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Company Overview

Autotalks is a fabless semiconductor company devoted to vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications for manned and autonomous vehicles. Founded in 2008, the company is privately held with strong financial backing from leading global venture capital funds, OEMs and Tier1s. The company headquarters are in Israel with offices in North America, Germany, France, China, Japan and Korea.

Autotalks’ market-first 2nd generation chipsets deliver the highest performance and reliability, and are deployed in numerous exciting connectivity and autonomous-driving projects driven by OEMs and Tier1s worldwide. Autotalks is the only company providing a global V2X solution compatible with any V2X technology while adhering to stringiest security, functional safety and reliability automotive requirements.

Compliance with international and national standards and interoperability with a wide variety of devices, protocols and applications have been demonstrated in multiple events and labs. Autotalks’ advanced technology, to be mass deployed in the coming years, complements the information coming from other sensors, specifically in non-line-of-sight scenarios, rough weather or poor lighting conditions.

Autotalks’ Vision and Mission

Vision

A world with no accidents, with life-saving connectivity between all vehicles and road users

Mission

Leading the cooperative safety revolution by creating the most trusted V2X solution

Management

autotalks v2x team

Hagai Zyss

CEO

autotalks v2x team

Onn Haran

Co-founder and CTO

autotalks v2x team

Nir Pinhas

CFO

Amos Freund

VP R&D

autotalks v2x team

Alberto Burger

VP Operations. Q & R

autotalks v2x team

Ram Shallom

VP Business Development & Marketing, APAC

autotalks v2x team

Leo Menis

VP Product

autotalks v2x team

VP Business Development & Marketing, EU and US

Hagai Zyss | CEO

Hagai has spent over 20 years driving cutting edge technologies from definition to profitable business. Before joining Autotalks, Hagai served as VP R&D at EZchip. Previously, Hagai served in various executive positions at Ceragon Networks. In his last role as the Executive VP of Products Business Line, he was responsible for the bottom line success of a complete mobile backhaul business product line, with annual revenues of $350M. During this period Ceragon became the largest independent supplier of wireless backhaul solutions.
Prior to Ceragon, Hagai served 7 years at the Electronic Research Department, a top research and development unit of the Israeli Defense Forces. Hagai holds a B.Sc. and M.Sc. (cum laude) in Electrical Engineering from the Tel Aviv University.

Onn Haran | Co-founder and CTO

Onn Haran brings to Autotalks over 20 years of experience in the communication industry. Prior to founding Autotalks, Onn was the CTO of Passave, the technology and market leader in Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) access solutions, founded in 2001 and acquired by PMC Sierra in 2006. Onn became a Fellow at PMC Sierra following acquisition.
Previously, Onn was the architect of Texas Instruments’ Bluetooth solution, and managed the ASIC R&D unit of the Israel Defense Forces. He has made significant contributions to standardizations, most notably, Bluetooth, IEEE802.3ah (EPON) and ITU g.984 (GPON), and has multiple patents in the field of communications. Onn holds a B.Sc. (cum laude) from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, and an M.Sc. in electrical engineering from Tel-Aviv University

Nir Pinhas | CFO​

Nir brings more than 15 years of experience in operational and financial leadership, and a proven track record in equity and debt financing as well as M&A activities.
Before joining Autotalks, Nir served in various executive finance positions at VGen (acquired by Newport), SolarEdge (NASDAQ: SEDG) and Passave (acquired by PMC Sierra).
Nir is a Certified Public Accountant in Israel, holds a B.A. in Accounting and Economy from the Haifa University.

Amos Freund | VP R&D

Amos Freund brings to Autotalks over 15 years of experience in the semiconductor industry and in VLSI design.

Amos played a pivotal role in the development of the CRATON and PLUTON chipsets and the PANGAEA platform. Prior to joining Autotalks, Amos was a VLSI team leader at Passave and at PMC-Sierra where he led the development of highly innovative FTTx chipsets.

Amos started his career as VLSI engineer and later as chip integrator at Motorola Semiconductor (Freescale), and was a key contributor to the development of the PowerQUICC communications processor.

Alberto Burger | VP Operations. Q & R

Alberto Burger brings over 25 years of experience in the Semiconductors industry in the field of Operations, Engineering, Quality and Reliability Management for Fabs and Fabless companies. Prior to joining Autotalks, Mr. Burger served as VP of Foundry Management in DSP Group and was responsible for Product and Test Engineering, leading all manufacturing and engineering activities. Mr. Burger served as VP of Operations at Prime Sense, where he was responsible for the engineering and manufacturing activities of the “Kinect” chip for Microsoft. At M-Systems, Mr. Burger built the operations group and infrastructure for the mobile division, and following M-Systems acquisition by SanDisk, he managed the Corporate Quality and Reliability Group.  Mr Burger also held managerial positions at National Semiconductor / Tower Semiconductor and in Semiconductor Devices (SCD). Mr. Burger earned his Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Technion – Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel.

