Saar Wilf Explained

Saar Wilf
Native Name:סער וילף
Native Name Lang:Hebrew
Birth Place:Tel Aviv, Israel[1] [2]
Nationality:Israeli

Saar Wilf (Hebrew: סער וילף; born 1974 or 1975) is an Israeli entrepreneur, businessman, angel investor and poker player[1] who provides capital for start-up businesses.

Career

Wilf served in the Israeli Defense Forces' intelligence Unit 8200.[3] [4] He initially worked as a developer and programmer.[3]

Wilf's first start-up, in 1997, was Trivnet.com, a payments company, which was sold to Gemalto in 2010.[5] [3] His second start-up was Fraud Sciences Ltd, which was acquired by eBay through PayPal in 2008 for $169 million, where he worked until 2010.[3] [6]

By 2017, he invested in about 15 companies. His companies have included ClarityRay (acquired by Yahoo), Pointgrab, Deep Optics. and CallApp,[7] Crosswise (acquired by Oracle),[8] Supersonic (merged with IronSource).[9] As of 2014, Wilf was the chairman of Wikiwand, a mobile app and web browser extension for Wikipedia.[10]

Bzigo, that he co-founded in 2016, has developed a machine which scans a room for mosquitos and tells mobile phones where they are, describing itself as "an Iron Dome for mosquitos".[4] [11] In 2020, its machines were scheduled for delivery to customers in 2021.[12]

In 2017, Wilf founded Rootclaim, which uses probabilistic analysis to predict the likely solution to questions about controversial events such as war crimes, murder cases, and airline crashes. For example, it attributes the 2013 Ghouta chemical attack in Syria to the Syrian opposition and the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 to the Russia-aligned Donetsk People's Republic.[13] [14]

In 2018, he founded payments system Quahl (originally known as Initiative Q), backed by American economist Lawrence H. White and branded a "pyramid scheme with grandiose ideas" by the Financial Times.[15] However, Mashable disagreed explaining "The important bit is that there's no money changing hands here".[16] [17] Seven million users had signed up within a year.[17]

Wilf donated $100,000 to fund the Brain Preservation Foundation Prize, which was won on 13 March 2018.[18] [19]

Wilf has been playing Poker since 2005,[20] with career earnings of over $1.3 Million as of 2023.[21]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Saar Wilf . 2 December 2023 . WSOP.com.
  2. News: Chung . Frank . 30 October 2018 . What is Initiative Q? Payment network insists it's not a 'pyramid scheme' . .
  3. Web site: Nittle . Nadra . This new would-be currency isn't crypto - but is it for real? . Vox . 8 November 2018 . 25 August 2022.
  4. News: Wolman . Yisrael . The 'Iron Dome' for mosquitoes . Ynetnews . 7 June 2019 . 22 August 2022.
  5. News: Baumer . Lilach . Hirschauge . Orr . 20 August 2018 . Saar Wilf's Bid to Rid the World of Clunky Online Payments . .
  6. Web site: eBay Acquires Fraud Sciences For $169 Million . 28 January 2008 . .
  7. Avital, Yaniv (3 December 2014). CallApp raises $4 million. Geektime.
  8. Web site: 17 April 2016 . Oracle has acquired Israeli Big Data startup Crosswise for $50m . 9 June 2023 . SiliconANGLE . en-US.
  9. Web site: 20 July 2015 . לאחר רכישת סופרסוניק: איירון סורס הופכת רשמית לחברת מובייל . 9 June 2023 . כלכליסט - www.calcalist.co.il.
  10. Web site: Web App WikiWand Raises $600,000 To Give Wikipedia A New Interface . Shu . Catherine . 8 August 2014 . TechCrunch .
  11. Web site: Solomon . Shoshanna . With computer vision, Bzigo creates 'Iron Dome' against mosquitos . The Times of Israel . 28 July 2021 . 25 August 2022.
  12. Web site: Takahashi . Dean . Bzigo uses AI and a laser pointer to detect mosquitoes in your home . VentureBeat . 7 January 2020 . 25 August 2022.
  13. Web site: About Rootclaim . rootclaim.com .
  14. News: Shtarkman . Rotem . 15 October 2017 . Israeli Startup Develops 'Ultimate Truth Machine' – Claims Assad Wasn't Behind Chemical Attack . .
  15. News: 26 October 2018 . Initiative Q: An elementary pyramid scheme with grandiose ideas [Update] . Financial Times . 2 December 2023.
  16. Web site: Schroeder . Stan . Initiative Q doesn't exist. But its marketing is genius. . Mashable . 29 October 2021 . 25 August 2022.
  17. Web site: Bambrough . Billy . How Bitcoin-Wannabe And 'Pyramid Scheme' Initiative Q Plans To Turn Your Data Into Investor Cash . Forbes . 17 June 2019 . 25 August 2022.
  18. Web site: Jaekl . Phil . 19 March 2021 . Mapping the brain's connective structure could unlock immortality . 9 June 2023 . Aeon . en.
  19. Web site: 16 September 2015 . Large Mammal BPF Prize Winning Announcement – The Brain Preservation Foundation . 10 June 2023 . en-US.
  20. Web site: SAAR WILF TEL AVIV, Israel WSOP.com . 9 June 2023 . www.wsop.com.
  21. Web site: Saar Wilf's profile on The Hendon Mob . 9 June 2023 . The Hendon Mob Poker Database . en.