or influencer. Simply upload a picture of any makeup look, and let the algorithm work its magic.

Tel Aviv-based startup Mistrix applies a hyper-realistic digital filter that is personally tailored to your facial features and skin tone.

It then identifies exactly which beauty products you need across a range of brands and allows you to add any or all of them to your cart.

Examples of Mistrix’s hyper-personalized filter. Courtesy

Founders Shir Cofman and Tomer Rosenbaum saw a gap in the online beauty market. There are virtual try-ons for clothes, and there are virtual try-ons for makeup, but they’re all tied to a particular brand. They wanted to give people the option to buy whatever makeup suited their look, regardless of where it came from.

Many makeup brands such as Maybelline, L’Oréal, and MAC Cosmetics offer virtual try-on options, but of their products alone. Mistrix allows customers to shop by look, not by product.

“Social networks do not only expose consumers to products. The main factor that currently motivates customers to buy is actually the desire to achieve a unique look that we have spotted online.” says Shir Cofman, CEO of Mistrix.

“What motivates customers is the desire to achieve a unique look that they have spotted online. The social network changed the way we buy beauty today, but beauty e-stores were left behind. This inspired me to create a visual shopping tool,” Cofman tells NoCamels. 

“Our algorithm generates visual content with a filter within seconds that will allow the user to wear the makeup digitally. There’s no need to go through a confusing abundance of packaging that does not illustrate the value of the product.

“Just choose a look and make a convenient quick purchase. Upload your desired look to the platform and we will do the rest.”

Together with Tomer Rosenbaum, she founded Mistrix in early 2021. The company initially conducted pilots with design partners to test its technology, and improved it based on the feedback they received from users. 

Rosenbaum and Cofman. Courtesy

“The huge potential of promoting makeup product sales using visual content made me realize how many sales sites do not take advantage of it,” says Cofman.

Social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok have become major influences when it comes to the purchasing decisions of its users.

Research shows that more than 30 per cent of users buy beauty products directly from social networks, specifically from Instagram and TikTok. In fact, 72 per cent of Millennials bought fashion and beauty products based on Instagram posts, while over half of all Gen Z-ers say they have purchased a brand after seeing an ad or promotion on Instagram.

US ecommerce sales alone will cross $1 trillion for the first time in 2022, and worldwide sales are expected to reach $5 trillion.

Despite this, ecommerce returns rates have spiked 95 per cent in the last five years. As a result, the National Retail Federation estimates that the cost of returns amounts to $101 billion.

Beauty products play no small part in this, and make up over one-fifth of ecommerce returns. In fact, 22 per cent of all cosmetics are sent back to retailers.

Mistrix aims to expand to American and global markets while continuously developing innovative solutions to improve the digital shopping experience for makeup products.