Ram Shallom |VP Business Development & Marketing, APAC​

Ram brings to Autotalks over 10 years of experience in Business Development, Marketing and R&D of cutting-edge technological products.
Prior to Autotalks, Ram served in executive positions in Israeli innovative start-ups including co-founding Kupoya (acquired by ACTU-CCI.COM). Prior to leading Kupoya, Ram led a large-scale Israel Defence Prize winning project, for an elite technological unit of the Israeli Defence Forces.
Ram holds a B.Sc. and M.Sc. (both Magna Cum Laude) in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Ben-Gurion University.

Lee Cohen | VP HR

Lee brings to Autotalks 20 years of diverse and vast experience in Human Resources.
Over the years, Lee acted as a key adviser and business partner in a variety of global high-tech companies, focusing on HR, including recruitment, employees’ development, performance management, change management processes, leadership development and internal communication.
Prior to Autotalks, Lee spent eight years at Ceragon Networks, as HRBP and Global Organization Development Manager, managing global HR processes and providing on-going consulting and support to the company’s management.
Before Ceragon, Lee spent seven years at Comverse, serving in various HR positions, including Global Internal Mobility Manager.
Lee holds BA in Social Theater from Tel Aviv University and a certificate of Groups Moderator from Kibbutzim College.

Leo Menis | VP Product​

Leo joined Autotalks in 2009 and as the VP Product he is responsible for the Product group, roadmap and technical collaborations with customers. For the past 11 years, Leo held multiple System Engineering and Product Management roles, defining system requirements and leading customer project activities.
Prior to Autotalks, Leo served for 6.5 years as a design engineer and a team leader in the Electronic Research Department, a top research and development unit of the Israeli Defense Forces.
Leo holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Tel-Aviv University.

Yuval Lachman | VP Business Development & Marketing, EU and US​

Yuval brings to Autotalks over 20 years of experience in Business Development Product, Marketing, and R&D of cutting-edge technologies. Prior to Autotalks, Yuval worked in several semiconductors companies such as Motorola Semi-Conductor (Freescale) and lead several activities such as the product, marketing and business in the wireless division at Wintegra that was acquired by PMC Sierra in 2010. Before joining Autotalks, Yuval served as a co-founder and lead the business development and product of WeavingThings, an IOT PAAS start-up.
Yuval holds a B.Sc in Electrical Computer Engineering from the Technion Institute and an MBA from the IDC Herzliya institutes.

Gemini Israel Funds​

A pioneer in Israel’s venture capital sector, Gemini Israel Funds has grown to become one of the country’s leading early stage VC firms. The company was founded in 1993 and now manages $700M in five funds, with investments focused on communications technologies, enterprise software, the Internet, consumer electronics, semiconductor and other hardware.

Gemini’s team comprises investment professionals with engineering backgrounds and operational experience at leading technology companies and start-ups, including as successful entrepreneurs. This experience is invaluable in enabling Gemini to assist its portfolio companies, which also have access to the firm’s network of international investors and corporate partners.

Magma Venture Partners​

Magma Venture Partners invests in early stage communication and semiconductor technology and helps to build companies that target global markets and create industry leading success stories. Magma seeks bright ideas, infuses them with experience and foresight, and facilitates their rise as industry leaders that redefine the global communications sector. Magma invests in field such as: wireless networking, network and internet infrastructure, communication technology semiconductors, security and data storage, software solutions and applications for carriers, enterprise and the consumers.

Amiti Ventures LLC​

Amiti is a venture capital firm that co-invests with leading Israeli venture capital firms in Israeli tech companies. The firm was founded in 2010 and is based in Chicago. The Amiti team has decades of experience leading Operations, Sales & Marketing, and R&D organizations in Israeli Tech, with a proven ability to identify and provide hands-on Board level leadership in the most promising, up and coming Israeli Tech companies.

Liberty Technology Venture Capital

Liberty Technology Venture Capital, LLC (“Liberty Israel”), a subsidiary of Liberty Media corporation (NASDAQ: LMCA, LMCB,LMCK). Liberty Israel invests primarily in Israeli technology start-up companies. Liberty Israel focuses on a broad range of technology applications relevant to the media and telecommunications industry. Recent investments include companies focused on cyber-security, e-commerce, the internet-of-things, satellite and the connected-car.

Samsung Catalyst Fund​

Samsung Electronics’ multi-stage evergreen venture capital fund invests in deep-tech infrastructure and data-enabled platforms. Our sectors of interest span multiple domains including data center and cloud, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, networking and 5G, automotive, robotics and digital health. We aspire to work closely with brilliant entrepreneurs and disruptive ideas, harnessing our global reach to create value and foster mutual growth and benefits. Among the many advantages our founders enjoy are shared resources, financing, networking, corporate development, and mentorship from our domain experts.

Mitsui & Co. Global Investment​

Mitsui & Co. Global Investment Ltd. is the venture investment arm of Mitsui & Co., Ltd. and a provider of early stage venture capital for various types of technology firms with a special expertise in helping to build their businesses globally.
Mitsui & Co. Global Investment Ltd. is a global venture capital group, actively investing through two subsidiaries, MVC (Asia) and MCVP (USA) investing in Health care, Technology, Clean Tech, Retail and Services sectors.