TORONTO — An Israeli-born Toronto entrepreneur will return to his birthplace in September to meet the best tech startup minds in the world.
Ronen Benin, 25, founder and CEO of Toronto-based software company RightBlue Labs Inc., was all smiles earlier this week at the Royal York Hotel, where he was announced the Canadian winner of an international competition for tech startups.
Benin was congratulated by former Israeli president and prime minister Shimon Peres, who was in town Wednesday and Thursday to address the ninth annual Toronto Global Forum that brought 2,000 business and political leaders together from around the world.
This year, the Start Tel Aviv competition opened to web and mobile startup founders, with competitions held in 21 countries. The Canadian competition was held by Israel’s embassy in Ottawa and Startup Canada, founded in 2012 to encourage grassroots entrepreneurship.
Benin’s winning entry is an app called Logit, which collects data on athletes and allows the information to be shared with coaches and sporting organizations.
Using psychometric analysis of athletes’ log entries, the app helps forecast illness, injury, and burnout risk. Ronen told a press conference earlier this week that Logit has successfully reduced training time missed due to illness and injury by up to 23 per cent and has a 96 per cent daily compliance rate among its users.
Athletes may use their phone, tablet or computer to respond to questions about their day, and their responses are instantly analyzed. Each athlete’s support team gets alerted when issues are identified or troubling patterns begin to form.
Benin, who came to Canada from Israel with his family when he was six, said the app is already being used by Canadian sports federations. He added that he wants to branch out to military, medical and government services.
Benin founded RightBlue Labs in 2013 and already employs eight people.
He will travel to Tel Aviv in September to network with the founders of 20 other startups from around the world for five days of lectures, workshops and meetings with leading Israeli investors. He’ll also attend the DLD Tel Aviv Innovation Festival, Israel’s largest international hi-tech gathering.
Also on hand for the announcement were Israel’s ambassador to Canada, Rafael Barak, Victoria Lennox, CEO of Startup Canada, and Ed Fast, Canada’s international trade minister.
In his remarks, Fast recalled Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s 2014 visit to Israel, where Harper “highlighted how Israel has become an example to the world, a country which has built an extraordinary society, a vibrant democracy and an innovative, world-leading startup nation.”
On a per capita basis, Israel “pound for pound punches above its weight,” Fast said. “In fact [Israel] arguably is the world leader in innovation and commercializing that innovation, and we have a lot to learn in Canada from Israel.”