AI-powered solutions tackle domestic violence in groundbreaking ways
AI-powered solutions tackle domestic violence in groundbreaking ways
A facial recognition system and audio transcription and analysis app are among the innovative Safetech startups emerging from the Michal Sela Forum’s fifth accelerator, focusing on addressing domestic violence through technology. Supported by Google for Startups, these ventures are using tech to enhance personal safety, prevent violence, and provide actionable tools for survivors.
When Revital Fanger, Software Team Lead at Applied Materials, decided to found a startup, she knew that she wanted to build a solution that would address violence against women. “I have three daughters; why would I do something else?”
She developed the idea for X-face.ai with her co-founders Moran Smutko and Elazar Neeman during a hackathon hosted by the Michal Sela Forum less than a year ago. An AI-powered facial recognition system, X-face.ai is specifically designed for survivors of domestic violence. It’s programmed to identify specific individuals via home cameras and sends warnings immediately via Telegram to the user when the individuals come near the home.
“We spoke to women who had experienced domestic violence about what their needs were and they spoke a lot about ‘the day after,’” says Fanger. “Normally, when we discuss solutions for domestic violence, we’re talking about the period of the abuse, but not how to deal with the reality afterwards. For these women, living securely in their own homes is a major concern and there is no existing solution on the market.”
Now the startup is part of the fifth cohort of the Michal Sela Startup Academy, a startup accelerator focused on developing innovative solutions aimed at enhancing personal safety and preventing violence against women. In partnership with Google for Startups, the academy showcases the latest entrepreneurial endeavors in Safetech.
The forum’s vision is to establish 100 tech startups by 2030, all dedicated to saving the lives of women suffering from domestic violence, with the ultimate goal of achieving zero femicides per year. “I founded the Michal Sela Forum with the goal of saving the next potential victim,” says CEO Lili Ben-Ami, whose sister Michal Sela was murdered by her husband in the presence of their daughter in 2019. Ben-Ami established the Michal Sela Forum in Michal’s memory to study the subject and focus on preventative solutions, including by spearheading hackathons and tech accelerators.
The Michal Sela Startup Academy runs for three and a half months and includes intensive weekly sessions designed to address the specific needs of each startup, held at the Google Campus in Tel Aviv. Participating startups are provided with professional mentoring, expert-led lectures, business planning resources, and promotional materials to help them refine and develop their projects.
“This is the fifth year we’ve supported the development of technological solutions for dealing with violence against women,” said Yuval Passov, Head of Google for Startups. “We see the highest value in combining technology and innovation for life-saving purposes. The ability of startups like She Proves to use AI to identify violence and gather evidence demonstrates how technology can create real, meaningful change. For Google, partnerships like this allow us to support groundbreaking ventures and advance life-changing technological solutions.”
For SheProves Co-founder and CEO Ivgeni Kucherov, his incentive is even more personal. “I recently filed a complaint with the police following a physical and sexual assault I experienced. Initially, they wouldn’t pursue the case due to insufficient evidence to indict,” says Kucherov.
Only after he provided additional evidence, including an audio recording, was an indictment filed. “I learned how easily police shut cases because there isn’t enough evidence," he says, adding that this also led to "a lack of belief from friends and colleagues, including victim-blaming, adding emotional distress and isolation and shifting blame away from the perpetrator. I decided to develop a solution that could help lead to more indictments and a decrease in violence.”
Kucherov, an engineer at NVIDIA, founded SheProves alongside CTO Noa Yaakov, COO Shir Papo and Nir Shilo during a Michal Sela Forum hackathon. The AI-powered solution detects violent incidents or threats of violence through a voice recognition system. The system transcribes the audio and translates it if needed, evaluates threat levels, and documents events to provide detailed, actionable reports, and the data is saved in the cloud and on a blockchain.
The app is built for smartphones and smart home assistants to ensure real-time response and reliable evidence. Kucherov hopes that for those who are experiencing violence, this will provide a much needed solution. “I just want every person - women and men - to feel more secure, in public and in their homes.”
In addition to Sheproves and X-face.ai, other ventures in this year’s cohort at the Michal Sela Startup Academy include Watch Out, an app that uses smartwatch data to monitor health parameters like heart rate, body movement, and language, enabling it to detect abnormal patterns and send real-time alerts to emergency contacts while ensuring the privacy of the user.
Selfy, a real-time emotional feedback app, assists users during violent or difficult situations by analyzing conversations and offering tips for emotional resilience and self-empowerment. IC-Help, a tech solution developed by ICL, aims to detect violent conversations within homes by combining smart listening devices and advanced data analysis, sending alerts based on detected toxic patterns. Protect Me, a compact smart pepper spray device, is designed for women’s self-defense. Check-In is an app that helps people in therapy track their emotional well-being during stressful episodes by using their phone's camera, texts, or voice to document their emotional state in real-time.
These innovative startups represent the future of ‘Safetech,’ a growing field focused on providing security to women and all victims of violence. “The journey to saving lives and ensuring women’s safety transcends borders, political views, gender, and sectors,” says Ben-Ami. “These new startups are part of the global fight to save lives and provide tools to ensure real safety for women worldwide.”
