Israel's National Platform for Rehabilitation Innovation
Lakoom connects Israel's innovation ecosystem to its most urgent human challenge - building the technologies, institutions, and a model the world needs.
Israel is facing an unprecedented rehabilitation crisis.
Tens of thousands of wounded soldiers and civilians — most of them under 40 — require long-term physical and psychological rehabilitation. Clinical capacity is stretched beyond its limits. Clinicians are overburdened, patients face delays, and outcomes are at risk.
Successful rehabilitation is not only a matter of individual recovery. It is essential to Israel's social resilience, economic productivity, and long-term national strength.
While clinicians and engineers across Israel are developing groundbreaking innovations, a structural gap exists between philanthropy, government, and traditional investment models — preventing solutions from reaching the people who need them most.
Lakoom exists to close this gap.
Lakoom is building a national platform for rehabilitation innovation, guided by three principles:
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Needs-first innovation defined by patients, families, and care teams, not by what is technically available.
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Israel-first validation - clinical and commercial value is assessed in operational rehabilitation settings before turning to global markets.
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Partnership-based pathways to scale de-risking investment by remaining aligned with public health systems throughout the process.
Through this integrated platform, Lakoom generates the knowledge, partnerships, and execution capacity required to strengthen rehabilitation across Israel — and build lasting national capacity for the future.
How Lakoom Works.
Lakoom operates through three interlocking engines — each one building on the last — to move rehabilitation innovation from urgent need to validated solution to scaled impact.
Public-Private Consortium
Identify Needs
The Consortium are the backbone of Lakoom's long-term vision. They bring together clinicians, patients and families, hospitals, academic researchers, government ministries, the IDF, and technology leaders to identify the most urgent, unsolved rehabilitation challenges facing Israel's wounded.
Launched with a national convening in November 2025, the Consortium have grown through ongoing roundtables and structured working groups. By grounding innovation in real clinical experience and academic research, they ensure that new technologies are both responsive to identified needs and built on an evidence-based foundation.
In 2026, Lakoom's Consortium are prioritizing Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and PTSD, identified in partnership with the IDF's Wounded, Disabled, POW & MIA Division. An innovation pipeline is already developing.
The Consortium are supported by philanthropic funding.
Living Lab Network
Real World Validation
Venture Foundry
Scale What Works
Lakoom's Living Labs are embedded within Israel's leading rehabilitation centers and research institutions. They validate innovations under real clinical conditions — directly alongside clinicians and patients — providing the most rigorous and effective mechanism for de-risking rehabilitation technology.
The network is growing and currently includes:
Ichilov Medical Center (Tel Aviv) · Loewenstein Medical Center (Ra'anana) · Hospital of the North (Poriya) · Alyn Hospital (Jerusalem) · Herzfeld Medical Center (Gedera) · Reut Rehabilitation Hospital (Tel Aviv) · Tzabar Community Rehabilitation Services · Ono Academic College
Each year, Lakoom selects a cohort of innovations sourced through the Consortium pipeline. Cohort companies receive structured validation grants and support including clinical pilots, patient and care-team testing, and rigorous impact measurement.
The Living Lab Network is funded by philanthropy and Program-Related Investments (PRIs).
The most promising solutions — approximately three per Living Lab cohort — advance to the Venture Foundry. There, they receive direct capital investment and active, hands-on support from the Lakoom team to achieve commercial viability, regulatory compliance, and full investment-readiness for future funding rounds.
Solutions that demonstrate impact but don't fit a venture path are directed toward alternative routes: revenue-generating small businesses or philanthropic applications. The objective is to maximize the deployment of transformative innovation — not just to create venture-backed companies.
The Venture Foundry is funded by philanthropy, PRIs*, and impact investment.
* A Program-Related Investment (PRI) is a mission-driven, below-market investment made by a foundation to advance its charitable objectives. Repayment is expected, but returns are recycled for future impact rather than financial gain.
The Team
Leading impact investor, social entrepreneur, and institution builder.
Founding and Managing Partner of the Elah Fund; board member of Friends of Loewenstein Medical Center. Named to the Forbes "50 Over 50" EMEA list (2024).
During the Iron Swords War, spearheaded a multi-million dollar fundraising effort to strengthen Loewenstein and enhance the rehabilitation of wounded soldiers.
Calanit Valfer
Founder & Chair
Serial social entrepreneur and MedTech company builder with a personal rehabilitation journey. Co-founder and former CEO of MobileODT (acquired; scaled to 42 countries); founder of PresenTense Group (1,000+ social businesses launched worldwide); General Partner, CoVelocity. Venture Partner, L'Dor. Guides ecosystem strategy and venture building at Lakoom.
Ariel Beery
Co-Founder & Board Member
Over 20 years translating academic research into clinical impact. Former Scientific Director at Ariel University's Center of Innovation and CTO at MargX; clinical research experience at Medtronic. PhD from the Technion, specializing in VR training and medical robotics.
Dr. Yifat Shorr
Managing Director
Expert in impact investing, venture philanthropy, and business development. VP Business Development at Social Finance Israel (SFI); co-founder of Milestone Labs; key architect of TOM: Tikkun Olam Makers' global expansion from one community to 35 worldwide. Leads capital formation and partnerships at Lakoom.
Michal Kabatznik
Co-Founder & Board Member
Advisory Board
Lakoom's advisory board brings together clinicians, investors, entrepreneurs, and patient advocates who are shaping the future of rehabilitation in Israel and beyond.
Strategy/Foundry:
Oran Almog
Chen Bitan
Michal Geva
Joseph Gitler
Nicky Newfield
Daniel Robin
Ecosystem:
Arie Melamed
Smadar Ocampo, RN
Jon Polin
Clinical:
Dr. Ram Haddas
Dr. Amir Haim
Prof. Nili Krausz
Dr. Rivi Frei Landau
Dr. Barak Mevorak
Dr. Irit Yaniv
Advisors by Committee
Israel's Urgent Need
20,000+ IDF soldiers
and thousands of civilians — require physical rehabilitation after being wounded in Gaza, Lebanon, and the Iranian attacks. The numbers requiring psychological rehabilitation are far more.
51% of the wounded are between 18 and 30 years old.
66% of wounded are reservists
returning to civilian life with their injuries, their families, and their futures ahead of them.
Proven in Israel. Built for the World.
Israel's clinical excellence and world-class innovation ecosystem make it uniquely positioned to lead in rehabilitation technology — and export those solutions globally.
$50B: Global rehabilitation services market
$7B:Global rehabilitation device market
The rehabilitation technology sector is deeply underfunded relative to its need and potential. Lakoom's platform is designed to bridge this gap — bringing catalytic capital and structured validation to an innovation space that traditional venture models underserve.
Catalytic Capital Powers Lakoom
The Lakoom model works because it matches the right type of capital to the right stage of innovation - unlocking what the market alone cannot reach.
Consortiums are supported by philanthropic donations.
The Living Lab network is funded by philanthropy and PRIs.
The Venture Foundry is an impact investment or PRI.
A Program-Related Investment (PRI) is a mission-driven, below-market investment by a foundation to advance its charitable objectives. Repayment is expected, but returns are recycled for future impact.
