Early years Elron was founded in 1962 by , with the support of
Dan Tolkowsky of the
Discount Investment Corporation. Uzia Galil graduated from the
Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in 1947, and in 1948 joined the
Israel Navy as an officer responsible for maintaining its Radio systems. In 1952 Uzia was sent to study for a master's degree in Electrical Engineering at
Purdue University in the
United States. During his studies in the
United States, he worked at
Motorola's research lab and was part of a team that developed of one of the world's first colour televisions. But in 1954 he had to return to Israel to complete another 4 years of service in Navy, which financed his studies.
Founding Elron short experience working for
Motorola in the
United States exposed him to the technology industry and he decided to establish Israel's first
high tech Startup company. He started the company, while still serving in Navy, in a friend's (Benjamin Sandller) flat in
Haifa, later joined by another friend (Gideon Kirshner), who was a teacher at the Haifa Technical High-School, and worked with them in his spare time. The company's first products were measurement instruments for medical and electronic applications. In 1958 Uzia left the Navy, however the company did not generate enough revenues and he got a job at the Physics laboratory of the
Technion; while there
Moshe Arens, who was Professor of Aeronautics at the time, introduced him to
Dan Tolkowsky. Dan, who was fascinated by Uzia's ideas, managed to convince the board of
Discount Investment Corporation to provide the capital required to properly fund the company. Elron was officially formed in 1962 with an initial capital of $US 160,000, and within 3 years generated annual revenues of $1 million. The company evolved through the years to become the multinational defence electronics company –
Elbit Systems ().
Growth during the 1980s and 1990s In 1981 Elron was involved in the establishment of a company that will later become
Orbotech () a manufacturer of equipment for the
Printed Circuit Board (PCB), TFT& LCD assembly industries. In 1983 Uzia met by chance, while waiting for a flight in the lounge of
Ben Gurion International Airport,
Levy Gerzberg an academic from
Stanford University, who in 1981 founded
Zoran Corporation (Zoran stands for "silicon" in Hebrew), which develops
digital signal processing solutions. At the time
Levy Gerzberg was looking for additional funding, which Elron was able to provide. In 1995, Zoran had an
initial public offering on
NASDAQ () and later was the leading provider of complete
OEM solutions for
consumer electronics products, such as DVD and digital cameras, with annual revenues of over $500 million in 2007. In 1996, Elbit spun off into three independent companies: •
Elbit Medical Imaging – during 1999 and 2000 both
Elscint and
Elbit Medical Imaging sold their imaging activities to
General Electric Medical Systems and to Picker (now part of
Philips Medical Systems, for approximately $600 million. •
Elbit Systems – Created as the defence electronics arm of Elbit and had an
Initial public offering on NASDAQ. • Elbit – which focused on communications activities and in 1999 led the consortium that founded
Partner Communications Company Ltd., Israel's first GSM operator . In 2002 Elbit was merged into Elron. Elron sold its shares in Partner during 2003–2006 for approximately $160 million. In 1998,
Given Imaging (), a developer of a video capsule for medical diagnostics, was founded.
2000s During the 2000s, Elron started operating less as
holding company and moved to act more as a venture capital fund, jointly investing in numerous
start-up companies and realizing the investment by selling the companies or conducting an
initial public offering. Notable investments and
investment exits include: •
Elron Software – a provider of spam, email and web filtering solutions, sold to
Zix Corp. •
Oren Semiconductor – a fabless
integrated circuits manufacturer that designs and develops
integrated circuits for the digital television and set-top box markets, sold to
Zoran Corporation. •
Galil Medical – a developer of
cryotherapy solutions. •
SELA Semiconductor Engineering Laboratories – a provider of automated sample preparation tools for semiconductor manufacturers, sold to Camtek Intelligent Imaging. •
Medingo – developer of a micro pump
insulin delivery system consists of two parts: a semi-disposable insulin dispensing patch and a remote control, which allows for discreet personalised insulin delivery. The company was sold to
Hoffmann-La Roche's subsidiary
Roche Diagnostics for $160 million, as well as up to $40 million in milestone payments. •
Safend – a leading provider of endpoint data protection solutions was sold to Wave Systems. •
Wavion – a provider of outdoor
Wi-Fi applications for metro and rural areas, acquired by
Alvarion. ==Current holdings==