Israeli Automotive Tech Matchmaker DRIVE TLV Creates New Test Track

Dr. Tal Cohen describes his company as both a quarterback and a matchmaker. Co-founded by Cohen in 2017 in Tel Aviv, DRIVE TLV matches small technology startups with major automakers and suppliers.

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The goal, he explained, is to give those small startups a way to make their technologies available to potential large customers that could benefit from them but might not have been aware of their existence.

“I had an idea to make the two sides winners,” said Cohen in an interview. The methodology is to create some sort of framework for both to collaborate. I call it commercialization platform.”

The center of that platform is DRIVE TLV’s Fastlane program. Startups that have participated in the program have raised more than $1 billion in the past four years, according to Cohen.

Technologies under development at Drive include different levels of automated driving and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) , connectivity software, automated vehicle-inspection systems and several vehicle electrification projects and smart-city applications.

Now the company is expanding its capabilities with the opening of the POWER by Drive test track and research and development center near Tel Aviv. The center officially opened this month for testing, technology validation and collaboration by startups and corporate partners including Honda, Volvo Cars, Volvo Group, Denso, NEC Corporation, Novelis, Cox Automotive, Hertz, Ituran, Next Gear Ventures and Israel’s Mayer Cars and Trucks Group.

“Power is a place where organizations can collaborate and work together to create their products and concepts together,” said Cohen. “Startups in Power or in Drive are getting their concepts validated, improved, honed and qualified for the future. For the corporates, they take a concept that is very innovative and for them we provide a path to get them from early stage concept all the way to maturity to be able to put it as a competitive advantage in their platform in, let’s say, three to four years.”

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It’s a tougher task than it seems. Small startups may have a great innovation but don’t know how to properly present them or understand their value to the market, and large corporations can be fraught with turgid cultures and bureaucracies making it difficult to introduce new ideas, Cohen said.

“Over the course of seven, eight months we take the technology, introduce it to the executives at the partner and thus we increase chances for acceptance and understand the value,” said Cohen. “Each one of the startups is like a gem, with amazing knowledge. If you treat it as a fountain of knowledge, foster it, give it some help, almost like giving water to a seed, it will grow. For large companies you have to somehow find a way for them to change themselves, their DNA, without losing their advantage.”

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One success story Cohen points to came during a visit by the CEO of Honda. The challenge, he said, was convincing the head of a company that’s a leader in producing internal combustion engines that electric vehicles are the future.

The key, Cohen said, was taking it “one innovation at a time.” Through its Fastlane program Honda was introduced to several dozen Israeli tech startups and “created over 150 successful collaborations with our partners and raised over a billion dollars.”

Drive TLV also works with startups involved in other industries such as insurance, energy, drones and batteries, Cohen said.

Based on its success, Cohen said DRIVE TLV wants to extend its activities with startups beyond Israel, including several in the U.S. Perhaps by the end of the year and possibly Germany and eventually, globally.

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It’s all about serving as quarterback and matchmaker calling the plays that result in a winning match, according to Cohen

“Each one is a small win for our partners in showing how you accelerate innovation, how you turn an idea into success.”