iCarbonX Acquires Imagu Vision Technologies and Establishes iCarbonX-Israel AI R&D Center

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) learned this afternoon that iCarbonX has announced the establishment of iCarbonX-Israel and the acquisition of Imagu Vision Technologies Ltd., an Israeli company specializing in image understanding and artificial intelligence. Concurrently, iCarbonX announced the establishment of its Israel Artificial Intelligence R&D Center. The financial terms of the transaction have not been disclosed. This acquisition and the establishment of the AI center enhance iCarbonX’s capabilities in advanced image analysis, computational biology, and machine learning.

Imagu, a company based in Tel Aviv, Israel, was founded in 2005. Imagu specializes in developing cutting-edge image analysis technologies. Its technology enables object recognition in digital images and videos. By integrating knowledge from diverse fields, Imagu’s technology supports multi-domain object recognition, thereby addressing the challenges of complex object detection.

Founder Dr. Mor Amitai previously served as CEO of Compugen, a publicly listed company, for seven years. Compugen specializes in the research and development of therapeutic proteins and monoclonal antibodies. Dr. Amitai holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics and a Master’s degree in Physics. The company’s team consists primarily of experts in physics, pure mathematics, engineering, and computational neurobiology, with extensive research experience.

Currently, imagu’s products are primarily applied in four areas: e-commerce, semiconductors, security and monitoring, and medical imaging.

Applications in e-commerce are reflected in enhancing the shopping experience. Imagu’s newly developed Upcload webcam application enables users to create personalized profiles of their body contours, measurements, and style preferences, ensuring a proper fit when purchasing clothing online.

Semiconductor applications primarily involve collaboration with leading semiconductor manufacturers, where the company’s technology enhances the accuracy of Automatic Defect Review (ADR) and Automatic Defect Classification (ADC), thereby reducing development risks and costs. For instance, during scanning electron microscopy (SEM) imaging, three-layer image segmentation and defect detection can be performed.

Applications in safety and monitoring are similar to scenes in American movies where agents use computers to track vehicles moving on the road. The technical challenge lies in distinguishing target vehicles from ordinary ones and minimizing interference from the surrounding environment, such as trees and rocks, on object detection. Imagu has innovated a software solution that effectively addresses this issue.

Unlike other object recognition technologies that identify objects based on contrasts and variations between them, Imagu employs proprietary shape-based detection techniques for geometric and topological analysis as well as image segmentation. For instance, the company has successfully segmented retinal vessel images of varying widths and generated topological maps of the retinal vasculature. This segmentation technology holds significant clinical value for the diagnosis and prediction of diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and arteriosclerosis.

The acquisition of Imagu aligns closely with iCarbonX's strategy

Leveraging genetics, molecular characteristics, phenotypes, and vast amounts of personal behavioral data, the iCarbonX R&D team aims to build digital human models to understand individual lifestyles, predict future trends, and deduce personalized, quantitative health improvement measures. This will empower virtual robots to manage digital lives, perceiving and delivering valuable information to consumers in a “natural” way. To gain deeper insights into the mechanisms of life, the team is recruiting experts in data science fields such as natural language processing, computer vision, applied mathematics, computational biology, data mining, machine learning, signal processing, and cloud computing.

Dr. Wang Jun, CEO of iCarbonX, stated, “The acquisition of Imagu aligns perfectly with our innovation strategy. We are developing a digital ecosystem in which personalized health stewards will provide guidance for achieving healthy living, preventing diseases, and improving healthcare standards. This can only be realized through the joint efforts of top-tier biotechnology and artificial intelligence teams. Israel, with its pioneering interdisciplinary culture, talent pool, and entrepreneurial spirit, is an ideal location for iCarbonX to establish its global AI R&D center.”

Dr. Naomi Keren, Co-founder of Imagu and newly appointed CEO of iCarbonX-Israel, stated, “We are honored and excited to collaborate with Dr. Jun Wang and the iCarbonX team. Together with our Chinese partners, we have established iCarbonX-Israel to further advance the development of sophisticated data analytics and machine learning technologies dedicated to improving global health. We will forge partnerships and collaborate with leading researchers, healthcare providers, biotechnology firms, and medical device companies to realize this visionary goal.”

Elizabeth Chen (Chen Nianci) and Ami Dror are the founders of the China-Israel Innovation Friends Association. It was through this platform that Dr. Wang Jun and Dr. Naomi Keren connected earlier this year. Ms. Chen stated, “The Friends Association was established to foster trust between business leaders in China and Israel, as such trust is the only way to closely integrate China’s globalization vision with Israel’s power in original innovation.”

Ami Dror added, “We hope this is merely the beginning of many joint efforts between industry peers in China and Israel. It is gratifying to see our vision become reality at such a rapid pace.”

In addition to Dr. Naomi Keren, Dr. Mor Amita also serves as a leader at iCarbonX-Israel. Dr. Mor Amita stated, “Over the past few years, we have been fortunate to successfully apply our image understanding technologies to the fields of biological and medical imaging. We are thrilled to leverage our experience and expertise to realize iCarbonX’s vision of creating an integrated digital life system based on artificial intelligence and biological, behavioral, psychological, and demographic data. iCarbonX-Israel is striving to analyze global healthcare data in order to develop various AI components for applications in computational biology, signal processing, natural language processing, and other fields. The company is committed to expanding its team and recruiting top Israeli AI experts, with the goal of establishing actionable capabilities in diagnostics and preventive medicine by 2017.”

About iCarbonX

iCarbonX was founded in October 2015, dedicated to creating a digital life ecosystem based on the integration of personal biological, behavioral, and psychological data with the internet and artificial intelligence. The personal health steward, jointly developed by top-tier biotechnology and artificial intelligence teams, will lead healthy living through the digital life ecosystem.

iCarbonX’s management team possesses extensive experience in omics technologies, mobile health, healthcare services, biological data analysis, artificial intelligence, and data mining. The company is building China’s first and most professional platform for collecting lifecycle data from one million individuals. By leveraging its leading teams in biotechnology and artificial intelligence, iCarbonX integrates the advantages of AI into the big data analysis and application of human life data through data mining and machine learning.