About

The Founders Kitchen investment fund is led by Uri Levine, founder of Waze, a passionate serial entrepreneur and disruptor, with the goal of building startups. We follow the vision of doing good and doing well, creating and investing in startups that address big problems, disrupt inefficient markets and improve dysfunctional services, empowering users with relevant and timely data and tools. Our goal is to generate significant and global impact through our startups.

Most of The Founders Kitchen’s startups are homebrewed initiatives. However, we also enjoy working with strong teams. We put great emphasis on leadership for our startups, and take advantage of the great human resources of the Israeli ecosystem, which we mentor and advise.

Why are we called
“The Founders Kitchen”?

The Founders Kitchen meetings and brainstorming with our teams are held in an informal atmosphere in our kitchen, where every real party gathers. It was natural that the fund will take a name that best reflects our approach to people, business and life.

Our Portfolio

Our Philosophy

Address big
problems

Solve real and big problems

Do good
and do well

Empower people’s well-being by saving them time & money, improve or simplify their lives. Create and deliver value

Go global

Make a true impact on
a global scale

Israeli focus

We are Israeli based by choice, taking advantage of the remarkable capabilities of this land

Not

We don't advance propositions that are fear mongering or otherwise take advantage of people’s weaknesses. We do not engage in online gambling, porn, forex, cryptocurrency or other questionable industries

The PCM Method

The Founders Kitchen cultivates embryonic ideas and actively mentors teams, developing intimate knowledge and trust. We apply a proven method, which has been successfully implemented in our companies. It includes active mentorship from the earliest brainstorming phases through seed investment maturity, co-founding, building the team and serving as active Board Members, while navigating the implementation of the selected strategy.


Investing in our startups from inception

The Founders Kitchen invests in inception, seed and follow up rounds.

Problem

We validate the
problem

CEO

We choose strong
leaders for our startups

Mentorship

We mentor our teams

Unicorn startup strategy

Success is when stars align

Typically after a long journey of failures

Founding Team

The Founders Kitchen is managed by Uri Levine and Ariel Sacerdoti, long-time friends and business partners, who share the same vision, each of them evidenced through a proven and accomplished entrepreneurial career.

Uri Levine
A passionate entrepreneur and disruptor, a two-time ‘unicorn’ builder (Duocorn). He co-founded Waze, the world’s largest community-based driving navigation app, which was acquired by Google for $1.1B in 2013, and was the 1st board member in Moovit, ‘Waze for public transportation’ – which Intel acquired for $1B in 2020. Levine is a founder of half a dozen of startups including Pontera, FairFly, Refundit, and an investor and director in an additional half a dozen startups like SeeTree, Kahun, and Dynamo.  He is also the author of Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution – A Handbook for Entrepreneurs.

Ariel Sacerdoti
30 year international entrepreneurial and management career, which generated successful companies in the industry valued at hundreds of millions. Started and managed Robomatix, Güdel USA and Pump Engineering and led investment projects of about $500M for Ormat, geothermal world leader. Investor/mentor in SmartTCP, Eagle Rotary, Pump Engineering, Mishor.

Contact us

Investors
We invite you to join our exciting journey by contacting
investors@founders.kitchen

Entrepreneurs
The Founders Kitchen is not screening new startups at the moment. However, if you
wish to consult with us, send a one pager which describes the big problem you are
attempting to solve, and the strength of the team.
startups@founders.kitchen

Pontera (formerly FeeX) helps individuals retire wealthier by allowing them to work directly with their financial advisor on held away accounts like 401(k), 403(b), 529, and more. Through its solution, Pontera enables more holistic wealth management and better retirement outcomes

SeeTree responds to the particularly devastating challenges in permanent crop farming such as crop losses and epidemics, strict sustainability standards, and always-fluctuating margins. Seetree provides a unique service for tree-farmers fusing AI/ML, IoT multi-sensorics data, and other advanced technologies to create an intelligence platform enabling the farmers to best manage their permanent crops. 

Claiming VAT for tourist is always a hassle. In 95% of the cases, something goes wrong, maybe long lines at customs, maybe the store doesn’t have the right form, maybe the refund office is in a different terminal. We built that in an app, where all one has to do, is take a photo of the receipts, boarding card and passport and get your money back. As simple as that. In Europe alone, tourists leave about €23B per annum that are not claimed.

Dynamo solves the problem of unutilized social networks value by helping teams unleash the potential of the communities they manage, using advanced algorithms and AI modules.
 

Clinii (formerly Livecare) is a robust AI-integrated web and mobile platform tailored for the efficient management of care teams. It supports the transition to value-based healthcare, optimizing care team coordination and enhancing workflow efficiency.

Wetrip (WeSki) Provides a platform enabling Generation Y travelers to easily plan and book concept holidays together in minutes and enjoy lower prices and higher flexibility compared to building it your own.

All over the world, filling tax returns is either a lengthy and complex process or a costly one. Fibo has built an online service that minimizes the filing process into less than 5 minutes, through an online service that provides a fast and easy way for employees to complete their tax return.
Currently, working in Israel where the average filing session is 3 minutes.

Oversee (formerly FairFly) is the leading provider of Travel Spend Optimization

GCNhub provides an efficient and scalable gift card solutions for enterprises seeking to either create or improve their gift card programs

Kahun combines the incredible power of AI with the latest clinical knowledge to give guided help with diagnosis, anamnesis, workup planning, and access to clinical reasoning. Mapped medical knowledge -at your fingertips