Saar Wilf
סער וילף
Born1974 or 1975 (age 48–49)
Tel Aviv, Israel[1][2]
NationalityIsraeli
Occupations
  • Innovator
  • Investor
  • Poker Player

Saar Wilf is an Israeli innovator, 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.[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 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]

References

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


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