Saar Wilf

Saar Wilf is an Israeli innovator, businessman, angel investor and poker player[1] who provides capital for start-up businesses.

Saar Wilf
סער וילף
Born1974 or 1975 (age 48–49)
NationalityIsraeli
Occupations
  • Innovator
  • Investor
  • Poker Player

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.[6][3][7][8]

By 2017, he invested in about 15 companies.[7] His companies have included ClarityRay (acquired by Yahoo), Pointgrab, Deep Optics.[9] and CallApp,[10] Crosswise (acquired by Oracle),[11] Supersonic (merged with IronSource).[12] As of 2014, Wilf was the chairman of Wikiwand, a mobile app and web browser extension for Wikipedia.[13]

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][14][9] In 2020, its machines were scheduled for delivery to customers in 2021.[9]

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.[15][7]

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.[16] However, Mashable disagreed explaining "The important bit is that there's no money changing hands here".[17][6][5] Seven million users had signed up within a year.[6]

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

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

References

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


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