Tech Entrepreneurs Alon Gonen and Maor Shlomo Launch AI Startup Investment Drive

Tech entrepreneurs Alon Gonen and Maor Shlomo are teaming up to invest in the next breakthrough artificial intelligence startup. Gonen, a co-founder of Plus500 and the driving force behind the deFounder initiative, announced his partnership with Shlomo, founder of Base44, inviting founders to submit AI-based products and ideas.

"We are looking together for the next hugely successful company," Gonen stated. The primary condition is that artificial intelligence must form the core of the venture rather than merely serving as an add-on to an existing product. Submissions are welcome at early conceptual stages, though products already developed and generating revenue will receive an advantage, albeit not as a mandatory requirement.

Gonen and Shlomo are seeking entrepreneurs with a deep understanding of the problem they aim to solve and the capability to develop the venture within a small team. Applications can be submitted individually or in teams of two to three people with no age restriction, and the investors explicitly noted they would gladly promote teenagers. Submissions remain open until October 20, and selected candidates will be invited for a meeting with the investors with potential funding opportunities.

This initiative joins Gonen's broader deFounder activities, where entrepreneurs compete for venture investments through a process documented and published as content. In a previous challenge hosted by the initiative, participants competed for an investment of up to one million shekels.

Shlomo, 32, sold Base44 to Wix this year after building the company without raising external capital. In recent months, he also expanded his investment activities by establishing a private fund focusing on companies operating in cancer research and the development of treatments for the disease.